Carol Taylor Pavlina grew up in Los Altos. Her parents met when they lived on adjoining farms near Pine Land and San Antonio Road in Los Altos.
She told the following story about what life was like in Los Altos during the 1930s-40s during an interview with Don McDonald.
It was just about 1929 when we moved to Paso Robles Avenue. The area was called Los Altos Park. The Depression didn't seem to effect our lives here that much. The families were farming and we had a garden and chickens. On Saturday, dad would go out to the yard and chop a chicken's head off, and Sunday we would have chicken dinner.
The kids worked cutting apricots in the summer. I worked at the Seitz family orchard where San Antonio Shopping Center is now, and the Costello place where the Creekside Oaks homes are now. I also cut 'cots at the Higgins' orchard on Almond Avenue.
We either went to Blanco's Theater on Castro in Mountain View, or to Palo Altos to the University or Varsity Theater to go to the movie. It was a big treat to go to Lane's Creamery on Main Street (now Gleim Jewelers). My favorite flavor was boysenberry. You know, we didn't have freezers then, so if you wanted ice cream, you had to go out to get it.
My dad became a builder in Los Altos. He built homes on University and Orange avenues, and up on Summerhill. Mother went to Berkeley and she did all the plans and the interior design. Eventually we moved to West Portola and Dixon, into a house my parents started building on Dec. 7, 1941.
The war changed things for my family and everyone.
I was good friends with Ben Furuichi. We had started kindergarten together at Los Altos Grammar School. Right after the attack of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese families were taken away to camps. Ben's family was just suddenly gone.
I was going to Mountain View High School at the time of war. Dad could no longer build because he couldn't get the materials, so he went to work in the shipyards at Hunter's Point. My brothers went into the service. When the war was over, the sirens sounded and we were all so happy. People could come back home.
After the war, this area began to grow so fast. The last place my parents lived in Los Altos was on Edith Avenue near Lincoln Park, right by the railroad tracks. They took the train tracks out and put in the Foothill Expressway. All the houses in our little area were taken out. One of the redwood trees at the Edith end of Lincoln Park was an anniversary gift to my parents from my late sister, Virginia. The redwood tree is still there.
-Courtesy of Donna Shoemaker and the Oral History Program of History House of Los Altos.