“The nice thing about living 
in a small town is that 
when you don’t know what you’re doing, 
someone else does.”
~ Immanuel Kant

My life could have been much different. The same could be said about anyone’s life. Why was I born into my family of origin and not some other family? Why was I born into a family living in San Francisco, California and not Sotome, Japan? Why was I born into an Irish-Catholic family and not a Moroccan-Muslim family? I don’t know. That’s just how the cards of life were dealt. I’m not complaining. I have enjoyed the life I’ve lived immensely, but like all lives, it has had its limitations.

San Francisco, despite the fact that it is a relatively small town (49 square miles), has a big city feel to it. The City is a major tourist destination. It has large buildings, a financial district, a port, and major league sports teams. I spent the first eighteen years of my life living in The City. It’s a great place to be from.

The majority of the rest of my life has been spent living in San José, California. When I first moved here in 1972, it was a big city (181 square miles), with a small town feel to it. The tallest building in San José at that time was the 14-story Bank of Italy building located downtown on Santa Clara Street. This paled in comparison to the 52-story Bank of America building on California Street in The City. San José was primarily an agricultural region. As for professional sports, well, they had the San José Bees, a California league affiliate of the Kansas City Royals.

Of course, just a few years later, with the founding of Apple Computers in 1976, life in the South Bay changed drastically. It didn’t take long for the San José area to be better known as Silicon Valley, the global cradle of the tech industry.

When I mention that my life had limitations, I’m referring to the fact that I’ve never had the opportunity to live in a small town. I did live in Santa Clara for seven years. Some think of Santa Clara as a small college town. In reality, there’s no “town” there. The city is a poorly planned community of homes and strip malls with no identifiable downtown area. It’s sad.

I was reminded of this today. My good friend, Dan Pasini, and I met for breakfast in San Carlos, California, where Dan has lived for many years. San Carlos has a downtown. The quaint business district offers an assortment of restaurants and locally-owned shops confined to just a ten block area. Downtown San Carlos is conveniently located just across the street (El Camino Real) from the San Carlos train station. It’s a small town hidden within the larger, more congested San Francisco peninsula region.

In the photo above, which shows the sign welcoming visitors to San Carlos, you can see an AT&T store through the arch of the sign. That is now the location of Drake’s, an excellent restaurant which offers a delicious breakfast. Dan and I enjoyed our meal and some good conversation, then wandered down San Carlos Avenue a bit to the new Reach & Teach store. This is a gold mine of books, games, and other educational products, many of which are targeted to young children.

After leaving Reach & Teach, Dan and I walked down Laurel Street. Our first stop was at a whimsical little place called Therapy. It’s difficult for me to describe what one would find inside this establishment, as there is no particular theme. Let me just say that it’s an ideal place to look for a unique gift for an adult. We also stopped by The Reading Bug, a delightful children’s bookstore which sells my book Cherries in the Summer.

San Carlos is not a small town in the same way as someplace like Greenville, Indiana (population 1,500), but it does offer a genuine small town feeling, despite being surrounded by the congestion and chaos of the greater San Francisco Bay Area. I’m grateful for the opportunity to experience a bit of small town charm.