“Do You Know the Way to San Jose” was a 1968 popular song written and composed for singer Dionne Warwick by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, one of Warwick’s biggest international hits. Today, San Jose, with an area of 180 square miles, is Silicon Valley’s largest city with 971,233, more than San Francisco, the third-largest in California, and the 13th-most populous in the United States. The San Jose Metropolitan Area with 9 million people has the third-highest GDP per capita in the world, after Zürich, Switzerland, and Oslo, Norway. Back on Monday, July 11, 1983, we were headed to San Jose via the Highway 680. We said good-bye to Margaret’s cousin in Walnut Creek. We were on our way back to LA. I did not realize the importance of San Jose and the technology revolution that was going on there in the early 1980s. I thought it was the place that Dionne Warwick sung about. The city motto is “Capital of Silicon Valley.” Major global tech companies including Cisco Systems, eBay, Adobe Inc., PayPal, Broadcom, and Zoom maintain their headquarters in San Jose. Following World War II, San Jose experienced an economic boom, with a rapid population growth and aggressive annexation of nearby cities and communities carried out in the 1950s and 1960s. The rapid growth of the high-technology and electronics industries further accelerated the transition from an agricultural center to an urbanized metropolitan area. In the 1990 U.S. census, San Jose officially passed San Francisco in population. The racial makeup of San Jose is 42.8% White, 32.0% Asian, 10.4% Vietnamese, 6.7% Chinese, 5.6% Filipino, 4.6% Indian, 1.2% Korean, 1.2% Japanese, 0.3% Cambodian, 0.2% Thai, 0.2% Pakistani, 0.2% Laotian, 3.2% African American, 0.9% Native American, 0.4% Pacific Islander, 15.7% from other races, and 5.0% from two or more races. Those with an Hispanic or Latino background is 33.2%, as 28.2% of the city’s population is of Mexican descent. The next largest Hispanic groups were those of Salvadoran and Puerto Rican heritage. Non-Hispanic Whites were 28.7% of the population in 2010, down from 75.7% in 1970. Guess what! The richest most tech savvy city in the USA is diverse, but perhaps not equal or inclusive. What do you know about San Jose and the people who live there?
Silicon Valley
Just south of San Francisco is Silicon Valley, a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Silicon Valley is home to many of the world’s largest high-tech corporations, including the headquarters of more than 30 businesses in the Fortune 1000, and thousands of startup companies. This area also accounts for one-third the venture capital invested in the USA. Silicon Valley got its name from the chemical element used in silicon-based transistors or integrated circuits, which is the focus of computer hardware and software innovators. The popular usage of this name is often credited to Don Hoefler, the first journalist to use the term Silicon Valley in a news story on January 11, 1971. However, the term did not gain widespread use until the early 1980s, with the introduction of the IBM PC and numerous related hardware and software products to the consumer market. The term Silicon Valley has both a narrower geographic definition and a wider global one for leading high-tech research and enterprises. The development of this California Silicon Valley was born through the combination of the U.S. Department of Defense at the Ames Research Center and Stanford University’s Research Park, along with the venture capitalists from San Francisco and Silicon Valley Bank. California’s civil codes also allowed scientists to share knowledge. HP and IBM were in this California area in the 1940s. William Shockley, the co-inventor of the first working transistor moved from New Jersey to Mountain View, California, to start Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory to live closer to his ailing mother in Palo Alto. He insisted on using silicon in all his products. Some of his workers started Intel. The Homebrew Computer Club was a highly influential computer hobbyist group in the 1970s and 80s that produced many influential tech founders, like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. The Internet, began to be developed in 1966 by the U.S. Department of Defense and four research universities in California, including Stanford. One thing led to another. First came the computer culture with the microcomputer revolution, then the importance of software. A lot of Xerox employees started their own companies. Commercial use of the Internet became practical and grew slowly throughout the early 1990s. In 2007, Apple introduced the I-phone. Silicon Valley has a population of 3.1 million, but a third of Silicon Valley scientists and engineers are immigrants, and nearly a quarter of Silicon Valley’s high-technology firms are run by Chinese. About a half million information technology workers are in these high-tech companies that were established across San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley. However, Silicon Valley has a severe housing shortage, caused by the market imbalance between jobs created and the housing units built. The wealth inequality in Silicon Valley is more pronounced than in any other region of the United States. Less than 1% of the Valley’s population hold 36% of the wealth. On the other hand, 23% of Silicon Valley residents were living below the poverty line. However, the meaning of the term “poverty” is dependent upon context. Poverty in Silicon Valley means an income of less than $104,400, while the rest of the USA considers the poverty level at $14,891. Of course, there are tens of thousands of “single-digit millionaires” in the Silicon Valley. Do you think that you are poor?
