Music Video: "Yuba City" by U Utah Phillips - Classic Protest Song about "Invisible" Farmworkers... Nameless People... Chords and Lyrics and Behind the Music...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nll1hOOXFIk

Me Singing This Song...

Yuba City by U Utah Phillips
(A Farming Town between Chico and Sacramento on Highway 99 in California...) Based on a True Story...

 A                 E
I came into Yuba as soon as I read
   D                        A
Of all of those twenty-five hobos found dead
  A                       D
I came in to find out if one of the slain
            A           E           A
Could have answered to my brother's name
   A                        E
It might be your brother, I just couldn't say
   D                         A
We hire lots of floaters who work by the day;
    A                    D
Now I see his photo they might be the same
      A         E           A
But I never did ask him his name

           A                   E
Chorus: If I had a list and if I only knew
    E                          A
I'd write down their names and sing them to you
    A                    D
And when I got done, I'd sing them again
         A             E         A
So you'd all know each one had a name
 A                    E
He had a room and ran out on the rent
 D                       A
Hired on a crew, I don't know where he went
   A                  D
If I knew his boss, I might make a claim
      A          E             A
But I never did write down his name

   A                         E
He stopped for a drink every now and again
 D                             A
Didn't look no different than hundreds of men;
    A                          D
You know these old winos, they all look the same
   A         E           A
No reason to ask him his name
   A                         E
It might have been Shorty, a feller I knew
   D                              A
We bunked in the empties when the season was through
    A                         D
You know, I been thinking, it sure is a shame
  A         E           A
I never did ask him his name

   A                  E
We always abandon the old for the new
    D                      A
And second-hand people get thrown away, too;
  A                       D
I know it won't help, but still it explains
    A         E            A
Why no one remembers their names

We visited Yuba City Twice. Once for a Concert at the College by Anoushka Shankar... and the Other Time was Outdoors on a Hot Summer Night... Carlos Santana and The WHO...

Utah Singing the Song...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbjjpsizJ0U

Behind the Music: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jcEGGkrn9Q

and on Wiki - they Have the actual names on a List!

Juan Vallejo Corona (February 7, 1934 – March 4, 2019) was a Mexican serial killer who was convicted of the murders of 25 migrant farm workers found buried in peach orchards along the Feather River in Sutter County, California in 1971. At the time, his crimes were among the most notorious in U.S. history. Until the discovery of Dean Corll's victims in 1973, he was the deadliest known American serial killer.

Victims[edit]

All of Corona's victims were middle-aged Caucasian male drifters between the ages of 47 and 64 (except 3), most of them had criminal records and all but one were stabbed or slashed with a knife or machete.

Victims (charged)

Number	Name	Age	Death Date	Method of Killing
1	John Joseph Haluka	52	February 25, 1971 – May 11, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
2	Sigurd E. "Pete" Beierman	62	February 25, 1971 – May 11, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
3	John Doe (4th victim found)	Unknown	February 25, 1971 – May 11, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
4	John Doe (7th victim found)	Unknown	February 25, 1971 – May 11, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
5	William Emery Kamp	62	February 26, 1971 – May 12, 1971	Shot in the head w/ a 9 mm.
6	Clarence Hocking	53	February 26, 1971 – May 12, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
7	John Doe (10th victim found)	Unknown	February 26, 1971 – May 12, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
8	John Doe (12th victim found)	Unknown	February 26, 1971 – May 12, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
9	Albert Leon "Scratchy" Hayes	58	February 27, 1971 – May 13, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
10	Warren Jerome Kelley	62	On or around March 30, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
11	John Henry Jackson	64	May 3, 1971 - May 14, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
12	Joseph J. Maczak	54	April 26, 1971 – May 21, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
13	Mark Beverly Shields	56	On or around April 28, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
14	Donald Dale "Red" Smith	60	April 30, 1971 – May 11, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
15	James Wylie Howard	64	May 1, 1971 – May 13, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
16	Sam Bonafiede (a.k.a. Joe Carriveau)	55	On or around May 6, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
17	Edward Martin Cupp	43	May 9, 1971 – May 13, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
18	Charles Levy Fleming	67	On or around May 11, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
19	Jonah Raggio Smallwood	56	On or around May 12, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
20	Elbert J.T. Riley	45	On or around May 12, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
21	Lloyd Wallace Wenztel	60	May 14, 1971 – May 22, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
22	Paul Buel Allen	59	On or around May 15, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
23	Raymond Reand Muchache	47	On or around May 18, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
24	Kenneth Edward Whitacre	40	On or around May 19, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.
25	Melford Everett Sample	59	On or around May 21, 1971	Stabbed/slashed w/ a knife or machete.

Virtual Journey: New York: Excellent Places to Go! Autobiography...

Ausable Chasm Boat Ride. 

https://www.ausablechasm.com/

MAP! https://goo.gl/maps/FBtQX5Ts3nXZsi9i8

The first time I went to New York was with my parents. We took a Thrilling Boatride down the Ausable Chasm. Steep Cliffs. DEEP! It's way far north near Lake Champlain. (the Border between NY and Vermont) - That was the Trip that we drove all over the North East USA. We Went to Yale University where I bought a Sweatshirt with LARGE Letters... That was When I was Very Young... Before I Stopped using my Clothes as a Billboard for Corporations to Advertise on...  and Mystic Seaport... and Bangor Main... With my Father Singing "King of the Road" because we also had a Destination, Bangor Maine... 

The NEXT Journey was to Visit my Brother That Lived in Rural New Jersey near Suffern. He was a College Student at NYU. The Student Housing was an apartment on a Lake in a Forest. I took the PATH Train to Downtown Manhattan and Wandered all over Looking at the Tall Buildings... I was a senior in high school... 1972... 

