Most everyone lived at Lunblads Lodge at one time or another or at least spent a lot of time there. Lunblads Lodge was a huge old wooden house with rooms to rent and a fantastic restaurant, all run by a very elderly Mrs.Bargas and her equally antique butler. It used to be fun to go into the kitchen on any day and have tea and whatever was baking with Mrs. Bargas and her butler. She welcomed everyone. Behind the main house in a beautiful garden were small wooden houses that she rented out mainly to young people, mostly hippies. Mark Dickson was one. She also let you have pets which made it a big plus since we all had dogs or cats. Because she was so nice, everyone pitched in to help her keep up the grounds. It was also a place where we would take our parents to dinner on special occasions. There was just the meal of the day and you had to make a reservation then she and her butler would get to work and turn out one of the most fabulous home cooked dinners you ever had. In its heyday it was very popular and famous people like Kim Novak would come from a long way away to stay in her little hotel and eat great food but as she got older she rented the rooms out and made dinner by reservation only. Kim Novak continued to come every year even after the hotel was closed just to spend time with Mrs. Bargas and work in the garden. Mrs. Bargas was in her eighties by this time.
There were a lot of beautiful old homes around Oak Street and near the center of Saratoga. Mark Buckley had a beautiful but tiny wooden house near the downtown. Mark sensibly stayed mostly to himself and was into public broadcasting, ecology and poetry, so it was always interesting to go spend time at his house. We all thought we were into those things but Mark Buckley and Larry Ford really were. They studied it and made it their profession. Mark now spends a lot of time in Antarctica, at that fantastic International Science Institute studying penguins and other interesting stuff. He has a great wife Sue and two beautiful daughters. Mark and I have maintained our friendship even with the long distance in miles - there is no distance in the friendship - and I am looking forward to meeting his family one day.
I spent quite a bit of time visiting my friends at Lunblads and with Mark at his little house. Rob Christian lived at Lunblads Lodge with his dog Hashimoto and that is where he found religion. He is now a Baptist Minister. Rob and I were inseparable from Junior High through university then we lost touch and even though I have written to him and his parents I have had no response. I miss him. His parents thought I was a good influence on him so he could only date if it was a double date with me. His mother thought I was too much of a tom-boy though and one night when I slept there she left a book on my pillow; it was Emily Post’s Etiquette for Young Women. Need I say more? His sisters were like little princesses and always dressed to the nines. I have no idea what that means I just know how to use it. Rob and I spent a lot of time in the tree-house we had built in the forest in our circular drive. My father got quite mad when we built the tree-house because he said we took ten years off the life of the tree with each nail. Rob was the kind of friend that I could tell anything to. His mother made the best packed lunches at Saratoga High, he could swap his lunch to anyone. She also had one of those fashionable shag rugs that you had to rake and vacuum then rake again. We were never allowed to walk on it. Mrs. Christian had a potting shed in the back yard full of old ceramic pots and when Rob would get mad she would tell him to go throw a few pots until he felt better.
Mark Konig and his wife lived in one of the little houses at Lunblads Lodge. They weren’t from Saratoga. They had a miniature cat that everyone thought would be so fun because it would just stay a kitten forever. It isn’t like that, they look like a kitten forever and you expect them to play like a kitten but they get old just like everything else and they just lie in the sun and sleep. When they moved, Terrie and Jessica and I went to visit them up north somewhere. Jessica was under two we had very little money and they weren’t ever that great friends of ours so it is hard to imagine why we went. The trip was something that could only happen to Terrie and me. We went in her old VW bug. We had so little money for the trip. It was late, and we were really tired, so we stopped at a truck-stop and Jessica and I hid in the car while Terrie went in to get a room for one then Jessica and I snuck in so we could wash and get some sleep. Mark Konig had died in a car accident and things were really strange at his house. His wife was sleeping with all of her husband’s friends and everyone was smoking joints with Mark’s ashes in them including their two little boys aged about three and four. Terrie and I were so freaked out by the goings on there that we left soon after we got there. Terrie and I didn’t even smoke joints and I think you needed to in order to fit in. One boy was so freaked out he wouldn’t leave the house. He had been in the car that killed Mark and the three other passengers and he survived without harm. What upset him was it was his fourth accident in a short time, where he wasn’t driving, and everyone else got killed and he never got hurt. He thought he was some kind of bad luck figure and wouldn’t get in the car with anyone.
