Dear Bears,

Here's a bio, of sorts, or maybe a diary of life in Menlo Park. Generally I would say I live in Menlo Park with my husband and daughters, stirring the sauce of life after many years of travel and lots of adventure.

I left college after two years and from 1962 to 1965 studied and worked in Europe, primarily in Spain and France. Among other avocations, I was an extra in movies like Dr. Zhivago and I dubbed films for US television. Sheri Adams and I met unexpectedly in Pamplona one summer---we were not running with the bulls, I assure you; cafe life on the Plaza Mayor was exciting enough.

My return ship, the Rotterdam, arrived in New York City in October of 1965 and I stayed on in that delightful city for many years, having been introduced to it by Patsy and Liz Gullison who worked there as models (Bill Martorana, Class of '57, worked full-time on Broadway.) I continued to pursue my education at Columbia University and finally, at long last, graduated from New York University---while working as a marketing analyst in corporate planning for the Singer Corporation. (By this time I was a volunteer for Mother Teresa of Calcutta and had the inestimable privilege of living with her for a few days in the South Bronx in her contemplative order of nuns.)

Shortly after graduation, I exchanged Channel pumps for sandals and moved to Watts in Los Angeles where I lived and worked with the St. Martin de Porres Catholic Community Center. With five women and some local volunteers, we ran a street school, a senior citizen's program, a welfare advocacy program, and a free food and clothing bank. We worked with street gangs (the Crips), published a newspaper (I was editor) and generally helped whatever crisis walked through the door. (Meanwhile, Debbie Wallace, than whom no truer friend can be found, took in my beloved Burmese cat while I was living there and gave him a home until I could. Of the Freshman class officers, Terry Holland was the only one I never saw again.)

In 1978 I returned to Menlo Park, where I met my husband and began the best and greatest adventure of my life. My wonderful stepdaughter lived with us and went to MA. (In 1987 she brought home the bacon to Encinal School, winning the San Mateo County Scripps-Howard Spelling Bee.) Danielle left MA after her junior year to pursue a classics education at Thomas Aquinas College in Ojai. She's now in Washington, D.C. working as vice-president for Special Projects with the Alexis D'Tocqueville Institution. Meanwhile, my husband and I educate our two little girls, ages 10 and 12 at home---actually they have never been to an outside school and we plan to continue educating them until college. We live a simple country life about a hundred giant steps from Linda Crawford's old home and a two hundred giant steps from the dear ol' alma mater. We gather neat little brown eggs from our beautiful Barred Plymouth Rock hen (we lost our other hens to raccoons), raise rabbits and cockatiels, observe the seasonal wildlife in and around our domain (red-tail hawks and a golden eagle, to name a few) and visit with our neighbors on the court.

The melody of girlish chatter runs through our home like an aviary full of songbirds, point and counterpoint with the sounds of violin and piano music, roller blades, capture the flag, blind-man's bluff, the crackling of fire from the hearth, the roar of the train and the sound of cabernet splashing into big glass goblets (a quaint little custom I picked up while living in Spain). As I write this, the spicy smell of gingerbread is wafting out from the kitchen in preparation for our afternoon tea. Afterwards, I'll read to the girls from one of the classics (for children-of-all-ages). We are currently re-reading C.S. Lewis' Narnia Chronicles, but it could just as easily be Tolkein, Jules Verne, Shakespeare or any tale of high adventure and noble deeds. This evening we might watch one of our video favorites (the twelve productions of Jane Austen's novels) or we might just sit around the fire and talk about life.

A stroll to the Menlo Park Library might end up at good ol' Foster's Freeze for a hamburger and fries. A little longer walk into the now-booming yuppie town would bring us to a dozen award-winning restaurants and ethnic cafes, Starbucks, Kepler's Books, and various antique shops. Gone is the flat- topped, barren Santa Cruz Avenue of the 50's---it has sprung up anew with arched roofs, trees, many-colored flowers, sidewalk cafes and people from all over the world.

The reigning queen of deluxe cooking and food shopping, a two-story Draeger's, presides over one end of town, and a colorful farmer's market sets up wagons and canopies every Sunday in a nearby parking lot. Preuss' is still there, Hirzel's Jewelry, Menlo Hardware and Ann's Coffee shop are too, but much else has changed. Oh yes, the Oasis still serves hamburgers and Round Table Pizza holds down El Camino Real and Oak Grove. The old movie theaters continue to attract customers, although the recent marquee notice could only be found I think, in California: "'Shooting Fishes' ---Made without hurting any fish."