PATH Train - Port Authority Trans Hudson 

On another Day My Brother, His Wife and I went Downtown... She Insisted that She Dress Up Formally since we were going "To Town" and that Meant Wearing a Dress. It was Astonishingly Cold that Day and I was Wearing Long Johns under my Pants. She was Freezing so we Stopped and Bought her Boots that Covered her Legs Up to Near the Knees... Just to Fight off the Cold... Of Course we COULD Have Bought her Pants and Long Johns but THAT Wouldn't Have Been Fashionable... Just Wasn't Done!

That Year Martin and I Went to Times Square for New Years Eve... The only thing I remember about that was Cold Weather, Large Crowds and a Ball Dropping... 

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~

in 1975 I was working at the "Old Paint Store" in Valley Fair and two other Employees took an EPIC Bicycle Ride along the Coast of New England... So after hearing Stories all Winter Long, Jo Ann and I Took Our Own EPIC Bike Ride... (last chance to do something like that before we got married...) From New York City to Washington DC. It took us about Two Months... We rode a Greyhound Bus to the Station in Manhattan where a Friend of My Brother's Picked us up. The Three Day Bus Ride Caused Her Feet to Swell Up and she Had Difficulty Walking for a Day... So we just Rested at a Hotel... 

He lived in Upstate New York on the Hudson River in Nyack. We assembled the Bicycles in his Garage. Before we Rode away he suggested we drive thru Harlem just son we could see it... Halfway thru, a Radiator Hose Burst on his Car Spewing STEAM Everywhere... a Local man Shouted "Fuego! Fuego!" - Thankfully we were able to pull into a Gas Station that Had a Hose... and We Were able to Leave... Safely... It was Odd that He Thought we Ought to Visit Harlem... Like a Cultural Awareness Trip... Or Something... 

The Man, Guy Something 'er Other Worked as an Architectural Designer and He Designed the Lobby of Corning Glass Works... Many Cubes with Glass Products Painted on each Face and Stored in a Matrix of Cube Holders. That Way They Could be Rearranged at Will to Show Different Glass Products Every Day... Sadly there are No Photographs of this Installation on Google Image Search... or I Would Show You What It Was Like... 

anyway... During the 1980s I Visited the Museum of Glass in the Town of Corning. I remember they had a Giant Telescope Mirror and a LOT of Corningwear... Dishes that Could Stand The Heat in an Oven... They Were Famous For Cooking Casseroles... and they Had a Movie Called "The Story of Glass"that explained History... What I Remember was it had a Soundtrack of Extremely Bad Synthesizer Music... I was playing the Synthesizer at that time and Thought, DANG! I Play better than That! Maybe I Could Sell Recordings for Industrial Flims Myself... But That Never Happened... Leon, a Guy in Our Band (Solarwind) took a Demo Tape to NYC but No Sale... 

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~

Link to The Corning Museum: 

https://home.cmog.org/ 

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~

Then we rode our Bicycles Out of Nyack and Towards New Jersey. I Had Assembled Her Bicycle WRONG and the Rear Tire Rubbed against the Brake Shoe... a Bad Way to Start an EPIC Journey... However, it was easy to Fix once I Was Alerted to The Problem. We Rode about 20 to 50 miles a day thru Farmland of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland... Sleeping at Campgrounds and on Private Farms... 

MAP! https://goo.gl/maps/YvejmiSBPyCZPUr47

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~

Years Later My First Wife, Jo Ann and I Moved to Washington DC and It was a Short Drive to New York City... A Co-Worker quit the Job at the Agency and Moved Back to Manhattan... We Went to Visit and She Gave Us an Insiders Tour... We Went to an Authentic Italian Restaurand where they had a Lady Singing Opers in Italian as she wandered between the Tables... 

We Also Decided to Go to The World Trade Center because on TOP there was a Bar with Excellent Views... We Were Quite a Distance Uptown co we Called a Cab and I Said: "I'll Give you an Extra Twenty if You can Get us there before Closing Time." - Challenging a NYC Cab Driver to Drive Fast! - We Made it... Sadly, Gentlemen were required to wear Neckties and Dianne's Date and I were NOT Allowed to Go Up there... So we waited at the Bottom while the Ladies went up... "Hey, It's not our problem that they won't let you in. Were going UP!" So I never Made it to the "Windows on the World" and on 9/11 all three Buildings Fell Down. WTC1, WTC2 and WTC7... 

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~

I went to The Guggenheim Museum. On that day there was an "Interactive" Giant Foam Sculpture on the Floor in the Center... With Places Carved out for People to Lie Down In... and Look at the Ceiling... Later I rode the Elevator to the Top and Walked the Circular Ramp Down... admiring the Paintings and Sculptures... 

Inside:

Outside:

Ceiling:

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~

In the 1980s My Friends Ken, His Son Ken, Mark and I went to Visit the Museum of Holography.

That was an art form that had recently been invented and the Only place we could see it was in New York City. Basically, it was a Clear Piece of Plastic that Projected a Rainbow Colored Three Dimensional Image of a Person blowing a Kiss... and as I Viewed it from Different Angles her Hand Moved Close to her Lips and then Far Away... 

Magical! 

On that Trip I got a Speeding Ticket on the Jersey Turnpike. 75 MPH Speeding? Of Course, most people were driving 75 or Even Faster... The Policeman waved over Five Cars at a time and Wrote Tickets... I refused to Pay and Learned that The State of New Jersey and the State of Maryland Have "Reciprocity" which means that when I went to renew my Registration, they refused until I Paid off my Ticket and a Fine... I also learned that the State of New York Does NOT Have "Reciprocity" because I Have an Unpaid Speeding Ticket there also... 

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~

and then One Day I decided to Go See the Grateful Dead at Madison Square Garden... I didn't have a Ticket but was able to find a Scalper... I drove my Car and Parked in the Long Term Parking at Newark Airport. A Convenient and Safe Place to Leave a Car... Better than on the Island of Manhattan... Took a Bus to The Show... Had a Great Time... Met some people called "Wharf Rats" who had a Table set up promoting a Clean and Sober Lifestyle... I guess that even in the Late 1980s I had an Interest in That... 

