It was wonderful growing up here. It was absolutely beautiful. Only in the last twenty years did it go to hell. They sure ruined a beautiful Valley. I hate to see the place go. I’ve been interviewed many times for television, usually sitting on my tractor. The reporter asked me what I was going to do now that Olson was closing his cherry stand. I said it didn’t matter to me because I was retired already, but they sure ruined a beautiful valley.

Matilda Avenue didn’t go through; nothing went through. From Blossom Hill Road this valley looked like a big blanket of flowers every spring time.

When we lived in Los Altos, you could take the old 0.22 and shoot squirrels and rabbits. My folks would make spaghetti sauce out of the quail or jackrabbits. We kind of lived off of the land. We had our own pigs, goats, rabbits. We had ten acres in Los Altos.

We sold the house for $9000 and sold the ten acres for $9000. We thought we made money. That was in 1948. I was a junior in high school at that point. I wanted to stay at Mountain View. Then we lived in Santa Clara and we drove back and forth. We never told them we moved, why move schools.