SAN MARTIN
– San Martin may be down, perchlorate-wise, but it’s not
out.
Friday night more than 200 San Martians gathered at the Lions
Club to feast on spaghetti, raise funds to investigate becoming a
formal township and
– above all – to celebrate its pioneers at
”
San Martin, Then and Now.
”
SAN MARTIN – San Martin may be down, perchlorate-wise, but it’s not out.
Friday night more than 200 San Martians gathered at the Lions Club to feast on spaghetti, raise funds to investigate becoming a formal township and – above all – to celebrate its pioneers at “San Martin, Then and Now.”
And, to put chocolate and whipped cream on top of the affair, the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance thanked its president, Sylvia Hamilton, with a plaque, a hug and rousing applause for her work defending San Martin against the many threats to the town’s rural and independent lifestyle.
With only five weeks to prepare, the SMNA put on an affair that rivaled the well-entrenched Founders’ Day in Morgan Hill. A good time was surely had by all.
One table and wall displayed photographs of old San Martin and its early settlers; many were the parents and grandparents of “old-timers” being honored that night. The nostalgic display contained early class photos from San Martin, Gwinn and Morgan Hill schools, founding families, early farm scenes and the still-photogenic San Martin Winery building. It was a popular table.
While the SMNA referred to the honored guests as “old-timers” in the program, others balked at the name.
“I think they should be called ‘pioneers,’ ” said Tim Thornton. His wife, Marianne, preferred something more valuable.
“They are gems – or, as the Japanese referred to their honored old people – treasures,” she said. The Thorntons are related by marriage to the San Martin pioneer, gem and treasure, Rosie Mammini, age 86. Their daughter Kim is married to Mammini’s grandson, Alex Gallego.
“Rosie does more for other people,” Marianne said. “She’s so involved – volunteering at the hospital – and she is the best cook. Rosie is a real treasure.”
Rosie and her husband owned the local Mammini Market for many years.
As the food line lengthened and meandered around the hall, people caught up with old friends and swapped the tall tales expected at pioneer events.
Fabled former band director of the award-winning Live Oak High School Emerald Regime, Mike Rubino, would not have been present – nor would he have directed the band, if his parents, Jim and Ebe Rubino, 90 and 85 respectively, had not put down roots in San Martin and stayed. The elder Rubinos were among the honored pioneers.
Leo Ludewig, 81, was there with a tableful of family, including his brother Walter who had moved to Sunnyvale. Leo’s family has been a San Martin landmark for six generations, from his grandfather Hahns who bought the prune ranch on Monterey Road and California Avenue in the early 1920s to his great-grandson Anthony, age 2. Leo and his sons Stephen and Kenneth still farm, but now it is Christmas trees and pumpkins.
The San Martin Christmas Tree Farm and Pumpkin Patch Park put out the siren call to youngsters looking for fun at Halloween and Christmas and for parties and field trips.
Tony and Helen Bonino, 94 and 93, Roy Schell, 91, and Warren Gwinn all stood and waved when the pioneers were introduced. Anthony Morabito, Rudy Siderits and Rocky Rocca, 75, joined them.
“They are a model of good health and good living,” said Connie Ludewig, a SMNA director, acting as ceremony leader.
Getting down to business, Cleo Logan addressed the matter of San Martin becoming an official ‘township.’
“Our concerns are going unmet,” she said, calling San Martin the dumping ground of Santa Clara County. The SMNA has raised $19,000 of $23,500 needed to pay for a feasibility study of the township issue. Spaghetti Social profits would help with the rest. Approval by 25 percent of the area’s registered voters would be needed to send a petition for township to LAFCO (Local Agency Formation Commission), the Santa Clara County agency – on which County Supervisor Don Gage sits – that would determine the outcome.
“It will take about two years to get through LAFCO,” Logan said.
Gage and Morgan Hill Mayor Dennis Kennedy displayed their “flags of state” during the evening, chatting with residents. Kennedy spoke officially to the crowd and encouraged them to go for township if it proved possible.
“Good things are hard to accomplish,” he said. “But there is an advantage to being your own self-governing community.”
Hamilton’s award came with kind words about the tireless hours she spends on the phone and at her computer, all for the benefit of the community.
“I’d never thought that I’d be speechless,” Hamilton said. But it turned out that she wasn’t.
“We’re lucky,” she said. “Yeah, we’ve got perchlorate but we’ll clean it up.” She joked that she went from a low-paying job (teaching) to a no-paying job (SMNA volunteer).
After business was taken care of, the party moved on to auction, raffles and dessert.
Two San Francisco 49er cheerleaders – Gold Rush Girls – did their part by handing out auction items, pulling raffle numbers and charming the crowd. One of their mothers lives in the area and the young ladies make frequent appearances to help local folks.
All the while, guests continued to meet up with old friends and acquaintances.
Jacque Morton (of the Ludewig clan) and Gina Colton (a Mammini granddaughter) compared notes about growing up where their parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles were well known.
“Teachers really remember you,” Morton said. Colton agreed that it was sometimes a good thing, sometimes not. But, as the area grew, people tended to lose track of each other.
“People used to know everybody,” Hamilton said. “Now they don’t.”
Affairs like the spaghetti feed are designed to fix that.