After the Concert I walked Downstairs to Pennsylvania Station - Trains and Many Restaurants, Gift Shops, News Stands... etc etc etc... It was as if the Entire Party had simply moved Downstairs... I got a Train to New Jersey and a Taxi to the Airport... 

Pennsylvania Station, NYC 

Old Time Drawing

I was feeling Optimistic and Energetic so Instead of Driving Home, I Drove to Boston... Arrived in the Early Morning and Camped at a Campground near Lexington and Concord... The Next day I Took my Acoustic Guitar to Walden Pond... I wrote some Chord Progressions for some Lyrics that a Young Girl had Written in My Songbook. I didn't have a pen to write them down so I lit a Twig on fire and used the Charcoal to Write... 

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~ 

During the 1990s, When I Worked at the USPS Engineering Center, A Co Worker asked if I would Drive to a Hindu Wedding in the Bronx... I Said Yes and So: A Hindu Man from Guayana named Locknut Dewandan and Leroy Brown, a Black Man from the USA and I Travelled to New York City. The First place we stopped was at Leroy's Mother's Apartment. She was the Owner of a Rastafarian Bar. She said we couldn't Visit It because the Air Conditioner was broken and she had pride of Ownership... Come Back on another day when The Bas is Presentable... 

So We wnt to an Apartment Building that was 100% Hindus... With a Temple in the Basement... Almost Everyone was a Recent Immigrant from Guayana, South America... a Former British Colony... Long Ago The British Gathered Indians from India to Work in the Sugar Cane in Guayana... Somehow Slavery was Ended and It Became a Country of Its Own... They had No Knowledge of Jim Jones. He was Just a Crazy Amarican... 

The Family had the Groom sit on a Blankey wearing a Loincloth and spread Saffron on his Body... He had a Bad alergic Reaction so they washed it off... Just another Ancient Religious Ritual that Actually Makes No Sense... We Sat Around the Apartment Eating Home Cooked "Sacred" Rice Dishes... After I Had Eaten Enough and was Refusing to Eat any More... they Kept On Serving it and Trying to Get me to Eat More and More and More... Because it was "Holy" and Refusing Food was an Insult to The Family... I Refused anyway and they Gave Up... 

On the Night before the Wedding Many of Us went to a Hindu DISCO and Danced to Indian Music... It was Excellent! Modern Music with Electric Guitars, Synthesizers, Drum Machines but Obviously Indian Vocals and Melodies... The Young Women were Very Attractive... A Great TIME!

The Actual Wedding Ceremony Happened in the Basement with an Old Lady Playing Drums... and Chanting... Of Course the Ceremony was Spoken in a Foreign Language... Then We Ate More "Sacred" Food and Listened to a Ghetto-Blaster Turned up Very Loud - So Loud the Sound was Horrible Distorted... 

At Night We Walked the Young Ladies from One Apartment Building to Another because It was Just Too Dangerous for them to walk Unescorted... Wonderful Place, The Bronx!

Disco is Super Popular in Bollywood... 

Something I Didn't Know Until 

I was Out on the Dance Floor!

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~

Niagra Falls... I rode the Maid of the Mist Boat... Walked Across the Rainbow Bridge and Observed the Falls from BEHIND the Water In Canada. Enjoyed a LaBatts Beer at the Fancy Hotel... 

If you ever Go Anywhere in this Life... GO HERE!

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~

Strawberry Fields. A Memorial to John Lennon In Central Park near the Dakota Apartments. I Did Not Know that I was Approaching a Sacred Space but as Soon as I Entered... I Felt a Holy Mood... All the People were Silent and their Eyes were Looking Down... I Didn't Know Why until I Stumbled upon the Word IMAGINE in a Tile Mandala... Then Everything Made Sense... Except for WHY That Guy Murdered John Lennon... That Makes NO Sense... Never Will...

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~

More to Come Later! 

Further Reading!

http://gvan42.bravesites.com/

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http://gvan42.bravesites.com/contact

http://gvan42.bravesites.com/blog

http://gvan42.bravesites.com/quest

http://gvan42.bravesites.com/demcampaign2022

The Corporations That OWN TV NEWS Stations Don't Want You to NOTICE That The ECONOMY IS A DISASTER. They Keep On Telling Everyone to Spend Spend Spend and IF You Have No Money - CHARGE IT!

IN REALITY, Wages Are Lower and Prices Are Higher... Massive Layoffs, Bankruptcies and Stores Closing... LOOK AT YOUR OWN SHOPPING MALL - EMPTY STORES EVERYWHERE. 

TV NEWS Reports Exactly What Their Advertisers Want Them To Report. It's a Giant Infomercial... Keep On Consuming... Buying Plastic Crap Causes Ecstatic Dancing and BLISS!

BUT THEY KEEP ON TALKING ABOUT TRUMP'S BOOMING ECONOMY... as if it really existed! BUT IT DOESN'T EXIST! 

99% of Americans are Worse Off Than We Were 3 Years Ago. 

LOOK AT YOUR OWN FRIENDS AND FAMILY... TV NEWS is LYING TO YOU...

MASSIVE INCREASE IN HOMELESS TENT CITIES <--- Really Exist!

People that Live in Cities are Rioting. Rural People are Relaxing in the Warm Spring Weather... Going for a Hike in the Woods Down by the Creek...

I Noticed that People that live in Cities are Spreading Fatal Communicable Diseases Among Themselves... Coronavirus is a Crisis in New York City... Yep... A City! Not Many Cases Here in the Country... It's Pretty Easy to Maintain Social Distancing... The Neighbors are Way Far Away and Have Been for Decades! 

I Noticed that Minneapolis Has Troubles Between Black Men and The Police... and Minneapolis is... You Guessed It... A City!