Sunday in wine country
July 10, 1983, was a Sunday, so that we went to 9:00 AM Mass at St. John Vianney Church in Walnut Creek before we headed out to the wine country of Sonoma and Napa. I am not sure where we went, but I know that we ended up at Sterling Vineyards, in Calistoga, California. I think we also visited the Wine Museum of San Francisco on 633 Beach Street. Sterling Vineyards was started by an English expatriate, Peter Newton, in 1964. The first year of production was in 1969. He planted Merlot and Chardonnay, since most vineyards were focusing on Cabernet Sauvignon. Under long-time winemaker Ric Forman, they released California’s first vintage-dated Merlot. The Coca-Cola Company bought this winery in 1977, in a short-lived attempt to enter the wine market, but then Seagram bought this winery in 1982, the year before we were there. Diageo purchased this winery in 2001, until Treasury Wine Estates bought them out in 2016. Thus, this vineyard has gone through a series of owners. Sterling Vineyards have several tiers of wine: the entry-level Napa Valley; reserve vines; single vineyard vines; vintner’s collection; and a cellar club level of wines. However, it is a popular destination for tourists, because of the gondola lift that transports visitors from the parking lot to the winery in a short ride. The main entrance to the villa and the distillery sits on a volcanic hill 300 feet high over looking the Napa Valley. I thought that this was neat. The tram fee in 1983 was $3.50 per person. The building was designed to appear like the white villages of the Greek island Mykonos, and incorporated bells from St. Dunstan’s in London, England, a church destroyed in World War II. They had very comfortable tasting rooms, where each adult could taste three different wines and then get a $2.00 discount off one bottle of wine. I have six postcards from this winery. Have you ever been to a winery?
Saturday, July 9, in downtown San Francisco
On Saturday, July 9, we left for San Francisco, the city by the bay, via BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit, from the Walnut Creek Stop. We got off at the Embarcadero stop near Fisherman’s Wharf. San Francisco is a beautiful city, popular all over the world, due to its cable cars from 1873, and the iconic Golden Gate Bridge since 1937. San Francisco also boasts of a unique mix of seaside views and diverse dining options, thanks to an area known as Fisherman’s Wharf. First up was the Red and White San Francisco Bay Cruise, an hour and fifteen-minute cruise under the two bridges of Golden Gate and the Oakland Bay Bridge that opened in 1936, and past Alcatraz Island that cost $8.00 for adults and $4.00 for children. It left from Pier 41 every thirty minutes. After that, we took a walking tour of Fisherman’s Wharf. I think that we went to Fishermen’s Grotto, a seafood restaurant for lunch. Then it was a half-hour walking tour of Ghirardelli Square to taste some chocolate. Finally, we ended up on the cable cars and saw their turntable. Somehow, we got to drive on Lombard Street, the crookest street in the world. I have about nine postcards from this day trip to San Francisco. Then it was back to Walnut Creek on the BART. We had an exciting day on the Bay and walking around the piers and wharfs. I was happy to get on the train. Have you ever been in San Francisco Bay?
