Ping off topic

[Das Goravani]

Speaking of the Gold Rush and the old days of the West Coast.. 

My G G Grandfather, Michael Curtis, came from Ireland lured by the Gold Rush.. did it for awhile and I guess he was somewhat successful because he was able to purchase a large tract of land from a Mexican Land Owner named Vince Peralta.

This track of land was in the East Bay.. east of SF which in 1847 was underway as a city.  Oakland was just a port and a few buildings and wooden sidewalks.. 

The tract of land he bought was cut up by him and sold in pieces to other men and families and everyone started working the land as farms and ranches.

Soon there was a lot of people and Michael Curtis won the first election that he held.. 

Eventually the town was incorporated as Berkeley California.. originally it was NOT part of the US.. it was a part of Mexico.. but the US fought and bought their way in and California was bought/fought away from Mexico around that same years.. and Michael was informed he was now a member of the United States.

A University was created and a train was put in to be bring students from Oakland.. it went along telegraph avenue.. all still there.. 

The last land sale of his life was “Sather Gate”, now the most popular entrance to the University there.. 

For all his earliness the only record of Michael is a street named Curtis street and records of his activities rest with the Berkeley Historical Society who knows of us descendants and tracks us a bit.. 

Michales political party was called The Working Mans Party.. and we’re still democrats.. typical members of Berkeley California.. liberal heart of the Bay Area which is the brain of Los Angeles if it has one.. Northern California tends to life and LA tends to image, quite a bit, this is the case. But we’re all in goodness for the most part.. LA is just hard at work and spends time driving.. so do they in NorCal.. the freeways are packed all the time.. it aint like it was when I was a kid which was your could breathe and drive and there wasn’t too many people.. over population is our problem now.. we really have to have 1 child forever or a good while before it’s two again… instead of tax breaks for having kids it needs to be the other way around.. but whatever, whatever.. politics is probably a bad idea for this list.. WHATEVER… 

Vince Peralta, the Mexican landlord, got all kinds of things named after him.. Peralta Hospital, Peralta Heights.. I went to school with a couple Peralta Twins who were Mexican and his descendants. Bay Area Royalty we all are.. if we were British then there would be lands retained and I would be a Lord or Duke or something.  I consider myself one of the Princes of Berkeley.. tied to it’s roots totally.. born there and raised there.. present at some of it’s key times like the 68 riots over People’s Park and Vietnam and so on… a day of tear gas and bayonets at age 8. 

Remember, it’s a big WHATEVER on politics.. no axe here..