If You Have Been Watching the News Recently... You Would Have Seen That There Have Been Riots in Paris and Hong Kong... Both of those Places are Cities... 

and Riots in Los Angeles, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Atlanta, San Jose, Seattle and Miami... Avoid Those Places! They are Cities and the People Are Going Crazy!

I Fled the City Over 20 Years ago and Have been Relaxing Ever Since. I Moved to Chico, California Where Almost Everyone is White... It Is True That Minority Groups Have a Lot of Troubles With The Police but I No Longer Actually Witnessed Those Problems Personally. I Only Saw Black People on TV... and Always Had The Option of Changing The Channel... Then I Moved to Eureka, California... Another Almost All White Town... I Almost Never Saw The Police... I Truly Believe that Black Lives Matter BUT... They Can Certainly Matter Way Far Away From ME... NIMBY... 

Cities Also Have Traffic Jams... Air Pollution... and Muggings... REALLY! Did You Know that There Are People That Think Graffiti is a GREAT IDEA? WTF!

People Say That There is a Lot of JOB Opportunities in The City. That is True. That is Unimportant for Retired People. Sadly, If You are a Young Person and have to Work... You May Be Forced to Live in the CITY... WHERE PEOPLE ARE CRAZY AND DANGEROUS. Practice Social Distancing BY RUNNING AWAY FROM THE MADDENING CROWDS! I Lucked Out by Finding Work in Small Town America... There Was a Plastics Factory That Was Hiring in Chico... and Going to College in Arcata Supported me for Four Years on Student Loans... and then I Got a Government Job in Eureka... No Actual Businesses in Eureka but... There was Work at the Welfare Office... Paid for by the Taxpayers... 

Here is a Photo of The Swimming Hole in Upper Bidwell park in Chico, California... A Much Nicer Place Than Downwind From the Riot Police and Tear Gas... 

Nobody Drives Anymore - Too Much Traffic. It's the actual BURNING of Gasoline that Causes Climate Change. Question IF we really need to do all that traveling. Why not stay home and just visit people and places in Online?

I saw a fine TV Show about Amsterdam. Most people ride bicycles there. That lifestyle can work in small cities. It looks like that's a Wonderful Place. Healthy Happy People. I wonder what they do on Rainy Days or in the Snow... The TV Travel Shows always happen on a Sunny Spring Day... 

Nobody Drives Anymore... Too Much Traffic
gvan42 free coloring book art
print it and have fun coloring!

I do not own a Car. On the rare Occasions that I Go Out, Someone else drives. UBER or LYFT. It's wonderful to No Longer have a Car Payment or a Car Insurance Payment or to Have to Buy Gas... 

Reality is that places like Los Angeles have become an Insane Nightmare World... The Bubonic Plague is Starting to Become a Major Problem There. Since Rent is so high, thousands of people are homeless and RATS are a big part of that community. Rats that carry Bubonic Plague. It's Like a Crazy Doomsday Science Fiction Novel except it's real and happening now.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/video/los-angeles-reaches-a-tipping-point-for-the-spread-of-bubonic-plague/vi-AAEVAbP

Well, it's only going to get hotter and more crowded... People dying from Heat Exhaustion and No One Bothering to Move the Dead Bodies. 

Take this moment to ESCAPE the city and Move North. The Coast of Oregon and Washington State seems like a VALID place to live. Assume that Hurricanes will continue to Devastate the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida and all the way North to Boston. The Midwest will be doing Tornadoes and the Southwest is Just Too Damn Hot. California Burning... Over 100 Wildfires are Burning Right Now. Alaska, Idaho, Colorado... and in the Cities, traffic jams all day long on the freeways... ESCAPE! Become a Country Cowfreak!

People PRETEND That it's ExxonMobil's Fault That Fossil Fuels are Causing Climate Change. Well, we also are a part of this Disaster... BUYING GAS AND DRIVING ALL OVER THE PLACE... I did it. But after I retired I live a "MATRIX" type of life. Indoors most of the time watching TV or On The Internet... I Go out for a Walk every morning but It's Just Too Damn Hot in the Afternoon... 

Lyrics to "Oasis" by Greg Vanderlaan [soon to be a Music Video]

[E] Ride across the desert on a thousand horses.
Swords flashing in the Sun so very [NC] proud.
Ride 'till the sun turns your tongue to ashes.
Drink deep of water drawn from 'neath the [NC] ground.

and she [F/E] waits for him patiently...
under the palm tree...
She waits 'though she cannot tell you why... [2X]

[D] Far away from the city
There [C] lives a girl.
She draws water from the [D] sand.

[D] Under a lonesome palm tree
she [C] rests her body
and there she waits for her [D] man.

[D] He rides a camel thru the desert
and [C] dreams of cool water
an Oasis never close at [D] hand.

[D] Oh will he ever find her?
His [C] Arabian princess
and will she lead him to the land?
[D] A land of many sorrows 
of [C] Sun and Death, companion to the [D] band.
The Desert will never Answer
Though [C] tears we cry, so we get by the best we [D] can...

[E] Ride across the desert on a thousand horses.
Swords flashing in the Sun so very [NC] proud.
Ride 'till the sun turns your tongue to ashes.
Drink deep of water drawn from 'neath the [NC] ground.

and she [F/E] waits for him patiently...
under the palm tree...
She waits 'though she cannot tell you why... [2X]

****** (~);-} ******

Let's Suppose That You Truly Believe that Tea Cups Exist... and Water Exists... and Tea Exists... Well, You are Much More Likely to Get a Cup of Tea than Someone who Refuses to Believe in the Possibility of Tea. and... EVERYTHING IS LIKE THAT... Believe that it's Possible for You to ______________ (fill in the Blank) and you have Started on the Path to Achieving _____________ (fill in the Blank) - Sonya Sophia