San Francisco, California
San Francisco is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 808,988 residents, less than a million people, San Francisco covers a land area of 47 square miles at the upper end of the San Francisco Peninsula, making it the second-most densely populated major U.S. city and the fifth-most densely populated USA county. Among USA cities with over 250,000 residents, San Francisco is ranked first by per capita income and sixth by aggregate income as of 2023. San Francisco anchors the metropolitan area with almost 4.6 million residents in 2023. On June 29, 1776, settlers from New Spain established the Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate, and the Mission San Francisco de Asís a few miles away, both named for St. Francis of Assisi, a few days before those east coast British colonists signed the Declaration of Independence. The California gold rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, transforming an unimportant hamlet into a busy port, making it the largest city on the West Coast at that time. After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, it was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama–Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, it was a major port of embarkation for naval service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, significant immigration, liberalizing attitudes, the rise of the beatnik and hippie countercultures, the sexual revolution, opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, and other factors led to the 1967 Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism. San Francisco and the surrounding San Francisco Bay Area are a global center of economic activity. In the arts and sciences, this has spurred leading universities, high-tech facilities, healthcare companies, financial banks, insurance companies, real estate dealers, and professional services sectors. In 2022, San Francisco had more than 1.7 million international visitors and approximately 20 million domestic ones. It is known for its steep rolling hills and eclectic mix of architecture across varied neighborhoods. The city is home to educational and cultural institutions such as the University of California, San Francisco, the University of San Francisco, and San Francisco State University. Just outside San Francisco are Stanford University, and the University of California at Berkeley. Major winning sports teams are the San Francisco Giants (MLB), the San Francisco 49ers (NFL), and the Golden State Warriors (NBA). I remembered that Joe DiMaggio was from San Francisco and one of my boyhood idols, Willie Mays played for the San Francisco Giants. San Francisco International Airport (SFO) offers flights to over 125 destinations, while a light rail and bus network, in tandem with the BART and Caltrain systems, connects nearly every part of San Francisco within the wider region. San Francisco’s Chinatown is the oldest in North America and one of the world’s largest. Have you ever been to San Francisco?
July 8 – Travel to the Dawes in Walnut Creek
Thus, it was time to say good-by to San Diego and head north, on Friday, July 8, 1983. We were about to set out on the longest day road trip of our excursion in California, 500 miles from San Diego to San Francisco, truly a road day of over eight hours. We were not going to take the coastal route going up. I decided to take it on the way back. In fact, we were headed to Walnut Creek, near San Francisco. The only place of note that we stopped at was Andersen’s Pea Soup Restaurant. I do not like pea soup, but I knew Margaret did. Thus, we stopped at this restaurant for lunch, as I have a couple of postcards from there. Then it was on the road again. We were done with sunny southern California. It was time to head north to the city by the bay, where Tony Bennett lost his heart. I remember him singing about San Francisco in the 1960s, although the song was written in the 1950s. We arrived at the Dawes house in Walnut Creek tired. Margaret was happy to meet her first cousin, Jo Ann Klein Dawes, who was about Margaret’s age. They grew up together in Dell Rapids, as her father and Margaret’s father were brothers. Her husband, Jim Dawes was a lawyer in San Francisco and they had one girl and a couple of boys. They were all older than Joy. I remember they talked about the NBA basketball player, Rik Barry, and his family that lived nearby. The Dawes owned a home in Walnut Creek, a city in Contra Costa County, California, located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Area, about 16 miles east of the city of Oakland. As settlers from the United States arrived following US annexation of California after the Mexican–American War, a small settlement called “The Corners” emerged. The first town settler was William Slusher, who built a dwelling on the bank of the Walnut Creek. In 1855, Milo Hough built the hotel named “Walnut Creek House” in The Corners. Walnut Creek’s main street has the same layout as in 1850. The arrival of train service in 1891 stimulated development of Walnut Creek. In 1914, the town and the surrounding area were incorporated as the 8th city in Contra Costa County. Today, the Yellow Line of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) serves Walnut Creek with a station adjacent to Highway 680. With the 1951 opening of the downtown Broadway Shopping Center, Contra Costa County’s first major retail center, the city took off in a new direction. In the postwar period of suburban development, its population more than quadrupled, from 2,460 in 1950 to 9,903 in 1960. Growth has accelerated since the late 20th century, with a population just over 70,000 according to the latest census. Walnut Creek consists of a bustling, upscale downtown with established neighborhoods in its surrounding areas. Walnut Creek owns more open space per capita than any other community in the state of California. Have you ever heard of Walnut Creek in Contra Costa County, California?
