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Another large turnout for grammar school reunion

By Willys Peck

So SUGS did it again, for the 12th time. "SUGS"--rhymes with "thugs"--is the name I use for people who attended Saratoga Union Grammar School in the years when the institution was so designated, with classes through eighth grade.

It's a collective noun, so the final "S" can't be dropped.

The occasion I'm referring to is the annual picnic, held July 29 in Wildwood Park, and it was a great success; for one thing, the weather was perfect. As to attendance, there may have been a couple of dozen fewer people than last year, but the 125 or so there this time made up a goodly crowd.

I have commented in previous columns about what I would call the uniqueness of this kind of celebration, a reunion of elementary--pardon me, grammar--school pupils.

One would expect such events at the college and high school level, but a reunion at this level says a lot about the school and the community. You might say it's really pushing the envelope, but this envelope was stuffed with pictures and documents that were put on display.

There were class pictures dating as far back as my first grade in September 1929, where I appeared to be the smallest kid in the class. Jenni Taylor, who arranged the displays, had small stacks of schoolbooks tied with ribbon on the picnic tables. In addition to pictures and papers displayed on easels, she also had a large scrapbook in which she is compiling such material for use during the year.

Another bit of Saratoga flavor--literally--was added by a basket of dried prunes and apricots that was passed around. People said they were reminded of their childhood days cutting 'cots and picking prunes.

One part of the day's proceedings had a genuinely historic aspect. This was when two men of Japanese ancestry were presented with their eighth-grade diplomas. The reason they didn't get them back in the 1940s was that they, with their families, had been sent off to Japanese internment camps after the outbreak of World War II. It was a shameful chapter of U.S. history; I well remember how several Japanese families who had lived for years in Saratoga were sent away.

But on this day, William Yamamoto and Roy Kita received their diplomas from Saratoga principal Diane Smalley. Yamamoto's diploma was accepted on his behalf by his sister, May. The delay in getting their grammar school diplomas doesn't seem to have curtailed their professional lives, since both men are eminently successful in their fields.

Another part of this reunion tradition is the performance of Les Landin's musical ensemble, the Skillet Likkers, who contribute much to the convivial atmosphere of these gatherings. Needless to say, organizing and arranging the details of occasions like this is a lot of work, and it's fortunate that Mary Lou Teeple Butera and Patty Reschar are there to shoulder the burden.

Speaking of celebrations, the one coming up rates some kind of whoop-de-do. As a settlement, Saratoga may be about a century-and-a-half old, but as an incorporated city it's nearing half a century. I like to think of it in those terms rather than as a mere 50 years.

I don't know if anyone is going to shoot off rockets or fire a cannon, but that kind of thing would seem appropriate this coming Sept. 25 to commemorate the date a half century ago when city status, i.e., incorporation, was approved by a 159-vote margin among the 3,299 votes cast.

The closeness of that vote was a good indication of the division in the community over this sensitive issue. Opponents argued our civic needs were adequately taken care of by special districts and county functions, and there was no need to add another layer of government.

Incorporation probably never would have come up as an issue if it hadn't been for the annexation ambitions of the city of San Jose.

Back in the 1950s, San Jose's municipal government, spearheaded by the city manager, Anthony P. "Dutch" Hamann, had as a goal the extension of city limits from one side of Santa Clara Valley to the other.

This involved "uninhabited" annexations, principally of orchards, which many saw as a threat to Saratoga's identity. The people voted and Saratoga's identity was preserved.