****** (~);-} ******

When I went to West Valley Junior College I Took a Class in Architectural Scale Model Building. I took Blueprints of a Cabin my Father was having built on North Shore, Lake Tahoe and Built an Accurate Scale Model of it. Dad showed it to his friends and clients... Just to explain what he was having Built... In Retrospect, THAT would have been an EPIC Career... Building Models... Mostly the Professional Career Path was building Models of Oil Refineries... as a way to CHECK if the design was accurate... much cheaper to find errors on a Model than actually build the real thing and find out, OOPS! ---- During the Free time I Had Between Classes I went to the Library and Drew Pictures, Cartoons, Designs ART... while wearing Headphones... My Favorite was 'Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin... Astonishing on Headphones because of a lot of Left-Right Ping Ponging and Phase-Shifter Effects on the Drums... Try it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQmmM_qwG4k

Let Mayor Mike Bloomberg Debate! He Deserves to Have His Ideas Presented and Questioned by Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren. DO HIS IDEAS MAKE SENSE?

https://www.mikebloomberg.com/ 

He Did a Great Job as Mayor of New York City. Maybe He Could Run the Entire Country The Same Way. 

I really Enjoy His TV Channel. Very Informative. He Could Buy a Billion Dollars Worth of TV and Internet Advertisements... 

Remember: Mike Bloomberg Could Hire Elizabeth Warren to be Secretary of the Treasury - That's Her Strength... Pete Buttigieg as Secretary of Defense... Bernie Sanders as Vice President... Kamala Harris as Attorney General... Jay Inslee as Head of the Environmental Protection Agency... and Every Other Candidate Gets a Cabinet Post... Maybe Even Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State... 

Mike Bloomberg is a middle class kid who worked his way through college.  After getting laid off at age 39, he started a company from scratch and built it into a business that today employs 20,000 people.  He gives virtually all of the company’s profits to charity, to support causes he is passionate about, including gun violence, climate change, education, women’s rights, and health care.  He served three terms as Mayor of New York and created nearly a half-million jobs, expanded health insurance to 700,000 people, reduced the city’s carbon footprint, and cut the incarceration rate by nearly 40%.  Now he’s running to unite America, defeat Donald Trump, and start getting big things done.

Original Art by gvan42 At:

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=gvan42&form=HDRSC2&first=1&cw=1584&ch=787

History of Silicon Valley: Almaden - IBM's Successful Utopia. Near San Jose, California IBM built an IDEAL WORLD in 1956, Later, Silicon Valley was Built and The Light Rail Connected Almaden to The Rest... All the Way to NASA/Lockheed.

Far out in the farmlands south of town, IBM built a disk drive factory in the Late 50s. They wanted to attract the world's finest talent so the built nice houses, shopping centers, a golf course, tennis club and swimming pool. This self contained utopia had everything a family could want... It is still there and functioning beautifully. Come visit sometime... it's wonderful.

Later, the entire city of San Jose became interested in computers. Silicon Valley was born.

I used to Draw These Sketches while I was Attending Meetings at Work... It Used to Annoy The Boss... That I Had The Ability to Draw and Listen and Understand and Comment ALL AT THE SAME TIME!

Satellite Photo of Almaden. 

Many Houses have backyards on the golf course.

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Some thoughts on Almaden: [Written by my Father]

     When the white men came to this area,  Spaniards primarily, they discovered that the local indians had colorful paint on their skins.  This was traced to the Almaden Valley, up in the hills, where mines of red substance was discovered.  When gold was discovered in the Sierras it was determined that the colorful material in the Almaden foothills was mercury.  Mercury had the capability of extracting gold from the rocks, so was greatly used in gold mining.  This led to miners living in the Almaden valley, and the nearby valley floor.

     The Valley floor was mainly developed into ranches, orchards and vineyards, as well as  strawberry fields from 1850 to after World War 2.  T hen The Santa Clara valley became the home of manufacturing of mechanical and electronic equipment, and then "Sillicon Valley", with the coming of IBM to the south Valley. During my working life here, the valley floor was slowly developed into housing tracts, Shopping centers, schools, etc. Lots of work!

     This ultimately extended into the Almaden Valley.  I worked as a surveyor and at a Title Company during this period, and it still continues; but not at that frantic pace.  Japanese farmers would buy a parcel of land in the outskirts of Willow Glen.  Plant strawberries, for 5 years, when the soil was over-used.  Sell the 20 acres to a homebuilder, at a big profit, move 5 miles further south, and repeat the process.  How fortunes were made in those days.  Marguerite and I were also able to buy a small parcel here and there, which enabled us to build this house.  Van [J. D. Vanderlaan]

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I [Gregory] remember swimming at Almaden when our team, The Los Gatos Swim & Racquet competed with theirs. The Polol was Up on a Hill with a Great View of the Orchards and The City of San Jose in the Distance. I believe my father sold some land to build a shopping center in Almaden. Oakridge? Almaden Fashion Plaza? I worked as a Bagboy at a P&W Super in that area also. Dad sold that land. On some days in the Summer the Air Pollution was so bad that I could not see Mount Umunhum... about 5 miles distant... They Leaded Gas was Outlawed and the Smog got a lot better. 

A Bruce Ave, Los Gatos neighbor remembers...  Mark Diaz said That His Father worked at IBM. Mark went on the day that Nikita Khrushchev visited. I can understand that the president of the USSR wanted to be taken to the most advanced computer factory in the world... as an example of the success of capitalism... Interesting to Realize that IBM Searched the World for Talented People. Mr Diaz Came from Nicaragua. 

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Milestones of Invention:

1956 - FIRST MAGNETIC HARD DISK. IBM introduces the world's first magnetic hard disk for data storage. RAMAC (or Random Access Method of Accounting and Control) offers unprecedented performance by permitting random access to any of the million characters distributed over both sides of 50 two-foot-diameter disks. Produced in San Jose, California, IBM's first hard disk stored about 2,000 bits of data per square inch and had a purchase price of about $10,000 per megabyte. By 1997, the cost of storing a megabyte had dropped to around ten cents.