July 7 – Sea World
The next day was also a great day for Margaret and Joy, as we went to the San Diego Sea World in Mission Bay on Thursday, July 7, 1983. Sea World portrays itself as a Fun World of Entertainment, Education, and Research. In 1983, they had Sea World places in Orlando, Florida, and Aurora, Ohio as well as San Diego. They later added San Antonio, Texas, and recently Abu Dhabi. SeaWorld was founded in 1964 by four graduates of UCLA. Originally, they set out to build an underwater restaurant and marine life show. They then decided to build a park instead. Thus, SeaWorld San Diego was opened on March 21, 1964, with only a few dolphins and sea lions. However, the park proved to be a success and more than 400,000 guests visited it in the first twelve months. In 1983, there were only three rides, Atlantis Skyride, Sea World Hydrofoil Boats, and the PSA tower. I do not think that we went on any of these. Instead, we concentrated on the various shows at the various venues within the park. First up, at 10:00 AM we saw the Dolphin Show at the Marine Aquarium. It was fun to see the friendly dolphins do their tricks. At 11:00 AM, it was on to the Kodak Shamu Killer Whale Show, a one mammal show. At noon, we saw the “Up with People Show,” who were popular from 1970-1990, at the Nautilus Showplace, sponsored by Coca-Cola. I am sure that we had Coke. At 1:00 PM, we saw the Coca-Cola Seal and Otter Show. Then it was indoors to see the Sparkletts Water Fantasy Show “Four Seasons.” It was a busy day of shows, before we walked around to see what we might have missed. I had a good time. Joy and Margaret seemed to enjoy the various marine mammals. My eleven postcards show Shamu the whale doing a back flip and four high jumping dolphins. There were some Hippos in the water also, a picture of a children’s playground, a Japanese Village, and the many-colored fantasy water shows. Have you ever been to Sea World?
July 6 – San Diego Zoo
Wednesday, July 6, 1983, was much better for Joy and Margaret. We went to the San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park. Their brochure in 1983 said, “The San Diego Wild Animal Park, there is no place like it on earth.” They had a bus tour, a sky safari tram, and a children’s zoo. All the animals were outside because of the wonderful climate. I have seven postcards from this zoo with all kinds of animals, bears, flamingos, zebras, elephants, and camels. I also have two green tags that say, “I rode a camel at the San Diego Zoo” and “I rode an elephant at the San Diego Zoo.” I may have taken the rides with Joy. I am not sure. They were not that difficult. I know that we took the tram ride through the zoo. The San Diego Zoo began with a collection of animals left over from the 1915 Panama–California Exposition that were brought together by its founder, Dr. Harry M. Wegeforth (1882-1941). This zoo was a pioneer in the concept of open-air, cage-less exhibits that recreate natural animal habitats. This zoo sits on 100 acres of land leased from the City of San Diego that houses over 12,000 animals of more than 680 species and subspecies, the most visited zoo in the United States, one of the world’s largest and most diverse animal collections. They have monkey trails, a reptile walk, and a series of aviaries. Many travelers have cited it as one of the best zoos in the world. Its parent organization, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, is a private nonprofit conservation organization and has one of the largest zoological membership associations in the world. The San Diego Zoo initially followed precedents set by the New York Zoological Society at the Bronx Zoo. I remember as a toddler in New York going to that Bronz Zoo with my mother. A permanent tract of land in Balboa Park was set aside in August 1921. In addition to the animals from the exposition, the zoo acquired a menagerie from the defunct Wonderland Amusement Park. They put a fence around the zoo so that they begin charging an entrance fee to offset costs from 1923, although it was free for children. The San Diego Zoo was a pioneer in building these “cageless” exhibits. Since 1975, they have a Center for the Reproduction of Endangered Species. They have a lot of unique animals. The zoo has a bus guided tour bus that covers 75% of the park. There is also an overhead gondola lift called the “Skyfari,” providing an aerial view of the zoo, built in 1969. I do not think that we went on that. Joan Embery of the San Diego Zoo was a frequent guest with various animals on “The Tonight Show.” We enjoyed our ride on the tram and looking at some of the animals. Have you ever been to the San Diego Zoo?
