The Starteling comaparison ----

I was raised in a small valley that was in the southwest part of the Santa Clara Valley community, it was called Almaden.  There was some wine named after our small valley that became world hearleded in it's time.  We sat between the coastal Santa Cruz Mountains and a finger of hills called the Santa Tersea.  It was a very localized and pretty self suffiecent community as I was growing up.  As children, seeing other areas of the Santa Clara Valley falling to the developer's bulldozers, the old guys kept telling us don't worry, it will take them 20 years to get out here.  The joke was on them.       The following pictures were taken by a friend of mine I knew like before we could talk, just above his house.  The first picture is of the Almaden Valley in 1964 taken from the low Santa Teresea hills across to the overcast tops of the Santa Cruz mountans catching the clouds.  The second picture is from the exact same spot as the first, in 1968, four years later but from with a different camera and camera angle. The ancient orchards were laid to waste for all those roofs.  We used to say, 20 miles in 5 years, orchard to tract housing.  The original 1964 photo shows subtled outlines of the mountains behind, but the smog was so thick in the 1968 photo, the scanner couldn't discern the subtled ridges of grey.  A few landmarks in both pictures help to verify the camera's site on both.  Note the fence and driveway along the lower right guadrant of both, one was an old wood stake fence, the other, modern steel stake barb wire fence, but the driveway is the same.  The other feature to notice, is the wooded knoll, at the foot of the mountains, in both pictures.      The 1964 photograph had been forgotten and booked anway and had the big crease in it, but it is still valid.  Find the Jethro Tull song on this site in the Art/Music listings.  It really fits.

Almaden Valley, 1964

Almaden Valley, 1968

Though taken from same place, it is obvious that the angle on the later photograph was lower, and thus, the foreground trees filled more of the screen, but the fence and driveway in the lower right quadrent and wooded knoll across the valley are still very distinct.

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