1970 - RELATIONAL DATABASES. IBM scientist Ted Codd published a paper introducing the concept of relational databases. It calls for information stored within a computer to be arranged in easy-to-interpret tables so that nontechnical users can access and manage large amounts of data. Today as we approach the new millennium, nearly all database structures are based on the IBM concept of relational databases.
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Almaden Wine is famous worldwide. No longer grown in Almaden, it's grown and bottled in the central valley of California... We cut down all the vineyards to build houses.
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Sources:

http://www.research.ibm.com/about/past_history.shtml

http://www.research.ibm.com/labs/almaden/
http://www.almaden.ibm.com/history/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Almaden_Research_Center

Official Website of the Almaden Swim and Racquet Club: http://www.asrc.org/index.html
Official Website of the Almaden Golf and Country Club: http://www.almadengcc.org/

Lightrail Service:
Commuter Trains run from Almaden to San Jose, Santa Clara all the way to Mountain View.
http://www.vta.org/services/light_rail_services.html

List of interesting things to do in Silicon Valley: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_attractions_in_Silicon_Valley

When I was working at System Industries in Santa Clara, California (1976) the owner of the company (Dr. Edwin Zschau) went to Japan to learn how to run a business.

They were doing very well in comparison to USA companies and there was a lot of interest in learning why. So we adopted many oriental concepts and implemented them in our business. One thing was that we had a company song. We had a birthday meeting every month and we would all sing the company song.

Lyrics:
"System, System Industries, Here we go, Hand in hand.
Solving Data Mysteries for the betterment of man."

Another thing we did was take a two hour lunch so we could exercise. I swam at the Santa Clara International Swim center with my wife. She was working the Graveyard shift at National Semi-conductor so we met twice a day. Lunch and evenings.
We had many people from foreign countries working there. When Dr. Zschau went to Japan he hired many Japanese people. Immigrants made our company better. That was a universal fact of life about Silicon Valley... The brightest engineers worldwide came here for work. I had a neighbor from Nicaragua who came to work at IBM. And another Engineer I knew came from Germany at the end of WW2 to work at Lockheed. Very Common.

~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~

Another time in Santa Clara we participated in a "Car Rally". Everyone would meet at a starting location then we were given a series of clues as to where to go next. One clue was "Go to a street named for a part time orchestra leader." We were supposed to figure out the puzzle and navagate to checkpoints. The answer to that clue was "Semi-conductor Blvd"... semi meaning part time and conductor is the leader of an orchestra. This was all part of the California Car Culture.

Read more of my Auto-Biography at: http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2018/03/growing-up-in-los-gatos-california-in.html

~~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~~

A discussion on our Facebook Page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/105559162879359/
I said:


Almaden: IBM's Successful Utopia. I remember competing with the LG Swim and Raquet Club against the Almaden Swim and Raquet Club. I worked in Almaden as a bag boy at P&W Super and in the 1990's lived in one of the original Homes built for Employees of the Disk Drive Factory. Do you remember Almaden?

David Gee: I started out on stage in Old Almaden at a venerable place called "The Opry House". I love that part of Northern Cal.

Greg Vanderlaan: I went to a show at that house but cannot find any mention of it on Google. Is it still there? I went with Mom and Dad to see a stage play or musical.

David Gee: I'm not sure, Greg. I was contacted about a re-union last year -one I couldn't attend -and it was being held in San Jose so, my guess is, it's probably gone.

Greg Vanderlaan: Now that David Gee tells me the Name, The Opry House, it's easy to find on Google: http://www.newalmaden.org/AQSPark/newalmmus.html

Mark C. Rodell: The novel Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner is, in part, set in Almaden. A very fine novel. http://www.amazon.com/Repose-Penguin-Classics-Wallace-Stegner/dp/0141185473 Perhaps no American writer knew the West as well as Stegner, not excepting his student Edward Abbey. An inveterate hiker and explorer, he camped or walked nearly every area in the West. He wrote innumerable books about the West and took time to visit every spot he wrote about.

Barbara Lynn: My mom (Nancy Lynn) was in many a melodrama at the Opry House in Old Almaden. Run for many years by Clyde (or is it Clive? ) & Gilda Dayton. After The Opry House, the Daytons had a melodrama theater on the wharf in Monterey. Might still be there.

Debi Thompson-Boring: Is that the place where they encouraged throwing popcorn?

Barbara Lynn: Yep!

Debi Thompson-Boring: LOVED going there!

Debi Thompson-Boring: (so I probably saw your mom LOL)

Barbara Lynn: Kinda hard to NOT notice my mom! She was meant for melodramas!

David Gee: I think it was Cleeve Dayton, Barbara. A wonderful guy. There also was Lanny Huck and Linda Nantell. Man, them was some good times.

Barbara Lynn: Yes....Cleeve! Son, Keed (I think)...What years were you involved, David?

David Gee: I've been in touch with Keed here on Facebook. He went to LG High. I started underage in '73 and played there until I left for college in '75.

Barbara Lynn: Oh.....way after my mom. She was there in the mid-late 60's. I think I was even in one, one summer. Theater is always a family affair. My dad, being an engineer, did sound. Mom moved on to the Haunted Woods...But she had always been involved in local community...she's still trying to get me to find her "one last play" to be in. (She's 88) Old drama majors don't "go into the night" easily!

David Gee "Driving Miss Nancy "?

Barbara Lynn Well.....it WOULD be all about HER! That's my mom!
Oops....I might be getting myself in trouble!

Holly Russ Smelt: Debi Thompson-Boring- might you be thinking of the gaslight theater in Campbell? They encouraged throwing of popcorn during the melodramas they staged

Barbara Lynn: Yes, they did, but I think it started at the Opry House...or maybe they're just blending together...my mother finally gave a lot of her costumes to the one in Campbell. That's gone, now, too.

