Mtn . View Memories
A Dutchman Remembers Mid-Century Mtn . View
The Sears store on San Antonio Road in Mountain View opened in 1957 .
By Robert Cox MVHA Vice President
A few months ago , MVHA received a letter from a gentleman in Holland named Arthur Graaff . Mr . Graff was a young man in the 1950s . His father had worked for the Dutch resistance during World War II , and sadly , was captured by the Nazis , spending three years in a prison camp . After the war , Mr . Graaff ’ s father took his family to California , where they lived in several different locations , the last of which was Mountain View .
Arthur Graaff at the age of 10 at his childhood home at 1577 Latham Street in Mountain View .
Although the Graaffs were in Mountain View for only a brief time , Arthur commented , “ Mountain View was my last love in the US . We were simply happy there . I even fell in love with a Mexican American classmate !”
Arthur recalled spending hours at the Sears store near El Camino Real , and a visit to a special location near that Sears store :
“ One day , it must have been spring or summer of 1958 , my father at dinner mentioned that a man had received a special award , the Nobel Prize . William Shockley was , of course , the man . Being a curious 11-year-old boy , strongly stimulated by the relatively free and easy-going way of life in California then , one day I took my bike ( a black Raleigh medium size with three speeds , that I would never have received if we would have stayed in war-torn Holland ) and decided to go and pay Shockley a visit to see what he was doing .
Arthur ’ s father , Bart Graaff , at 1577 Latham Street in Mountain View .
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