The car culture we all knew (fascination with rakes and fins and drag and cruising, etc.) is definitely from another era---now we see nice sedate cars like the BMWs, or Cherokees and other four wheelers; Rolls Royces are becoming common and the new Beetle is popping up everywhere. And speaking of the car culture, of course Marquads is gone and we all know that nothing can replace it--- not even the popular Cafe Borrone (imagine sitting outside on chairs!).

Real estate has become legendary around here. (Silicon Valley somehow grew up around us.) The average selling price for homes in Menlo Park is around $750,000 and the average number of days on the market is twelve. In Atherton, the average selling price is $l.5 million and the average number of days on the market is nineteen. (Perhaps one of the class wags could offer an explanation as to why Athertonian buyers take so long. )

East Menlo is enjoying a renaissance and East Palo Alto has become a strong community. Woodside and Portola Valley look much the same---beautiful and rural. The stretch of land on Sand Hill Road between the Alameda and the Sharon Park Country Club is now the most expensive real estate in the world, having surpassed Manhattan a little while back. (It's $65 per square foot.) But then it's home to mega venture capitalists and has the world's largest concentration of wealth operating out of the numerous discreet office buildings there.

Yes, sleepy Menlo Park makes good. Yet with all this, there are lots of young families to be seen everywhere. The teen-scene has been replaced by fathers and mothers taking their children to Baskin-Robbins, biking or on foot.

Searsville Lake, by the way, is now located in the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve (a 1,189 acre natural laboratory for researchers from around the world): "the lake is the only freshwater lake in California managed primarily for research and instruction." I thought we did a pretty good job of "research and instruction" there forty years ago---needless to say, the hamburger stand and the beach are gone and there's no swimming allowed now. Alpine Inn (formerly Rossotti's) is still serving the locals though.

The YMCA camp over in Jones Gulch is so popular now you have to book a year in advance to stay there. The beaches haven't changed except that you see more wildlife. And this year El Nino has thrown a huge amount of driftwood onto the shore; people have built wonderful little wood forts all along the beaches.

The Stanford Shopping Center is elegant and world famous ---if you're a shopper, do bring plenty of plastic. (Blums and the two Magnins are gone and the Emporium was replaced recently by Bloomingdale's.) Visually the Center is beautiful, with cascading fountains and baskets of flowers. It's possible to sit in one of the plazas enjoying a cappuccino while you watch people stroll by speaking in a variety of languages. Perhaps you'll get a picnic lunch together from Sigona's farmer's market and the Oakville Grocery to tide you over until the reunion events. (You can "breakfast at Tiffany's" too---they've moved into Stanford and there's a french bakery right across the plaza.)

Allied Arts offers lunch in the Peninsula Volunteers' legendary tearoom, and although they no longer offer a tea, they do have a dessert and beverage sitting should any of the "alumnesses" want to re-live the ancient ritual. The Spanish-style gardens and tiled fountains are more beautiful than ever and hearken back to a leisurely time in Menlo Park---like the fifties, no doubt.

Did you know that Menlo Park, New Jersey was named after this town? In 1854, four years after California was admitted to the Union, two Irish immigrants purchased 1,700 acres of tree-studded pasture land along the El Camino Real from the heirs of Don Luis Antonio Arguello, first native-born governor of California during the Spanish-American era. The Irishmen named their land Menlo Park after their native hamlet in County Galway---Menlough, or, "little lake" in Gaelic. Our train station, built in 1867, is the oldest passenger railroad station in California. Nativity Catholic Church which just celebrated its 125th Anniversary, was built during President Grant's second term in office in 1872. The first Europeans to see the San Francisco Bay in 1769, Gaspar Portola and his expedition, camped near the site of El Palo Alto on their return to San Diego. The old redwood tree is considerably battered now, but it's still there.

A new bike bridge near the base of the tree connects El Camino to Alma Street which leads to Willow Avenue and the beautiful grounds and buildings of Sunset Magazine. (The magazine is now owned by Time Magazine---but then, what hasn't been sold to a corporation?) Biking down Middlefield towards Ravenswood, you'll come to Vintage Oaks, a stately housing development recently built on St. Patrick Seminary's long-empty fields which you surely remember---right across from MA's parking lot. (I recall parking my red Ford convertible in there one day, only to have the ground converted to deep mud by a terrific rainstorm somewhere between U.S. History and geometry. The tow truck got stuck too. )

This seems like a good place to stop the tour. I'll come up with some memories if I ever manage to get the computer back from my children again. As for you MA bearites, remember, we who still live around here....well, we'll keep the light on for you.

Susan

Write Susan at bbujnak@aol.com