Jackie Hinds Barbara Lynn: I'm in your Mom's age group so guess I saw her at the Opry House. fyi my uncle Gene Allen owned the mines during WWll. He had a horse ranch on what is now the Country Club and sub divisions. Almost like a different world back then.

Terry Zimbelman Titus: @ Greg- I remember Almaden- I worked in the Almaden Fashion Plaza at the Joseph Magnin's store! 1971-1972 ish

Robert R Roche: and he's still a bag boy !

Greg Vanderlaan: Dear Jackie Hinds, I am interested in hearing more about what it was like before the IBM Factory was built.

Greg Vanderlaan: I see that there was a tradition of Chinese Pottery dyed red with cinnabar (mercury). Barry Hill and I did a science project in "Senior Lab" studying the effect of mercury poisoning on brine shrimp. It Kills them. It must be poisonous to eat out of a bowl or teacup.

Holly Russ Smelt: My brothers were friends with Barry and Allen Hill.

David Gee Greg, I vaguely remember a field trip we took out of Fisher or LGHS to Almaden where we were introduced to an ancient native tribe of the area that used cinnabar in its rituals.
15 hours ago via mobile · Edited · Like · 1

Greg Vanderlaan: My dad says it is dangerous to swim in the Almaden Reservoir... But both Mom and Dad swam there... for decades... Mom lived in Willow Glen as a Child and Dad lived in Los Gatos... We shouldn't really worry to much about danger when it's a hot day... I swam there too.

Dan LeCount: I remember swimming in Almaden and fishing for crawdads,very muddy

Dennis Fleming: There was an old woman who had built and run a tiny museum out there. I intereviewed her once in college. Very eccentric, but very cool. Wonder what ever happened to all that stuff.

Barbara Lynn: The museum has been expanded, and is a great place for 3rd & 4th grade field trips. A wonderful source of local history.

Ginny Lenoir Smith: old almaden out by the mercury mines was cool... my dad worked for ibm, we always pretended that meant i poop.....

***** (~);-} *****

I remember Going to West Valley Junior College in Saratoga, CA and Learning Electronics Drafting. After Studying for One Year I Was Able to Get a Job at System Industries...

I have always loved to Draw and EARNING A LIVING doing something you love to do is BLISS... I Remember occasions when the Sun was Shining in the Window and I was Designing a Printed Circuit Board and AT THAT MOMENT I Attained True Enlightenment (or Something)... What the Buddhists Call Right Livelihood... 

However, "They" invented Computer Assisted Design and The Companies I worked for could hire people for HALF MY RATE OF PAY... and so I switched to SALES... But It Was Fun While It Lasted... 

NOW, as a Retired Person I spend a Lot of Time drawing my FREE COLORING BOOK... Black and White drawing that people May Print out and Color using Felt Pens, Pencils or Crayons... You can find more art at Google Image Search Keywords "gvan42 Free Coloring Book"

Meetings with Remarkable Men - In Silicon Valley. Dr Edwin Van Wyck Zschau - President of System Industries

I started working for Dr Zschau in 1975 and we built Disc Drive Controller Cards. We had a company Song that we Sang at Staff Meetings... Lyrics: 'System, System Industries... Here we go... Hand in Hand... Solving Data Mysteries... For the Betterment of Man.' He also worked at IBM and represented California's 12th District in the United States House of Representatives from 1983 to 1987.

On Family Day at the Factory, Mom and Dad took a Personal Guided tour with Dr. Zschau. The three of them had a fine time as my parents had never been in a room with a dozen disc drives spinning. Each one the size of a Washing Machine. It sounded like the Generator Room at Hoover Dam, but quieter.

Control Data Corporation Disc Drive

The reason we had a Company Song is that Dr Zschau had just gone to Japan and he wanted to Incorporate their Business Practices in our Company. First, he hired 20 People from Japan and brought them over to Run the Silonix Division. Then he instituted 'recommended' exercise lunches of two hour duration. I often went swimming at the Santa Clara International Swim Center with my First Ex-Wife who worked the Graveyard Shift at National Semiconductor.

In the Machine Shop there were two Boxing Punching Bags. If anyone felt stress at work, they could go punch the bags.
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My Immediate Supervisor was Dan Aragaki, a Harley Davidson Riding, Martial Artist. Yes, I Simply Did what Dan told me to do Instantly Because... Not only was his Advice Correct, but I was Scared of the Man. (Or maybe that was Respect)

Ben Yamada made Elegant Clay Sculptures of the Ink Jet Printer Silonix was Inventing.

Aman Kawaja supervised the Assembly Line and Inspired the Ladies to Work Faster with Giant Charts on the Wall Tracking Production. 100% of the Assemblers were Female in 1975. They were better at hand eye coordination and manipulation of tiny objects than men.

David Yamada created Printed Circuit Board Artwork on Mylar using Black Chartpak Tape.  He also liked to go Helicopter Skiing in Canada. A Helicopter flew him to the Top of the Mountain in Banff, and David Skied Down.

Steve Wakasuki Refused to be Hurried at Work. He also created PCB Artwork also and no matter how much pressure Middle Management put on him to finish the drawings Quickly, he simply ignored them. Quality First.

Jesus Del Real was the Draftsman who sat next to me and did most of my training. I learned How to Draw the Drawings associated with PCB Manufacture from Jesus. When I moved to Washington DC the next year, my portfolio got me two job offers in one day. Thank You, Jesus!

I accepted the Job Offer from Major Paul Jones USAF and worked at Analytic Communications Systems for six years. Project TEMPEST.

