It doesn't take much for my otherwise positive train of thought to be switched onto a time-consuming sidetrack by a notion that may or may not be useful. A recent example was the date Feb. 22. The sidetrack was labeled "tradition."

First off, I really don't buy the idea of Presidents Day. In my estimation, a national leader worthy of such commemoration is entitled to its logical time of observance, namely his or her natal day, and not a date arranged to expedite a three-day weekend.

But, back to tradition. When I thought of Feb. 22, Washington's Birthday--or Birthington's Washday as I sometimes call it--I thought of Campbell's Old Settlers Day. This was a tradition in the community of Campbell--yes, I know I'm supposed to be writing about Saratoga, but there is a connection--which I remember from my early months covering the West Valley beat for the San Jose Mercury Herald, now the Mercury News. I don't know when Old Settlers Day was discontinued as an observance, but 55 years ago it was a major event that I wrote about with some enthusiasm. There was an elegant parade, a program of speakers and a session where old-timers got together and traded reminiscences. Old Settlers Day was a Campbell tradition.

One of the celebrities in the 1950 parade was the widow--or was it the daughter?--of Benjamin Campbell, the community's founder and one of the sons of William Campbell, who established a sawmill in what was to become the town of Saratoga. There's the connection.

Once again, back to tradition. The issue I intended to raise was the role of tradition in community identity. How essential is it? When does tradition become a part of identity? Here in Saratoga, are there many traditions that help make us what we are today? One especially well-known tradition was the annual Blossom Festival, which really put Saratoga on the map. We were known far and wide as "Saratoga, Home of the Blossom Festival."

I have devoted several columns to this event, which ran from 1900 through 1941 and drew several thousand visitors annually. The chief attraction, of course, was the spectacle of miles and miles of blossoming trees. This was enhanced by a program that covered a range including symphony orchestras, choral groups and ballet dancers.

As a major entertainment event, or tradition, the Blossom Festival ended with World War II and the subsequent subdividing of the orchards into housing developments and shopping centers. There were postwar sequels, such as Blossom Time Chip-In Day and other entertainments under the Blossom Festival banner, but they couldn't quite make it in the tradition category.

One event that does qualify as a tradition is the Saratoga Foothill Club's annual Memorial Day service that begins at the downtown Memorial Arch and continues after a march to Madronia Cemetery. It goes back to the early 1920s.

You could also say that Saratoga has a tradition as a center of the arts, encompassing such activities as Sen. James D. Phelan's hosting of prominent figures in the cultural world at his Villa Montalvo, followed by the estate's being a center for concerts and plays, as he had wished it to become.

There was Dorothea Johnston's Theater of the Glade, along the creek behind the old Saratoga Inn, where a condominium of that name is today. Miss Johnston produced Shakespeare Plays there from 1934--when Olivia De Havilland played Puck in "A Midsummer Night's Dream"--until 1941. There were the Saratoga Players in the 1940s and the Valley Institute of Theater Arts, or VITA, which presented Shakespeare plays at the Mountain Winery, and today we have the West Valley Light Opera Group and similar entertainment organizations.

No mention of tradition should omit our branch of the county library, which goes back to a box of books at the local drug store in 1903. Today our elegant and much-used library is at something of a fiscal crossroads, with local residents asked to determine its future. On May 3, there will be a mail-ballot election on Measure A, which would renew for 10 years the current $33.66 yearly parcel tax to maintain the current library service. Measure B will be an additional 10-year parcel tax of $1 a month to increase library service and eliminate the present Monday closing.

There will be further publicity about this before the scheduled mailing of ballots in April. Keep it in mind, though. Saratoga has a library tradition. It's part of our identity.