Time Travel                

I have a time machine. I keep it on Walnut Avenue about a block from the BART station here in Fremont. You can find it where a hand painted sign proclaims Thank you for supporting the last farm in Fremont - No pesticides used. 

Every year at this time when I pull off the quiet and manicured four lanes of Walnut Avenue onto the small gravel parking lot that crunches beneath my tires, I’m whisked back to the simpler time of my childhood and the joy of sweet corn-on-the cob and beefsteak tomatoes still warm off the vine…you know, the kind that really taste like tomatoes!  Growing up in then rural Castro Valley in the 1940’s and early 50’s, home grown summer corn and stewed tomatoes over white bread was a treasured favorite of mine that in retrospect may have actually been the reality of the difficult economy that my parents successfully shielded from us. Other memories quickly flood back as I sort through the days fresh harvest in the shade of the venerable vegetable stand ….kite flying in the open fields and hill tops, playing ball on the yet unpaved street with my boyhood neighbors, exploring vacant “Johnsons lot” and the mysterious creek across the street, riding bikes, building a portable lemonade stand, converting the chicken coop into a rocket ship, sculpting a pee wee golf course and race track in our backyard with my brother and playing hide and seek after dark under the loose supervision of very tolerant  parents.

How has this square block of central Fremont that is encroached on four sides by homes and condo’s been able to escape inevitable commercialization this long?  My thank you to someone who cares enough to resist the multimillions of dollars that a quick and easy sale would bring so that we can enjoy a few months of seasonal pesticide free fresh vegetables and a fond reminder of what used to be.

Where do you keep your time machine?