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The Title of this Blog Post was Pirated from the Book by G. I. Gurdjieff.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meetings_with_Remarkable_Men
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Another Autobiography by a Co-worker Ray:
http://whiteworld.com/cyreenikland/books/surfing/surf-03e.htm

Newspaper Articles:
http://articles.latimes.com/1986-06-29/news/mn-381_1_system-industries

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/21/business/business-people-a-son-of-silicon-valley-back-from-capitol-hill.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/stories/1993-05-09/ed-zschau-doesnt-fit-big-blues-mold-and-thats-the-point

Alumni Page Princeton:
http://www.princeton.edu/paw/archive_new/PAW04-05/09-0223/features3.html
Professor Ed Zschau ’61 serves as guru to budding entrepreneurs
By Jordan Paul Amadio ’05

It is the last day of class before winter break, and 65 seniors are mesmerized by a professor in a Bugs Bunny tie. For the past hour, he has been recounting the details of his autobiography — studying physics and philosophy at Princeton, running a $6 billion division of IBM, founding two technology companies, winning a congressional seat in California. Suddenly, the lecturer pauses. Smiling to himself, he continues an end-of-semester tradition inaugurated four decades earlier, when he was Stanford Business School’s 24-year-old faculty wunderkind. Without warning, professor Ed Zschau ’61 begins to sing.

A Japanese Webpage Selling Stuff Online Using Copied and Pasted Data from Wikipedia as Clickbait... They Fool the Google Search Engine into thinking that this webpage is worthy, then advertise all kinds of 'wonderful' but useless products:

But they had a Great Photo for me to Pirate.

Picture of a PDP-11. Our Cards served as an Interface between Mini Computers and Disc Drives.

The Ultimate Goal was to Store Medical Information about Patients on Computers so it could be Easily Distributed between Doctor's Offices and Hospitals.

Sadly, HIPPA Regulation Prevents the Easy Distribution of Medical Information.

****** (~);-] ******

Planned Cities are vastly better than unplanned cities. The Joy of Columbia Maryland, Almaden and Scotia, CA and Reston, VA

I have had the joy of living in Columbia, Maryland and Almaden, California. I worked in Reston, Virginia and have visited Scotia, California.

Columbia is an example of a truly outstanding design. It is based on small "pods" of homes and businesses that are interconnected by bike trails and roads. Every home is within walking distance of stores that sell basic necessities. This becomes crucial during snowstorms when all the roads are undriveable. Designed by James Rouse. It is home to the Merriweather Post Pavilion concert venue in Symphony Woods. Across the street is a Shopping Mall and Lake Kittamaqundi... sail boats and canoes for rent. Columbia is home to Howard Community College and Hobbit's Glen golf course. Yes, he planned for everything... and it's all within biking distance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia,_Maryland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Rouse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Kittamaqundi
http://www.merriweathermusic.com/

Almaden: During the 1960s IBM built a disk drive factory in the rural farmland near San Jose, California. Then they build homes for the employees, a golf course and a swim and racquet club. They believed that they could attract a higher quality employee if the living conditions were ideal. It worked. The concept of a the database was invented there. One of those truly epic ideas...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almaden_Valley,_San_Jose,_California

Reston was a city built by Robert E Simon. Note his initials in the name of the city. Located near Dulles Airport it is a popular location for corporations. It is easy to fly into Dulles and take a taxi to a meeting. Having an airport close by was convenient for shipping our finished products to the customers. I worked for a defense subcontractor and Reston is close to the Pentagon and Washington, DC. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reston,_Virginia

Scotia was built for the employees of The Pacific Lumber Company. Their plan was to harvest 1% of the trees every year and plant a new tree for every one harvested. That "100 year plan" was designed to ensure that there would be work for the mill employees forever. In a hundred years, the new trees would have grown up and be big enough to harvest again. Sadly, Charles Hurwitz used junk bonds to do a hostile takeover of the company, cut down all the profitable trees, looted the pension fund, hid the money in Texas and then declared bankruptcy. Now the company has been purchased by the Fischer family and they have returned to sustainable logging.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotia,_California
http://www.jailhurwitz.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Fisher

There is a lovely coloring book of The Headwaters Forest.
Link: http://www.jailhurwitz.com/pdfs/hfcb_cover.html

On a personal note: If you and your friends drive over Blossom Hill Road from Los Gatos, California at night and you put Pink Floyd's "Division Bell" CD in the stereo... when you crest the hill and can look down on the sparkling lights of the city of Almaden... the band sings...

The grass was greener The light was brighter With friends surrounded The nights of wonder

 it's all true and a really emotional experience...
You see, it appears that the lyrics describe what is actually happening... Cosmic...

I had the blessing of attending many rock concerts at Merriweather Post Pavillion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merriweather_Post_Pavilion
The Grateful Dead played there Six times while I was living on the east coast and I went to all six shows.
One night there was a thunder and lightning storm at dusk. Torrential downpour... all the power went out and we were treated to a drum duet played by Bill K and Mickey Hart. It appeared that they were incorporation the thunder into their music. A traditional tom-tom fill is "da da da, de de de, du du du, boom". They used the flash of lightning to predict when the thunders boom would sound...

As a special blessing, half the audience on the lawn area went home... That solved the overcrowding problem. The rest of us stayed and danced in the mud.

Sadly, the audience forced management to prohibit the Grateful Dead from playing there. One time there was a concert near July Fourth and the members of the audience set off too many fireworks after the concert. Since it is possible to buy rockets that fly up into the sky and explode in South Carolina (not too far away), that year there was a danger of setting Symphony Woods on fire. Oh Well... it all worked out because about that time the Grateful Dead became really popular and needed RFK Stadium to satisfy the demand for tickets.

CITY OF THE FUTURE!(lyrics)

we are living in the city of the future

all of us have hi-tech jobs...

we don't give a dam about unemployment

that only happens to low tech slobs

be a nurd!

be a nurd!

I'm a high-tech wizard

BE A NURD!

They used to laugh @ me

when I was in high school

the social in set was so very proud

but now when those people

are searching thru the want ads

they say "I want to be one of the 

computer crowd

be a nurd

be a nurd

be a high-tech wizard

BE A NURD!

a song I wrote... after seeing the movie "Starstruck" a silly Australian Musical...