As we enter the waning days of summer season, two occasions will likely be turning again the clock a few century at Historical past Park in San Jose.
Automotive fanatics will little doubt be zooming over to the Santa Clara Valley Mannequin T Ford Membership’s twenty fifth annual Automobiles within the Park celebration, which the membership says has grown into the biggest vintage and basic automobile present within the west. The entire automobiles displayed have been made no later than 1949, and the emphasis this yr is on race automobiles made in 1931 or earlier. There’ll be music, meals and different automobiles apart from automobiles like classic tractors, bikes, bicycles and fireplace vehicles.
Dennis Mattish, who wrote a ebook on the Bay Space auto racing historical past, will give a presentation on that matter at 1 p.m. and Mike Hennessy will lead the favored Mannequin T put-together beginning at 2:30 p.m. behind the Electrical Gentle Tower. You may get tickets at www.historysanjose.org.
However wait, your time touring weekend isn’t over. The Artwork Deco Society of California will likely be internet hosting its fortieth annual Gatsby Picnic at Historical past Park on Sunday for the primary time. The elegant affair — attendees are requested to decorate in Nineteen Twenties-’30s interval clothes or at the very least garments that don’t break the spell — had been held on the Dunsmuir Home in Oakland, however the group moved it due to security considerations on the historic mansion.
This sounds prefer it’ll be a shindig worthy of outdated Jay Gatsby himself, with jazz music, a Charleston contest, the crowning of Miss Artwork Deco and, in fact, plenty of classic automobiles on the grounds and rides out there on Historical past Park’s historic trolleys. You should purchase tickets and get much more info — together with a information on “how to Gatsby” — at gatsbypicnic.com.
ITALIAN MEMORIES: Do you know that San Jose’s Italian American Heritage Basis traces its roots again to 1975. That’s when it was a civic group and got here collectively to deliver the U.S. Military Band to San Jose to assist have fun the nation’s 2 hundredth birthday the next yr? I didn’t both till the IAHF Cultural Chair Ken Borelli crammed me in on the historical past.
The group, then often known as the Italian American Bicentennial Committee, first met on Aug. 5, 1975 subsequent to the Lima Household Mortuary on Willow Avenue. Don Lima, at all times a champion for civic causes, headed up the group, which grew to become the Italian American Heritage Basis the next June.
Now, half a century later, the group is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary on the historic and beautiful Messina Orchard on North Capitol Avenue. The festivities, bridging the late afternoon into the night and emceed by former San Jose Metropolis Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio, will embody dinner, dancing and a program trying again on the group’s 5 a long time. You may get extra info on the occasion, and the historical past, at www.iahfsj.org.
BOUNCING BACK: They are saying cats have 9 lives and that should be true for the Dancing Cat adoption lounge in San Jose, too. You might need seen that any person plowed their automobile into the facet of the constructing on Julian Avenue final week. Wonderful that neither of the 2 folks or 11 cats inside have been significantly harm. However one cat wasn’t so fortunate. I’m speaking about “Becky,” the mural that includes a fluffy calico cat that was created by artist Roan Victor in 2021.
An SUV crashed into The Dancing Cat at 702 East Julian St. in San Jose on Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. A volunteer suffered a minor damage, however no cats have been harmed or escaped, in accordance with middle officers. (Lauren Slayton/The Dancing Cat)
Co-founder Mary Rubin says that the group has been by way of loads in 10 years — floods, COVID-19, energy outages, and so on. — however expects to get by way of this as effectively and can re-open as quickly as potential. Within the meantime, potential adopters are assembly cats in foster properties. After all, admissions and different occasions on the Dancing Cat helped pay the group’s payments, so the Dancing Cat has launched a fundraiser (www.thedancingcat.org/constructing) to make up for that misplaced income.
