Los Gatos is a friendly sort of place, and people in this community take pains to keep it that way. But last week, the increasingly passive face of corporate America showed itself, and the harsh realities of the 1990s visited Los Gatos in a very personal way.
When Vera Calhoun, a waitress for 25 years at the Los Gatos Lodge, swallows her pride this week and files for unemployment for the first time in her 64 years, she won't be the only highly experienced older adult in the line.
And she already knows that her new job isn't likely to provide health insurance the way her old one did. "They give you short shifts now, so they won't have to give you benefits," she told the Los Gatos Weekly-Times.
But Calhoun, whose husband's medications add up to $180 a month, says she'll work two jobs if she has to. She has worn a pacemaker for 15 years. She was hoping her heartbeat would become irregular before her insurance ran out. But no such luck. "They usually replace them after 10 or 11 years," she said. "But they won't do it until your heartbeat gets irregular."
In a community that prides itself on its friendliness, the firing of all the employees at the lodge with just three days' notice was particularly ironic. The lodge is probably the friendliest place in town, and its employees were the reason why.
Even during its lowest moments--when the food was mediocre and the ambiance was unintentionally retrograde--loyal customers kept the place going. It's been a gathering spot for the town's old-timers for years.
So now, one of the friendliest spots in town, which was owned by a Sacramento company and managed by a Dallas company, has been sold to a person or persons who do not wish to be identified.
No one--not even the lodge's former employees--questions the right of a new owner to bring in a new team. But lots of people are wondering why the courtesy of a two-week notice couldn't have been extended. And maybe a "thanks for your years of dedication" from the Dallas-based hotel management firm that one would think has some expertise in the area of hospitality.
One has to wonder, as well, why the new owner or owners are so intent on concealing their identity.
The town fretted for years about the deteriorating lodge, and finally the Town Council went on record as favoring the development of a conference center at the site. It would be good for the town, they reasoned.
The new owner was under no obligation to seek town approval if planned renovations are to be cosmetic only, but wouldn't common sense dictate that in a town as small as Los Gatos, with a reputation for friendliness--but not necessarily to developers--a prospective owner would make a visit to the town Planning Department? Maybe introduce himself, herself or themselves to the town manager? It would have been a friendly thing to do, at the very least.
But this is 1996, a time when cold corporate logic rules. And even small towns can't escape the repercussions of decisions made in far-off places like Sacramento or Dallas or from faceless owners who wish to remain anonymous.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, January 31, 1996.
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