On the way home, Terrie, Jessica and I stopped by to visit Mary Pestarino who had just moved to Forest Hills above Auburn. What a wonderful relief getting away from the insanity of the Konig’s and just sitting drinking tea and sharing with friends.
Some of my other friends shared a few of these huge old wooden homes on Oak St. during and after university. They were fun sort of care-free days before we all had responsibilities. Some of us lived in equally great houses but in the Santa Cruz Mountains, like Larry Ford who is now an ecologist, rangeland manager, and conservation science and fire protection specialist. His house was beautiful and I think some sort of look-out area. It was surrounded by a large forest. Larry helped me out a lot before I moved here and was going through a rough patch, his friendship is very important to me. Larry and his wife Sue live in Felton now. Larry has been helping us out with information about our trees since our brush-fire in July. We lost most everything except the actual house. Lee and Dianne Maxted lived next door to me on Bear Creek Road and then again in Ben Lomond, later they moved to Montana, where they still live, with their two children, and Mark Vincent moved from the mountains and now lives in Half Moon Bay or near there. I have mentioned Mark Vincent in previous stories and about how funny his letters were and everyone here used to wait for his next letter. It was like a soap opera and even though they didn’t know the characters it was really funny. Steve Smith married a Danish girl and still lives in Denmark he has two sons. After veterinary research Steve has become a silversmith. I would love to see some of his work because his whole family were very artistic as I have mentioned in my story about the Smith Family. Steve and his family and me and my family all met once at Sharon Blosk’s when she lived in Sweden. During the time of Lunblads Lodge, Sharon lived over the movie theatre in Saratoga and we used to spend a lot of time there. I remember her sister Donna worked at the petting zoo and brought home an otter called Boy, who amused all the guests. Mrs. Blosk was very tolerant of all of us as teenagers. Sharon is now a doctor in Sacramento and lives in Davis. It was a great reunion in Sweden and our children got to meet each other and we got to catch up on things, plus the trip was great fun. There are a few pictures of this reunion on an earlier post. It is a shame I don’t have any pictures from High School to embarrass you all with but we didn’t all have cameras in those days except David Welch. I will try and take a digital picture of a picture David took of me at Montalvo and post it here. It is the only one I have from those days. If any of you have pictures you think would be fun to add to this blog please send them to me. David also had two Citroen cars, which I had never seen until I moved here and found that they were very common we even had two.
There were a lot of beautiful old homes around Oak Street and near the center of Saratoga. Mark Buckley had a beautiful but tiny wooden house near the downtown. Mark sensibly stayed mostly to himself and was into public broadcasting, ecology and poetry, so it was always interesting to go spend time at his house. We all thought we were into those things but Mark Buckley and Larry Ford really were. They studied it and made it their profession. Mark now spends a lot of time in Antarctica, at that fantastic International Science Institute studying penguins and other interesting stuff. He has a great wife Sue and two beautiful daughters. Mark and I have maintained our friendship even with the long distance in miles - there is no distance in the friendship - and I am looking forward to meeting his family one day.
I spent quite a bit of time visiting my friends at Lunblads and with Mark at his little house. Rob Christian lived at Lunblads Lodge with his dog Hashimoto and that is where he found religion. He is now a Baptist Minister. Rob and I were inseparable from Junior High through university then we lost touch and even though I have written to him and his parents I have had no response. I miss him. His parents thought I was a good influence on him so he could only date if it was a double date with me. His mother thought I was too much of a tom-boy though and one night when I slept there she left a book on my pillow; it was Emily Post’s Etiquette for Young Women. Need I say more? His sisters were like little princesses and always dressed to the nines. I have no idea what that means I just know how to use it. Rob and I spent a lot of time in the tree-house we had built in the forest in our circular drive. My father got quite mad when we built the tree-house because he said we took ten years off the life of the tree with each nail. Rob was the kind of friend that I could tell anything to. His mother made the best packed lunches at Saratoga High, he could swap his lunch to anyone. She also had one of those fashionable shag rugs that you had to rake and vacuum then rake again. We were never allowed to walk on it. Mrs. Christian had a potting shed in the back yard full of old ceramic pots and when Rob would get mad she would tell him to go throw a few pots until he felt better.
