Traveling around in #SanJose and #NearbyToSanJose at 825 mph on our spinning planet.
How many decades has this sign greeted the motorists heading south from downtown? The dollar amount has gone up over the years for the five burgers but the rest looks nearly the same. It was a rare treat to get take-out growing up but when this place was desired in my family, someone would say “go to bag-a-burgers.” I didn’t know the place had another name until I was an adult. I do recall the bag-a-burgers coming home on rare occasion, though.
Not far from San Jose in Vasona County Park, there is this special train, “The 2 Spot.” This steam powered train was built in 1905. Yeah, over 100 years ago. Number 2, a one third scale steam train, began running in Venice Beach, California. After several years of service, it eventually found itself in a junk yard where local railroad worker Billy Jones found it in San Francisco bound for a scrap yard in 1939. He purchased it, restored it, and ran it for free for children to ride on Sundays around his Los Gatos farm for the rest of his life.
After his passing in 1968, friends and neighbors created a non profit to move it and keep it going at nearby Vasona Park where it continues to run today. It is pretty cool to ride this train and kids love it. The attraction to the tracks is great and so there are now five trains working to help spread the work load. Number 2 comes out mostly on weekends during the summer months. All of the trains are interesting so it is a treat to see and ride any of the four that are there to pull visitors for only $3 a ride.
I like to get excited about all of the trains but find it especially exciting to ride number 2, this bit of history from 1905 that has carried children and adults for decades. I love when it chugs hard to move up the gradient of the park. Walt Disney heard of this train and visited Billy Jones before Disneyland was a reality. They became friends. The logo, still used today, for the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad was designed by a Disney animator. Billy himself was there at the opening of Disneyland to run their train on July of 1955.
It’s a special ride, for sure.
A famous scene took place at the 1968 Olympics. At the podium, two medalists put on a black glove each, took off their shoes showing black socks, wore several symbolic items, and raised one hand each during the playing of the national anthem. The third athlete on the podium, an Australian who placed 2nd, also wore a human rights badge, matching those worn by the two Americans, in solidarity.
There is a lot that can be said about this moment. (You can get a start on it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_salute). The two black athlete Olympians, who stood with their hands raised during the anthem as a protest to unequal treatment of people, were students at San Jose State University. They were Tommie Smith who had just set a world record and won gold in the 200m race and John Carlos who had won the bronze medal. Peter Norman was the silver medal winner from Australia who stood in solidarity with them.
Today, at SJSU, you are invited to stand with these historic SJSU alumni on the podium in the spot where a supporter once stood with them before the world.
It is a powerful statue if you take it in. It is a powerful moment if you accept the invitation and stand with them on the podium. It is an impressive work of art. It is an impressive social stand that these men took. It came with great costs for all three athletes. It came with rewards too; rewards in thoughts, awareness, conversations, and changes for others that will affect generations.
Today, you can take your stand in the middle of San Jose State University.
This piece of art helps put into context another piece of art that can be found near by at the gas station on 4th street. It reads: “Thank You.”
Monterey is a little over an hour by car and well worth the drive, which is itself a pleasure. For those interested in San Jose history, it is impossible not to get excited about several of our nearby cities that are as wound up in the history of California.
Monterey is one of those important cities in our California history. Like San Jose, this is a city that one could spend a lifetime visiting, learning about, and photographing with great satisfaction.
Pictured above is Colton Hall in the Friendly Plaza. In this building the California Constitution was written in 1849. It stated that San Jose would be the state capitol, was written in English and Spanish as a bilingual constitution, and led to California becaming the 31st state in 1850.
500 seeds comprising four species of trees were sent in orbit around the moon with Apollo 14 in 1971. When they returned, some of what became known as Moon Trees were planted alongside similar trees for research, some were given to states or countries as gifts. In 1976, many were given to cities and states with appropriate climates for the various tree seedlings in order to celebrate the bicentennial of the USA. The Moon Tree pictured above is one of these 1976 trees. In the bay area, the nearest two Moon Trees are in Monterey and in Berkeley. For comparison of two very different earth species, the human species woman visiting the Monterey Moon Tree in the photo above was born in 1976 when the Coast Redwood species Moon Tree next to her was planted.
One interesting thing about bronze statues is that you can always tell where people are drawn to touch them most by the clearing of any natural tarnishing. For this bear, it is clearly the teeth that people are drawn to touch. It took my youngest child all of seconds before placing a foot in the bear’s teeth and asking me to take a picture.
Across the street from the Friendly Plaza is the Montery Museum of Art. Below are a few of the treasures located there.
Monterey and Monterey Bay are incredible locations for discovery. The factors that brought people here for thousands of years continue to influence the lives of the people and continue to draw me to learn and discover more with great appreciation.
I keep coming back to this one on West Santa Clara Street. This is just a part of it pictured above. I enjoy creating interpretations for the symbols. I enjoy seeing the historic San Jose light tower, the Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton, the Box on Mt. Umunhum, the house that looks right at home in San Jose… and then making the story of how these familiar landmarks ended up in a surreal version of the landscape that is in places anachronistic. I like to make up a story each time for the scenes in each part of the mural as I re-see them, and all versions leave me peacefully satisfied as I stare at this work and take it in.
