Saratoga Stereopticon

The future may bring some interesting hybrids

By Willys Peck

The idea got planted in my mind as these two time capsules were planted in the earth, one at the Historical Museum and one at the Saratoga Foothill Club. Each contains documents and mementos pertinent to the respective organizations, the Saratoga Historical Foundation, and the Foothill Club and Saratoga Men's Club, the latter two sharing a capsule.

Twenty-five years from now, according to the plan, the capsules will be exhumed and a new generation of Saratogans will marvel, we hope, at the accomplishments of their near ancestors. All well and good, I thought, but what will their world be like? Perhaps these individuals won't care about their antecedents, but I am extremely interested in what they may be up to.

Lacking a reverse time capsule (now there's a challenge for you high-tech wizards), I dusted off the old crystal ball, went into a trance and came up with the following vignettes of Saratoga in the year 2027.

By that year, someone in authority at the Valley Transportation Authority--that's the agency that runs the buses--will have noticed that the ponderous vehicles serving this area are not heavily patronized. In fact, the average passenger load could be described by that old saying, "two's company, three's a crowd," and that includes the driver.

This person, or persons, will conclude that the transportation needs could be met with much smaller vehicles, say, minivans, and that's what will be plying the highways as mass transit. Incidentally, the change will have come about through the discovery that one of the present-day riderless rolling barns actually was haunted.

Then there's the current issue of accommodating police, fire protection and postal services, not to mention necessary parking, in a highly limited area. By 2027, this problem will have been solved by furthering the current concept of public safety departments, which allow the same personnel to handle both law enforcement and fire protection.

In Saratoga, these roles will be expanded to include postal service. It will come about through congressional action enlarging the role of the U.S. Postal Service to include such duties in certain limited situations, Saratoga representing one. The result will be that a smaller number of people will be required, and everything and everybody will be quartered in a single building, making for more available parking.

There will be some interesting sidelights. For instance, mail-route vehicles will be upgraded to perform as patrol cars when needed, and it won't be an uncommon spectacle to see a carrier peeling off from a mailbox to pursue a speeder. There may be some delays in mail delivery, as when a carrier has to help extinguish a fire, or perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on an accident victim, but any such delays will be deemed worth it.

If there will be any downside to the new arrangement, it will come about because of the layout of the building. Since economy of space will be the watchword, some postal patrons may object to having the counter where they buy stamps being right next to the brass pole down which firefighters slide to get to their engines. But there will be plenty of parking outside.

Another change on the Saratoga scene will come about when some state officials concerned with historic preservation will bring extreme political pressure on the Montalvo Association to change the name of the Carriage House Theater at Villa Montalvo.

These officials, in the state Department of Parks and Recreation, will point out that the only carriages ever housed in the building known as the Carriage House were horseless carriages. They will also emphasize that, when Sen. James D. Phelan had Villa Montalvo built in 1912, he required a structure that had ample parking space around the octagonal perimeter and a heavy turntable in the center so that automobiles could be pointed out the front door.

There was also a grease rack, chauffeur's living quarters and a household telephone network where phones in the Villa today still have the listing of "garage," along with the billiard room, library and other locations.

Naturally, the people at Montalvo will have resisted the change strongly, especially since the state people wouldn't tolerate a designation of "Garage Theater." It had to be the "Garage." Period.

So it was with amazement and gratified relief that the Montalvo people found the name "Garage" becoming a status symbol among performers. If one could boast of having "played the Garage in Saratoga," one had indeed arrived.

I don't expect to be around in 2027, but you young folks--that's anyone up into their mid-60s--just see if I haven't called this thing right.

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