The question: What if only 159 of the total 3,299 votes cast in the 1956 incorporation election had been different? That was the narrow margin favoring city status for the town. If incorporation had failed, what would Saratoga be like today? One obvious answer is that if the first election failed, incorporation proponents would no doubt have tried for another election. That's what happened in neighboring Campbell, where incorporation was approved in 1952, after a previous failure.

But, if incorporation was defeated and another election never was attempted, what would Saratoga be like today as a non-city? To get a handle on this, one needs to look back on the situation as it was back in the 1950s. This was when San Jose was pursuing what I call—to borrow a phrase from American history—its Manifest Destiny, namely, to encompass within its city limits as much of the Santa Clara Valley as possible.

This was accomplished through annexation of either "uninhabited" territory, by approval of the owner, or by election on the part of the residents. The actual annexation effort was in the hands of city council, but the individual most identified with it was the city manager at the time, the late Anthony P. "Dutch" Hamann.

An important factor here was the state of the valley in the 1950s. This was the era of multiplying industries, as well as commercial and residential development on what had been prime agricultural land. San Jose's westward thrust prompted several "defensive incorporations" on the part of communities that wanted to maintain their identities and not become just another district of San Jose.

Campbell was the first such. Then came Cupertino in 1955 and Saratoga in 1956. Even the tiny city of Monte Sereno, incorporated in 1957, was defending itself from encroachment on the part of Los Gatos and Saratoga.

To many orchardists, annexation of their land to San Jose was an attractive prospect, mainly because of what elsewhere were considered small-size building lots. The figure 10,000 square feet sticks in my mind. The more building sites, of course, the higher the land value. So we wind up with cookie-cutter tract houses, so what?

It's hard to say now just how close the San Jose city limits would have come, had we not formed our city. However, a good part of the eastern and northeastern areas of the present city probably would have been known as the Saratoga district of San Jose. It's worth noting that the present Willow Glen district of San Jose once was an incorporated city in the early 1930s. So was Alviso, at the bay's edge.

As the rather close vote indicated, incorporation was a long way from being a universally desired objective. There was active opposition on the part of a group called the Saratoga Protective Committee. Their pitch was that nobody was going to be annexed if they didn't want to be, and incorporation just meant another layer of tax-levying government. Why bother, it was argued, when we were getting municipal-type services through the county and special districts?

As to the question about what way Saratoga would be different had we not incorporated, that's a matter of opinion. As an incorporation proponent at the time, I'd like to think that land-use issues are better off in the hands of local residents than they would be under county jurisdiction.

Back to "what if?" questions, here's one that's really off the wall: What if Grace Fisher had pledged Delta Delta Delta sorority at the UC Berkeley instead of Kappa Alpha Theta? The answer is, we wouldn't have the present Saratoga Foothill Clubhouse or the original portion of the Federated Church. That's because Grace Fisher, who later married James Tracy Richards of Saratoga, was a sorority sister of famed architect Julia Morgan, and she was responsible for bringing her here.