Ruth McMahon arrived in Los Altos in 1940 as a young bride. Shortly thereafter, her husband, Mac Merritt, went off to war. She filled six days a week with work at a Palo Alto clothing store. Every Sunday she took long rides in the hills on her beloved horse. She shared memories of the war years during an interview with Don McDonald in l997.
I came to Los Altos in 1940, 19 years old, and newly married. My husband's family lived here. He came to help his father in business, which was Mac's Tea Room. We rented a little house on Hawthorne. For fun we would go to the movies in Palo Alto or to San Jose to walk around. It was very quiet on weekends. Maybe three cars would pass our house in a day.
We were here one year and the war was looking bad. In April 1941 we bought a place on Burke Avenue in Los Altos Hills. My father-in-law lived on University Avenue and asked us why we wanted to move "up to the sticks." I said, "Well, I can't keep my horse if we live on University Avenue, and I want my horse."
In 1942 my husband had to go to war. He was gone four years. I really didn't know many people here then, and I was quite lonely. The women went to work, and I worked six days a week at Hinks Department Store in Palo Alto as assistant to Marion Jackston, one of Hinks' top buyers. On Sundays I just got on my horse and rode.
I became friends with a little elderly lady who lived out near Dawnridge Drive. She owned 33 acres. Her name was Esther Hinchcliff. We all called her Hinchie. She was a southern lady from Kentucky, and she loved horses. She offered southern hospitality, and wanted everyone to visit her.
We began to form groups of riders who met at the railroad tracks. Sometimes there were as many as 30 horses gathered and all kinds of people. We each had our lunch in a pack on the back of our saddles.
People joined the groups from as far away as Portola Valley. We would ride in a single file up Summerhill, then up Magdalena to Dawnridge. Hinchie had a large, old-fashioned barn and a little cabin with a wood stove. We would eat our lunch there. It went on for years. Just about everyone who rode a horse came along. Many of us became life-long friends.
I would ride up to Palo Alto and Portola Valley and Los Gatos and even rode my horse down the Bayshore Highway, which wasn't much of a road then. When I rode my horse through these hills and through the beautiful blossom-filled orchards, it was so beautiful. It was out of this world."
- Adapted by Donna Shoemaker. Courtesy of the Oral History Program of History House of Los Altos