Community

A week before the 2022 New Year, I received a text from a friend expressing his dismay at the great number of dead newts he saw on Alma Bridge Road while he was biking. This was right after one of the December winter storms....

St. Patrick’s Day offers the perfect opportunity to pay homage to one of Los Gatos’ most fascinating and colorful characters, Charles Henry McKiernan, better known as “Mountain Charlie.”  McKiernan was born in Ireland in 1825. He joined the British navy to escape the potato famine...

Los Gatos resident Eric Drew is grieving, because one of his best friends just died. When Rotarian Bob Long was claimed by Covid-19 Aug. 27, he said, Los Gatos lost a key resident. “He was a pillar of the community,” he said of Long, who was...

As a new school year begins, let’s take a look at what a typical school day was like in our community years ago. You’ll be astonished by how much has changed!  In 1863, a one-room schoolhouse was built to accommodate 25 or more students from...

Spring has finally arrived! As beautiful as it is today, imagine what spring was like when thousands of acres of fruit and nut trees were in full bloom in the “Valley of Heart's Delight.” Did you know that many of those orchards might not...

Valentine’s Day is the perfect occasion for a love story But even though Los Gatos was the setting of a legendary romance that once captivated the nation, the story of Charles Erskine Scott Wood and Sara Bard Field has largely been forgotten by our community. C.E.S....

The Soul Soldiers led by Tony Lindsay and Janice Maxie Reid closed-out this year’s Jazz on the Plazz series. Lindsay and his group blew the sap right off the redwood trees. Some felt it was the perfect end to a summer lineup that was off-the-charts. Then,...

The imminent reopening of the Los Gatos Theater is the perfect time to take a look back at the history of this major downtown site. The Los Gatos Canning Company occupied most of the block for 30 years before the construction of a movie theater....

After Los Gatos resident Kathy Bays retired from a long career as a special education instructor and school administrator, she had some time to clean out the closets full of her kids’ old stuff. She ended up with two shoeboxes full of old crayons to...

The eight places of worship that make up the Los Gatos Interfaith Council prepared for months for their annual Thanksgiving service. Coordinator Lorraine Hepworth said this year’s event—held a-week-and-a-day early, to allow people planning to travel to attend—was a powerful showcase of unity in turbulent...