Saratoga Stereopticon
Athletic events were less than Olympian
By WillysPeck
Here's a fast pop quiz: The "fat men's race, 50-yard crawl" is associated with which of the following? (a) hazing during a lodge initiation; (b) one of the tortures of hell described in Dante's The Divine Comedy; (c) a David Letterman Top 10 list of repulsive athletic contests, headed by professional wrestling, (d) the Saratoga Blossom Festival.
Since this column is about Saratoga, (d) would seem the logical answer, which indeed it is. At this particular celebration, in March 1916, there were other athletic events of less-than-Olympic caliber, including the 50-yard dash for married ladies, the egg race for ladies and the men's race, 60 years and over, along with several contests for youngsters.
The athletic events were only part of the festivities, though. There was a performance by the YMCA Zouave Drill Team, "a tight-rope walker in evidence during the day" and, at 2 p.m., a concert by the 110-voice College of the Pacific Choral Society, the college at that time being located in San Jose. The main attraction, of course, was the spectacle of miles and miles of orchards in bloom, and an "auto ride overlooking the valley" was offered to non residents.
This insight into a literally colorful past comes from an issue of the Saratoga Record, a weekly paper that started in 1914. It was one of a number of such publications that came and went in the early part of the century and before, several copies of which have surfaced in what I charitably call my archives. These papers make interesting reading. For instance, in that same issue about the 1916 Blossom Festival, there is an article by Saratoga pioneer George Haun, under the heading "A Glance Backward at the Good Old Times." He describes his recollections of the time when Saratoga had as many as eight saloons. "Fortunately," he wrote, "that business has not only declined but has been completely abolished. . . . It was a common sight when the saloons flourished to see as many as 20 or 25 men drunk upon the street. They were uncontrollable and their actions were so indecent that they constituted a public nuisance."
In the same issue was an unsigned article headed "A Glance Forward at the Good New Times." In it, the writer was making a strong pitch for moving the Peninsular Railway interurban station away from its location in what now would be the middle of the main Village intersection. The tracks made a "Y" at that point, one branch going up Big Basin Way to Congress Springs and the other going to Los Gatos. The main stem of the "Y" was the line down Saratoga Avenue to San Jose. "I beg all visitors to believe that we
who live here are no more enamored of the railroad Y than they are," the writer stated. "We should much prefer a plaza and we are going to have one."
Those proved to be prophetic words, because three years later, the tracks were realigned, the station moved to the present location of the Village Post Office, and a plaza created with the Memorial Arch as its central feature. The plaza remained intact until 1965, when the highway was realigned and the arch moved.
Mention of Congress Springs brings to mind another newspaper in this collection, the July 28, 1893, issue of the Saratoga Standard and West Side Advocate. On the back page is an advertisement for the Pacific Congress Springs Hotel: "Rates $12 to $14 per week. Open all year. Accommodations superb. Beautiful surroundings. Delightful drives."
The elaborate hotel, pictures of which are on exhibit at the Historical Museum, was close to the mineral springs that gave the town its name, after Saratoga, New York. The hotel burned in 1903 and was not rebuilt, but the area around the springs, about a mile and a half up Highway 9, remained as a popular picnic grounds until World War II.
These were not hot springs, but the 1893 ad describes "the baths" as "efficacious in cutaneous diseases and rheumatic affections. The waters, similar to Congress Springs, N.Y., are tonic, purgative, diuretic, alterative." Somehow this pitch conjures the image of a snake-oil salesman in my imagination, but plenty of people came to "take the waters," and there was even a bottling plant there until about 1915. Anyway, it's hard to argue with success.
In the Sept. 24, 1915, issue of the Saratoga Record there is a poignant item that reads as follows: "110 pupils have enrolled in the Saratoga School; if we can manage to enroll five more, we can have another teacher. Parents, get all the children of school age in school as soon as possible. One additional teacher would help wonderfully just now."
Some things don't change much in 85 years.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
