I was born in San Jose. My dad was born in Campbell. My parents had a choice of buying a very small two bedroom house in downtown San Jose or buying a ten – acre ranch. They decided that the ranch was too far out in the country, so they bought his tiny little house in San Jose. The house was on Acacia street, and it is today located beneath the Guadalupe expressway overpass.

Our house is located near the second of San Jose’s three city halls. I can recall when city hall was located on the plaza at Market Street. There used to be a four – story Victorian building that you could drive through. The Sheriff’s office used to be located in the basement. That was the center of town.

Later, they moved city hall out to Hedding Avenue.

Our street was one block long, with thirteen kids. There were a lot of kids in our neighborhood during those days.

I have some spotty memories, but I do recall that Guadalupe creek was the site of a lot of our Tom Sawyer – type adventures. We used to build rafts and do that kind of thing. We played a lot of stickball in the streets. And I still know some of the kids today from the neighborhood.