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No blossoms, but Celebrate is indeed a festival

By Willys Peck

Blossom Festival redux? Well, not exactly. Community celebration? Yes. Music? Yes. Lots of people? Yes, and yes and yes. Blossoms? Extremely well-hidden, if any at all. What the annual Celebrate Saratoga! festival was this past Sept. 15 involved an unbelievably large and enthusiastic crowd moving down Big Basin Way with a rock music background that could be heard for blocks.

As an experience, it would have to be described as unique. There are few if any opportunities for one to move through a mass of people, many of them personal friends, with a loud musical background. I think it could almost be choreographed. The music, of course, was only part of the festival atmosphere. Both sides of the street were lined with tent-like booths where a fascinating variety of liquid and solid refreshment was available.

The event was described by the sponsoring Saratoga Chamber of Commerce as the city's 19th annual street dance. I personally didn't observe anyone dancing, but there certainly could have been some rhythmic footwork along the route. There were plenty of bands and lots of room on the side streets. And I must compliment the law enforcement staff for their courtesy and consideration in helping us senior citizens.

There was one thing I noticed about this Celebrate Saratoga! event, and that was the absence of any mention in my journalistic alma mater, the San Jose Mercury News. There might have been some notice several days in advance, but nothing that I could see on the day itself, and no actual coverage.

This hit me at a somewhat vulnerable spot because my own career with that paper, which spanned 55 years, started in September 1949 when I was hired to cover the West Valley beat. This comprised Saratoga, Campbell and Los Gatos, when the latter was the only incorporated city of the three.

A little sidelight here: Los Gatos was incorporated in 1887 as a "town," not a city. The only other such municipality in Santa Clara County is the town of Los Altos Hills, incorporated in 1956, the same year as Saratoga.

What I was getting at was the fact that back in my early years there, the Mercury News--it was the Mercury Herald when I started, then just the Mercury--gave plenty of attention to local celebrations, like Campbell's Old Settlers Day, Fiesta de Los Gatos and Saratoga's Chip-in Day, later Blossom Time Chip-in Day. There were photos and text that literally covered the territory. But this year? Zilch. Nada.

In all fairness, I should compliment the Mercury News for what it did do for Saratoga in publishing its "Where We Live" supplement on Aug. 26 devoted to this community. My wife and I got plenty of ink, and I shouldn't be biting the hand that fed me.

At the outset I mentioned the Blossom Festival, the event that kept Saratoga on the community celebration map for many years. I especially like the account of how the first festival was conceived by a retired Congregational minister, the Rev. Edwin Sidney "Everlasting Sunshine" Williams, who wanted to stage a "thanksgiving jollification" celebration inspired by the heavy rainfall that ended a prolonged spell of below-normal rainfall.

This was in 1900, when the Santa Clara Valley was virtually one large orchard. Adequate rainfall was important, and the drenching that occurred in 1899 was seen as a literal lifesaver for the vast area of fruit trees. The well-publicized celebration on March 29, 1900, drew four train carloads of visitors who got off at the South Pacific Coast Railroad station in Los Gatos.

The visitors were met by a brigade of horse-drawn wagons, many from the famous Glen Una Ranch, the largest bearing prune orchard in the world. Transported to Saratoga, the visitors could participate in athletic contests, attend entertainment events and enjoy the hospitality of town residents who opened their homes to them. Home-cooked meals were available for 25 cents.

The Blossom Festival continued in pageantry form as an annual event until 1941, and in postwar years in less elaborate form as the essential blossom element disappeared. Celebrate Saratoga! is a good way to go. As a place to live, we have a lot to celebrate.