By Khalida Sarwari
With the sun dipping below the hills behind them, a large group of people on Saratoga’s Montpere Way huddled around a large cake and sang “Happy Birthday.” Some of them implored Joe Rainie Rodgers to cut the cake and she obliged, lifting the knife and cutting into the message: “Happy 60th, Montpere Way.”
It was a party such that the street hadn’t seen in a while. There was cake, cold drinks of all kinds, hamburgers and hot dogs grilling by the minute, and even paella sizzling in a pan over a giant outdoor firepit. Kids ran around playing relay games while their parents searched for the shade of umbrellas to catch up with old friends and get acquainted with new ones. The only phones on display were the ones used to capture the memories of the day. In a way, it resembled the parties Rodgers grew up hosting and attending.
Rodgers’ family is one of the first that moved into the Montpere Way neighborhood in 1955, a year before Saratoga was officially incorporated as a city. Most of the houses were new and custom-built, including the Rainies’. Primarily made of glass and redwood, the homes–numbering around three dozen–were designed by global architect firm Anshen and Allen with some influence by American real estate developer Joseph Eichler.
Mere days after the family moved in, Rodgers was out knocking on doors and making friends left and right. As she explains it, she had little choice; her fifth birthday was coming up. She held the party in her back yard, and lots of kids from the neighborhood stopped by.
And then, as it usually does, life happened. Rodgers moved away for college, got married and eventually settled down in Fremont with her husband for 27 years.
The year 2004 marked the end of one era and the beginning of another for Rodgers. And in a way, it was also the return to yet another era. That year, her mother, a local artist who at one point taught art in downtown Saratoga, died. Rodgers and her family helped clean out the house that her family had owned since 1955. In the process, she came across original sales ads for the house and photos that brought back strong memories.
So when her husband told her, “Let’s move you home,” Rodgers had no objection. The couple said goodbye to Fremont and “Good to be back, Saratoga.”
“Coming back here, for me, it was wonderful,” said Rodgers. “The first night when I was back in the house and slept in a bedroom I’d slept in as a child, I slept better than I had in years.”
And since then, life has been great for the community college professor. “We’ve just really enjoyed living here, and once in a while someone from my past has come and knocked on the door,” she said.
Rodgers was also knocking on doors recently, this time to invite folks to a birthday party for the street. She invited people who used to live there, people who had just moved in, people who still live there and even some people from her fifth birthday party. All told, about 70 people showed up and all these different groups converged on Montpere Way on Sept. 19 for a party that went well into the night.
“People in the neighborhood like to get together several times a year just to have a good time, so this year I proposed to everyone that we have a large block party to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the neighborhood,” Rodgers said. “It was just a ton of fun, even in the heat.”
So much fun, Rodgers said, that she’s already planning next year’s party.
