Buying a new house

One day when our cleaning woman was coming, S said: Why don't you come with me today. I have to deliver a catalogue to a store in Danville. The country side is beautiful and you will love the walnut landscape. We drove over the San Mateo Bridge, through Crow Canyon and before long we were in Danville. S. stopped in front of what once was the Bank of America, (maybe it was still the Bank of America). He picked up a catalogue and dashed across the street to the furniture store. There was a grocery-store on the opposite corner and I thought I would amble over and get something to nibble on. I tried to open my door of the car and found it was impossible for the sidewalk was so high that it reached half way up my door. There were signs on the building where once you had tied up your horse while banking. I deduced that the side walk was so high for ease of getting back on your horse. I found it utterly charming. By this time, I had lived on the Peninsula since 1945, in Hillsborough, in San Mateo, and in Burlingame and I had decided (since I arrived in Danville) that I would like to live in a place that was a real place and not a long string of towns merged on the El Camino Real. When S. returned I said I would like to live in a town like Danville. S. picked up a different catalogue and returned to the furniture store. There he told the owner what I had said. The owner said:Let's go next door and tell Mr. Imbry, the realtor, what I said.

Sam came back to the car and said we are going to look at a house that is a real find. So we drove East I think, to a little community called Diablo. There were small beautiful houses, a post office and a country club. But the trees as you drove through were truly magnificent. Huge oak trees that met above our heads. I knew I had arrived at something close to Paradise. We looked at the house and the bridge we had to drive over to get to the house, and the many guest houses in the back of the house. What a place to bring up a family. We made an offer of 20.000 (down from 22.000) and our offer was accepted. It was subject to our selling our house. We had not checked for termites of which there were billions. We did not have the roof checked. And we knew we were on the brink of being penniless with much repair and much remodeling in our future.

When we returned home Flourine said all had gone well. She said our son had asked a really funny question while she was feeding him lunch. She said he looked perplexed and said' Flourine what color carrots do you eat? I laughed and said that I had told him the day before: Come on G. eat your carrots and you'll get red hair. Since he already had red hair, I didn't think I was lying.