Morgan Hill, CA ...

I'm in Morgan Hill this week....it's beautiful. There is a light breeze and no clouds in the sky, although it does smell a bit like mushroom farm gases...ack!

The ole town has changed. No more farms, ranches, corner drug store, Roberts dept. store, dime store or small town atmosphere. I cringe evertime I go to the grocery store, there is no one I know. The only familiar faces are a few tellers I went to high school with.

Long gone is the social element found at the old Nob Hill on Hale Ave to the CornerDrug and the five and dime next to the Granada theater. Does anyone remember the Bank of America and the elderly man, I think he was the manager, that gave out life savers? Well, he was elderly to me, I was only 5 years old at the time and every adult was "old."

I remember Mrs. Moreno, my kindergarten teacher at P.A. Walsh. She was beautiful and so nice. I remember making my first folder to hold all my painting projects. I cut out a picture of flowers on a hillside and pasted it on the front, she thought it was beautiful and I thought I was special. Weird, the stuff we remember.

It will be interesting to see how the Coyote Valley changes over the next decade. All I remember about that area is that is was swampy and they are now planning to put a lake were all the water collects naturally on Santa Teresa north of Bailey. Psst...I think it's been a lake all along except when some one tried putting tons of landfill there. And where are all these jobs coming from to support 80K people and not to mention the additional traffic we will see? Coyote is the narrowest part of the valley, humm, what does that mean in terms of flood, earthquake, smog (well, we already know that it collects there) traffic and sewage. And life happens.....