San Jose Inside (https://www.sanjoseinside.com)
What San Jose street is actually in two cites, has had a murder by hired assassins, has three churches and narrows at both ends?
What street had a property with a live lion patrolling the grounds in the 1930s and has a house that was once a brothel before it was moved to its present location?
What private eye living on this street was stabbed when answering his door late one night in 1974?
In my recent series on the 1906 earthquake, I related Ralph Rambo’s memories of the day. I especially liked the episode of how he adopted the Doyle School dog after discovering him shivering on the front stoop of the school. Calling the dog, he jumped into the buggy, driven by Ralph’s father, and the dog stayed with them until he died many years later.
Part VI: Ralph Rambo’s Account Concludes
“Naturally we were curious about the effect of the quake upon Santa Clara. For us the little town of 4,000 people served as our ‘shopping center,’ with grocer, doctor, dentist, clothier etc. and later for the writer, ‘Santa Clara High School.’
Let’s get back to the man in charge of change—A.P. “Dutch” Hamann. He graduated from the University of Santa Clara during the early stages of the great depression. Although his name was Anthony P. Hamann, everyone I’ve ever known called him “Dutch,” a nickname derived from his German heritage. Dutch was the alumni director of the University when I first knew him prior to World War II. When the war broke out, Santa Clara became practically deserted as the priests, students, faculty and administrators were called to military duty. Dutch joined the Navy where he rose to the rank of Lt. Commander. After the war he returned to Santa Clara as business manager, but after a few years he left to join General Motors as division manager in Oakland.
Did you ever wonder how Christmas was celebrated in the past in San Jose? When our first foreign settlers, the Spaniards, were here, the birth of Christ was celebrated by going to mass at the Mission Santa Clara, the closest church. The male citizens rode their horses for the three-mile trip. The women and young children went on the rough ride to the mission on a wooden-wheeled, no-springs caretta. After the Americans arrived, most of the celebrations moved to the family home or local churches.
I do like give and take; it’s healthy, it’s in my nature, and I believe that is the tradition of San Jose—a hallowed one. But if our next mayor’s race becomes the traditional American election, one full of personalities but short of vision, replete with attacks, more thunder than light, then we all lose. Our city needs the next campaign to be about ideas and issues rather than platitudes and endorsements and who is the “nicest.” With that goal in mind, I’d like to speak about issues and an idea or two—those things that we need to be the focal points of the next mayoral election, namely growth, a big park, safety and ethics.
