By Bob Aldrich
They were an informal group of young Los Gatos married women who got together regularly during World War II while their servicemen husbands were far from home.
"We brought along our mending and knitting and just talked," member Barbara Baggerly says. "Later on, we assigned some topic for discussion, but not about world events, just something personal, like 'tell us about your wedding.' "
They decided to give the group a name, the "Flying Needle."
"That started when one of our members, Mary Peters, phoned one day to ask when the Flying Needle was to meet next. We had never heard the name before but decided we'd use it," Baggerly says.
Departures, deaths and a reorganization have whittled the group down from a one-time high of 45 members.
Remaining members met Dec. 20 at the Village House restaurant, 320 Village Lane, to celebrate the 50th anniversary since their first meeting.
"At one time after the war we were up to 45 members," Baggerly says. "We had gotten too large to meet in someone's home, so we cut back to 25." The group has an even dozen members today, all but one a resident of Los Gatos. Besides Barbara Baggerly, they are Alice Berryman, Dorothy Creffield, Stella George, Barbara White, Ellen Hightower, Pauline Dusel, Anne Dorn, Iva Jones, Marnya Campbell, Mary Peters and Martha Martin, who lives in Carmel.
"There wasn't anything formal about us," Baggerly says. "We didn't elect officers or anything like that. Sometimes we would have a barbecue or picnic and invite the husbands."
The Flying Needle still meets once each month at a member's home.
"It's been a marvelous group," Dorothy Creffield, who lives at The Terraces, says. "When I first came to Los Gatos, I put my children in the nursery school. That's how I got acquainted with people. We've been good friends for 50 years. Now some of our kids are grandparents."
She adds: "A few of us still bring our knitting."
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, January 10, 1996.
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