Hi Andy, we do indeed remember Cascade dam. I posted a thread on it a couple of years ago, go back many pages and look for Cascade Dam. There was a good response from our members.
Hi Rob , That is what Hal told me about Tam being the first , so it's just hearsay and not an official fact , but they were pretty close. Hal told me kids from Fairfax all the way to Corte Madera used to ride the train to Tam High , I wonder why they didn't go to San Rafael ? Marin was so different back then , unless one came from a wealthy family that actually owned land and put their kids to work for the family business after sending them to University , the general population was wage earners ( people who work for others ). There was no such thing as being self employeed back then , so most people were slaves for the public entities and corporations. Ain't it great to be alive in California and NOW . We are finally free of tyranny , we call the shots now ! We have to contact Rich and mandate a big party when we finish working on his parents house , which will be soon , a great place fer a Ba Ba Que und bierfest.
Yo Storocco- Great story, but, although Tam did open in 1908, it's not the first high school in the county. There were several private (mostly parochial) schools scattered around. The first public HS was actually San Rafael High, which had a small campus in the vacinity of 4th and E street. We're talking 1890's here. The big campus that we're familiar with now opened in 1924, as a response to a growing population.
My dear, old Dad, born in Sausalito(in his mother's house,still there!), raised in Homestead Valley, went to Tam. Class of '44. He then went straight into the Navy, and finished up the war in the submarine service. Pacific theatre. Imagine being 18 yr.s old, cruising around in an old diesel-electric submarine, blasting Japanese merchant vessels to kingdom come. Yow!
A person I used to work with , Harold Owen Jr. ( may he R.I.P. ) grew up in Mill Valley in the 40's. He told me that where the giant water tank is now on Sequoia Valley Rd. near Edgewood used to be a reseviour for M.V. drinking water. The kids of Tam High ( the first high school in Marin ) used to go swimming up there after school. Hal was quite a character , he had all kinds of stories of how life in Marin was back then , he said most of the jobs were for the NWP railroad , PG&E , and later for him Public Works. The MMWD was all Italians and hard to get in. He said one could buy a house in Birdland ( Tam Valley ) for under $5000.00. A few years ago I saw one on Flamingo , not even remodeled , and they were asking $600.000.00 for a slab on a sleugh. It used to flood all the time until the County built the storm pump station there. The typical house had a 30 or 40 amp main service , and gas for heat and cooking. Now a typical house has a 200 amp main service , with so many modern devices 40 amps is woefully inadequate. One 15 amp circuit used to feed all ( lighting ) , and one train track used to feed all towns , but the train thing could never work now , except for I saw that the engineers are proposing a 4000 mile tube under the Atlantic to connect to the U.S. Now that would be a real good use for trains today. I forgot , Tubb's Lake was the Edgewood resiviour. Later in the 60's and 70's we swam in Alpine, Bon Tempe , Kent and Lagunitas lakes, and I have some good stories about that , to be continued.