Mark Konig and his wife lived in one of the little houses at Lunblads Lodge. They weren’t from Saratoga. They had a miniature cat that everyone thought would be so fun because it would just stay a kitten forever. It isn’t like that, they look like a kitten forever and you expect them to play like a kitten but they get old just like everything else and they just lie in the sun and sleep. When they moved, Terrie and Jessica and I went to visit them up north somewhere. Jessica was under two we had very little money and they weren’t ever that great friends of ours so it is hard to imagine why we went. The trip was something that could only happen to Terrie and me. We went in her old VW bug. We had so little money for the trip. It was late, and we were really tired, so we stopped at a truck-stop and Jessica and I hid in the car while Terrie went in to get a room for one then Jessica and I snuck in so we could wash and get some sleep. Mark Konig had died in a car accident and things were really strange at his house. His wife was sleeping with all of her husband’s friends and everyone was smoking joints with Mark’s ashes in them including their two little boys aged about three and four. Terrie and I were so freaked out by the goings on there that we left soon after we got there. Terrie and I didn’t even smoke joints and I think you needed to in order to fit in. One boy was so freaked out he wouldn’t leave the house. He had been in the car that killed Mark and the three other passengers and he survived without harm. What upset him was it was his fourth accident in a short time, where he wasn’t driving, and everyone else got killed and he never got hurt. He thought he was some kind of bad luck figure and wouldn’t get in the car with anyone.
On the way home, Terrie, Jessica and I stopped by to visit Mary Pestarino who had just moved to Forest Hills above Auburn. What a wonderful relief getting away from the insanity of the Konig’s and just sitting drinking tea and sharing with friends.
Some of my other friends shared a few of these huge old wooden homes on Oak St. during and after university. They were fun sort of care-free days before we all had responsibilities. Some of us lived in equally great houses but in the Santa Cruz Mountains, like Larry Ford who is now an ecologist, rangeland manager, and conservation science and fire protection specialist. His house was beautiful and I think some sort of look-out area. It was surrounded by a large forest. Larry helped me out a lot before I moved here and was going through a rough patch, his friendship is very important to me. Larry and his wife Sue live in Felton now. Larry has been helping us out with information about our trees since our brush-fire in July. We lost most everything except the actual house. Lee and Dianne Maxted lived next door to me on Bear Creek Road and then again in Ben Lomond, later they moved to Montana, where they still live, with their two children, and Mark Vincent moved from the mountains and now lives in Half Moon Bay or near there. I have mentioned Mark Vincent in previous stories and about how funny his letters were and everyone here used to wait for his next letter. It was like a soap opera and even though they didn’t know the characters it was really funny. Steve Smith married a Danish girl and still lives in Denmark he has two sons. After veterinary research Steve has become a silversmith. I would love to see some of his work because his whole family were very artistic as I have mentioned in my story about the Smith Family. Steve and his family and me and my family all met once at Sharon Blosk’s when she lived in Sweden. During the time of Lunblads Lodge, Sharon lived over the movie theatre in Saratoga and we used to spend a lot of time there. I remember her sister Donna worked at the petting zoo and brought home an otter called Boy, who amused all the guests. Mrs. Blosk was very tolerant of all of us as teenagers. Sharon is now a doctor in Sacramento and lives in Davis. It was a great reunion in Sweden and our children got to meet each other and we got to catch up on things, plus the trip was great fun. There are a few pictures of this reunion on an earlier post. It is a shame I don’t have any pictures from High School to embarrass you all with but we didn’t all have cameras in those days except David Welch. I will try and take a digital picture of a picture David took of me at Montalvo and post it here. It is the only one I have from those days. If any of you have pictures you think would be fun to add to this blog please send them to me. David also had two Citroen cars, which I had never seen until I moved here and found that they were very common we even had two.
JUANITA’S
Juanita was a Madam from San Francisco that bought an old beautiful house in the country near Sonoma. She was very exocentric and people came from far and wide to stay in her hotel which was furnished with the furniture from her old brothel in San Francisco. She was also famous for her food. You could only get one thing, steak, but I think she had the first salad bar in California and you could go as much as you wanted until your steak was ready. The dinner also came with baked potatoes. She had a collection of strange memorabilia that covered all the empty space. Her garden was full of antique bath tubs and she had cockerels from every country that were free to wander where they wanted even in the restaurant. She had a pet monkey that used go around and visit all of the tables, play with men’s moustaches or take food off your plate. The health inspectors finally told Juanita he had to be locked into one of the bedrooms. She picked the one downstairs facing the dining room so he could still watch all the people and people used to take him titbits and talk to him. Like Lunblads Lodge in the beginning they were places for the rich and famous to get away from the public and hide out for a while. Then they got discovered and lost some of their charm but were still great fun and good food.
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