Tijuana, Mexico
I was surprised when I learned that Tijuana, Mexico, was so close to San Diego. There was a sign in San Diego that read “Drive to Mexico. It is a foreign adventure fifteen minutes away.” I knew that it was close, but not that close. After we got settled into our hotel, I decided to take a short ride to Mexico to have dinner there. The lines to cross the border were not long, like a regular toll plaza in Illinois. In 1983, all I needed was a driver’s license to enter and return from Mexico. I told them that I was just going into Mexico for the evening. Magaret was a little apprehensive, but we were only going for a couple of hours and we already had our luggage at the hotel. There were a lot of brochures about Tijuana in English. I have six postcards about the international border terminal for cars and pictures of Revolution Avenue. I know that we got back to our hotel in San Diego before it got dark, but it was early July when the days were long. Tijuana is the most populous city in the state of Baja California with 2,297,000 people today, larger than San Diego, with over five million in the Tijuana metropolitan area. About 80,000 people move into Tijuana each year. The dividing line between upper and lower California was between Tijuana and San Diego. Tijuana found itself located on an international border, giving rise to its new economic and political structure, as it incorporated in 1889. Thus, Tijuana is the most visited border city in the world, sharing a border of about 15 miles with its sister city San Diego. More than 50 million people cross the border between these two cities every year, like I did on July, 5, 1983. Today, Tijuana is a major manufacturing center in North America, hosting facilities of many multinational conglomerate companies. In the early 21st century, Tijuana has emerged as the medical device manufacturing capital of North America. However, Tijuana is a hotbed of crime with the second highest homicide rate in the world. It looked a little shady back in July, 1983. Its name comes from the 1829 Mexican land grant, naming it Rancho Tía Juana. Legal drinking and gambling attracted Americans in the 1920s during Prohibition with casinos and the birth of the Caesar Salad at Caesar’s Casino. After 9/11, tighter US border controls resulted in hours-long waits to return to the USA, so that the number of US visitors dropped sharply. Tijuana has a diverse cosmopolitan population which includes migrants from other parts of Mexico and from all over the world, as Tijuana is like a magnet, attracting people who have come from the poorer south of Mexico and citizens from other nations seeking to escape from extreme poverty. People come to Tijuana for employment, higher education, and the dream of crossing the border. The people in Tijuana have higher incomes than many other Mexican cities. Back in 1983, we just walked around the town with a lot of people speaking English trying to get us to come inside their stores. Margaret did not want to eat there. We were not that impressed. We may have bought some souvenirs and postcards. Have you ever been to Tijuana?
San Diego, California
We arrived in San Diego on the afternoon of July 5, 1983. We stayed a couple of nights in San Diego at the Sea Point Hotel on north Harbor Drive that today is a Holiday Inn. Native Americans have been living in this area for over 10,000 years prior to any European presence. San Diego has been described as “the birthplace of California,” since it was the first California Spanish mission in 1769. San Diego officially became part of the USA in 1848. In 1850, when California became a USA state, San Diego’s population was just 650 people. It remained a very small town for several decades, but grew rapidly after 1880, due to the development and the establishment of multiple military facilities. Growth was especially rapid during and immediately after World War II. Entrepreneurs and boosters laid the basis for an economy based on the Naval military presence, defense industries, biotech, tourism, international trade, and manufacturing. San Diego is now the eighth largest city in the USA with 1,388,320 in 2023, in the heart of the larger San Diego metropolitan area. Sometimes, San Diego is considered the Gibraltar of the Pacific, since it has a great harbor and good weather. In the 1920s there were about 700 boats in Southern California engaged in the tuna industry, and ten canneries in San Diego with Van Camp Seafood Company leading the way. In the 1950s tuna fishing and canning were the third largest industry in San Diego, after the Navy with its large naval station, and aviation. Tourism took off after the first aquatic theme park franchise, SeaWorld, began in San Diego in 1964, while the San Diego Zoo continued to expand its animal and bird occupants. Historical buildings reflected the city’s Spanish and Mexican heritage, such as Old Town San Diego State Historic Park and Mission San Diego de Alcalá that were designated historical landmarks by local and federal agencies in the 1970s. There are many universities in San Diego, including the University of California at San Diego, San Diego State University, the University of San Diego, and Point Loma Nazarene University. The 2004 movie Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy with Will Ferrell was a satire about a local 1970s San Diego news station, that has become a classic. Have you ever been to San Diego?
Gene Finnegan Remembers Living Eighty Wonderful Years 