LosGatosObserver.com

Peggy Conaway with her two grandchildren. Courtesy Peggy Conaway.

1. What kind of work do you do?
I am the Town’s Library Director. I have been a librarian for the past 25 years. 

2. If you weren’t doing that, what would you do?

I’d be a biographer, writing about people who have lived extraordinary lives. I think real life is more interesting than any fiction ever written. The more complex the person, the more elusive the real story. I love the process of discovering information and making connections. 

3. What do you do when you’re not working?
I work on renovating my 1954 house. I enjoy flea markets, auctions and antiquing - always searching for a treasure. My fiancé, Chuck Bergtold, was in the antique business in Los Gatos for 40 years, and we have great fun going on the hunt together. I’m learning about California painters of the nineteenth century. I’d love to spend more time with my two lovely grandchildren, but they are too far away, in San Antonio. I have traveled to most states and to a number of other countries. 
 
4. When did you come to Los Gatos, and what brought you here?
I came to Los Gatos in 2000 to begin my job at our local library. I was having a very interesting time working as an operational design manager on the joint San Jose Public/San Jose State University Library, but it was hard to resist the nice offer from Los Gatos. 

5. In which part of town do you live, and what do you like about it?
I live in Santa Cruz where I can see the ocean - that was always a goal of mine.  But I love pretty little Los Gatos, and strangely enough don’t mind the commute through the mountains. 

6. What’s your favorite spot in Los Gatos?
Pageant Park, behind Civic Center. It’s a blissful little sphere, hidden away and a bit mysterious.  Deer come to visit. For me it evokes the decades of the 1920s and 1930s and the great outdoor plays that happened there, with large casts of interesting characters. 
7. Which Los Gatans do you like to talk to regularly, and why?
I talk to any number of Los Gatans who come into the library. But a special joy of our library and museum history project, now in its sixth year, is the opportunity I have had to meet and interview fourth and fifth generation Los Gatans, now in their 80s and 90s - and two who are 100 years old! 
8. Which Los Gatos business do you patronize most frequently?
I shop for antiques and for wonderful children’s clothing to send to my grandchildren in Texas. And I have visited a number of fancy and not-so-fancy restaurants. 

9. What have you discovered about this town that hardly anyone knows?

I have discovered a number of twists and turns in the history of the town. The early years were often violent - it was the real Wild West. An example is the 1883 lynching from the wooden Main Street Bridge by a local Vigilance Committee. I discovered how kind townspeople were to Neal Cassady’s wife Carolyn and their children after Neal was sentenced to San Quentin for selling marijuana in 1958. I discovered that Benjamin Franklin Bachman, for whom the street is named, was a bachelor who wore carefully washed overalls for his daily walk at 4:00 p.m. down to the Lyndon Hotel for a game of cards. He carried a lantern to light his way home. 

10. If you could change anything about Los Gatos, what would it be?
I wouldn’t presume to change anything about Los Gatos. It’s a beautiful town in a wonderful setting, and I enjoy it for what it is.

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