Saratoga News

Photograph by Willys Peck

This stolen Cadillac convertible ended up in the Cottage Cafe in August 1942.

Saratoga Stereopticon

Willys Peck

Quiescence was a cottage industry

In a recent Stereopticon piece, I quoted Life magazine's rather patronizing reference to "sleepy little Saratoga," which, with similar epithets in an article about the visit of actress Donna Reed, upset quite a few people 50 years ago.

But back then, Saratoga really was sleepy in the dictionary sense of "manifesting quiescence." Fact is, manifesting quiescence was practically a cottage industry around here. As I have remarked many times, if peace and quiet were exportable commodities, Saratoga could have cornered the market--but that doesn't mean we didn't have our dramatic moments.

Some of those were occasioned by the street configuration, especially that segment where, before the 1965 realignment, two-lane Saratoga-Los Gatos Road and Big Basin Way converged at right angles by the plaza. Cars traveling north not only had to negotiate that turn, but then, a few feet farther on, had to make a sharp left onto Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road. A driver unfamiliar with the route sometimes had trouble on that turn, particularly at night and more particularly in the event of having had one too many.

It was about 70 years ago that the defining accident occurred at that juncture. That was when a northbound car failed to make the turn and plowed all the way into Renn's candy store, killing the driver. After that, a half-dozen four-foot posts--steel rails encased in concrete--were erected on the edge of the sidewalk in front of the store. That didn't change anyone's driving habits; cars still failed to make the turn, but at least they didn't crash into the building which today, in its changed location, is the Historical Museum.

A few feet to one side of the posts, about where the Comerica Bank is today, was the Cottage Cafe. Although it wasn't in the direct line of fire, it still attracted enough of the errant-vehicle trade to be referred to sardonically as Saratoga's first drive-in. One episode in particular sticks in my mind. On a night in August 1942, I was reading up in my room in the family home on Orchard Road when I heard a loud crash downtown, so I went to investigate. It was quite a scene. A young man in a Cadillac convertible, which he had stolen in National City near San Diego, came barreling down Saratoga-Los Gatos Road and, too late, saw he had to make a sharp turn. When he applied the brakes, the car swung around, causing the rear bumper to catch on one of the concrete posts. This sent the car hurtling into the side of the Cottage Cafe.

Miraculously, no one was killed, even though there were a couple of people in there at the time. The restaurant lights were still on, and the car's driver, who had been thrown from the vehicle, was yelling in pain under a pile of splintered boards. He wasn't seriously injured, which was fortunate, seeing as how he was facing enough trouble as it was.

There were some other episodes involving the Cottage Cafe, including the time a truck crashed into the place with a load of apples that hadn't even been ordered.

Then there was the time in 1948 when a cement truck coming down Saratoga-Los Gatos Road lost its brakes and piled into the side of the Fir Tree Inn. This was a two-story building--restaurant and bar on the first floor, living quarters and a dental office on the second--that was demolished when the highway was straightened and widened just over 30 years ago. As to the later demolition, that cement truck made a fair attempt at the time. The main result, though, was that the outside wall of the bar was ripped away, revealing the startled patrons who, up to that point, had been quietly drinking.

You might say that it was--to enrich the language with a phrase--a sobering experience.