Saratoga Stereopticon

Intrepid reporter started journey 50 years ago

By Willys Peck

Gold symbolism may have something to do with it, but 50-year anniversaries always seem to pack a special significance. At least that's the case with me and the one coming up Sept. 1: 50 years since starting as west valley correspondent for the San Jose Mercury Herald, now the Mercury News.

The Mercury Herald maintained a Central Coast department with a network of correspondents covering outlying areas, from north to south county and sometimes beyond. These were mainly non-professionals, housewives or business people who wrote up local events and sent in their copy via Peerless or Greyhound bus. As "stringers," they were paid by the inch--15 cents--for published items pasted together monthly in--what else?--a string.

As a 1949 journalism graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, I spent that summer as Saratoga correspondent, or stringer, while engaged in a futile effort to revive a defunct shopping news in Sunnyvale. Then the Los Gatos Times, one of two weeklies in that town, announced it was going to start publishing five days a week starting Sept. 1.

Not surprisingly, the Mercury Herald moved to counter this incursion by hiring a full-time correspondent--me--to cover the communities of Los Gatos, Saratoga and Campbell and come into the office daily to write my copy, just like a city-side reporter. There was one significant difference, though: As a Central Coast "correspondent" covering outlying areas, I could and did carry a press camera.

It was an ideal setup for me. I was living at home with my parents and could start my daily coverage as I left the house.

It should go without saying that the west valley of 50 years ago was not a hotbed of breaking news stories. Saratoga was still seven years away from incorporation as a city; Campbell was five. Los Gatos was the only municipality with official meetings to cover. That town also had a chamber of commerce office where I could hang out and make phone calls, checking on such things as passing sirens and touching base with the town's two undertakers.

Placid as it was, Saratoga had its moments. For instance, there was the Saratoga Highway Association, organized to head off the threat of a major north-south freeway, a la Highway 85, through the Village center. It was not a unanimous effort; there were those who argued that Saratoga would literally die on the vine without this infusion of commerce.

There was also the annual Blossom-time Chip-in Day, a Blossom Festival successor. During my first year on the job the event included a Saratoga historical pageant, written and produced by Dr. John E. Cox, the medical practitioner who succeeded the Rev. Dr. Louis Mendelsohn.

Schools were always a source of news, mostly upbeat. This, of course, was at a time when items that never would make it into print today could get some space. One incident on the negative side sticks in mind, however. I think it was around 1951, in the pre-Proposition 13 days when school districts could still set their own tax rates, and Saratoga needed to increase the local levy. A special election was planned.

I had already written stories concerning bond elections and knew of the necessary two-thirds majority vote for passage of such measures. Without checking on the matter, I wrote that an increase in the tax rate also required a two-thirds majority. Wrong. At that time, at least, a simple majority was all that was needed. This, of course, led the opposition--and there was considerable--to believe there wasn't that much of a problem in defeating the tax increase. One opponent, given to sounding off in letters to the editor, sent such a missive to the local paper accusing the Mercury of collusion with the pro-tax-hike people. My face was suitably red.

Overall, though, newspaper work has been an eminently satisfying career. That 50-year mark gains added resonance from the fact that, although my official retirement occurred 10 years ago, I still put in one night a week as a Mercury News copy editor.

My advice to aspiring newspaper people: Go for the gold.

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Photo: Courtside Tennis team