FOR the past six years, an Old Timers Dinner has drawn local residents for a festive meal and conversation about the past of Our Town and its many changes. This year, instead of an evening get-together, there'll be an Old Timers Luncheon March 15 at the same site, the Villa Felice Restaurant. "Some older folks don't like going out at night," said chairman Egon Jensen. A cocktail hour at 11 a.m. will precede lunch. Tickets are $17, and reservation checks should be mailed to Jensen, 182 Lester Lane, Los Gatos, 95032. Information may be obtained by phoning Jensen at 356-2660 or co-chairs Barbara Reid, 356-1780, and Wally Henwood, 358-1338. Mailings are being sent, but Jensen stresses anyone who'd like to attend is welcome--whether or not a flyer is received.
THREE women who say they have been strengthened by adversity will give a symposium on Coping With Life's Losses on March 1 at the Neighborhood Center, 208 E. Main St., from 8:30 a.m. until noon. Margaret Deanesley, M.D., Deborah Abel, a certified financial planner, and Jean Green, a psychotherapist, are on the program. A $35 fee for adults, including breakfast and support materials, will benefit Community Against Substance Abuse and the Peckler Family Scholarship Fund. Phone 356-5567 for reservations; send check to Joanne Rodgers, 15287 Top of the Hill Road, Los Gatos, 95032.
DON and Anita Wolf were preparing to fly to Baja California this week, where they will look into the condition of a little 4-year-old named Abigail who's suffering with a life-endangering hernia. Wolf said the Flying Doctors had not yet determined whether the child will be treated in Mexico or flown to the U. S. for surgery.
AT the Live Oak Senior Nutrition Center, regular volunteers Russ and Louise Wintle were spotlighted on their 70th wedding anniversary Feb. 5.
FROM her home in Paris, actress Olivia de Havilland sent photos from the 1940s which are now part of a new exhibit of the work of the late Los Gatos artists George Dennison and Frank Ingerson, now in Forbes Mill Museum. Accompanied by a letter she wrote to Roberta Blake, former Los Gatos High School librarian, the photos show de Havilland with her good friends Dennison and Ingerson as she visited their home, Cathedral Oaks, in the hills above Lexington Reservoir. The two artists encouraged young Olivia, then a Saratoga resident and 1934 Los Gatos High School grad, and drove her to Hollywood, where she first appeared in a Hollywood Bowl production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. That led to a film contract with Warners and an Academy Award-winning career.
THE Junior League of San Jose is looking for nominations for about 25 outstanding Volunteers of the Year from Santa Clara County, with the nominees to be honored at an annual Volunteer Recognition Luncheon April 25 at the Fairmont Hotel in celebration of National Volunteer Week. For information and nominee applications, call the League, 264-3058.
PUBLIC television station KTEH is inviting viewers to a gala celebration of its new quarters at 1585 Schallenberger Road, San Jose, on Feb. 25 from 6 to 8 p.m. There's a chance to star in a "screen test," tour the studio and maybe win a Tickle-Me Elmo. But space is limited, and an RSVP by Feb. 14 to Jennifer Miran, 795-5400, is requested.
LOS GATOS artist Bruni Sablan's "Jazz Masters Series by Bruni" is getting overseas attention. Paloma Editions, a division of Front Line Publishing, released limited edition lithographs, displayed at an international show earlier this month in Birmingham, England, and there was a second release at the New York Art Expo. Signed lithographs are at the Old Town Gallery..
"STEINBECK and the World" is the title given the 4th International John Steinbeck Congress to be held March 19-23 in San Jose and Monterey. Some 60 speakers from various countries are expected, including the one-time Los Gatos author's widow, Elaine Steinbeck, and the son and daughter of marine biologist Ed Ricketts, who was a close friend of the writer's. Steinbeck Research Center at San Jose State University is among the sponsors.
YOU may have thought you paid a fairly stiff price for your new computer, but it can't compare with what NASA pays for the computers used in its space programs. Speaking at Los Gatos Rotary Club, NASA official David Morse mentioned that its Cray supercomputers cost from $30 million to $40 million apiece. They can make over two billion computations a second. It would take 75 years, making one computation every second, to match it manually. Simulation centers can create new aircraft, and even train pilots to fly them, without actually building the planes.
THE LOS GATOS chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution honored winners of the American history essay and DAR Good Citizens contests. Winners from Los Gatos schools include: American history essay, 1st place, Aaron Di Silvestro, 5th grade, Lakeside School; and Stephanie Adleson, 8th grade, Hillbrook; 1st runner-up, Melissa Fall, 5th grade, Daves Avenue; 2nd runner-up, Caitlin Vobel, 5th grade, Lakeside; and 8th-grade runners-up: lst, Alex Moore, Hillbrook; 2nd, Jared Shawlee, St. Mary's; 3rd, Natalie Storm, St. Mary's. Kate Marie Penkoff, Los Gatos High School senior, was one of three winners of DAR Good Citizens pins.
THE TERRACES of Los Gatos , 800 Blossom Hill Road, will celebrate the Chinese New Year Feb. 15, from noon to 2 p.m. A traditional lion dance hailing the Year of the Ox will follow a 1:30 p.m. luncheon. Reservations at $10 per person are required; call Pamela Bancroft, 356-1006.
OOPS. Perley Payne, veteran of the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War, lives on Quail Hill Road, not Quito as previously reported.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, February 12, 1997.
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