The Beginners Challenge, on Sonoma Patch

As we grow older, we seem to have more challenges in life.

During my childhood, I grew up in a beautiful town called Monta Vista, in a farm area which is now called Silicon Valley. On weekends, I would hang around the outside garden area of my grandfather's home, surrounded by prune and apricot orchards and other fruit trees on the property.

Friends and many family members would sit outside during warm May days and talk about the history of my ancestors and the events of our wonderful valley. Because my father and grandfather loved music and played string instruments, many others would come and play during the afternoon and evening. My grandma, aunts and older female cousins would prepare great meals from different cultures: especially old Californian and Mexican dishes. History was completely oral and like a living history day at our . For me, I loved it.

It didn't take me long to know there were a lot of new ideas and inventions taking place in Santa Clara county. With new technology coming from  Stanford University, Moffett Airfield, Aims Labratory, Hewlett-Packard and many other post-war start-ups, I knew there were things to came I didn't have a idea about.

Until 1948, we didn't have a telephone and by 1951 we had our first television - it was a round screen. Then the computer was developed, first as a desk top and not too long ago as a laptop.  Now I have had to reinvent myself as a neophyte just to try to keep up with the times. 

Now I am writing my first Sonoma patch "blog" on my laptop and it's a great new venture.