Gain John

From Palo Alto Wiki

Gain John was born in Seattle in 1915 and moved to Palo Alto in 1924. A graduate of Stanford University in 1938, he divided his professional years between banking and accounting. He has also served as chairman of the Centennial book committee of the Palo Alto Historical Association.

[edit] Memories

John's various memories were printed during the Palo Alto Centennial in 1994.

"In the late 1920s, I remember watching the trolley go by my house on Waverley Street. I would look at the trolley's sign, and try to figure out how to spell "Peninsula," which was written on the side of each car. The word didn't quite make sense to me. It took me a long time to figure out exactly what the word meant.

"My friends and I liked to put pennies on the tracks and watch them get squashed. We also would put rocks on the tracks, and watch them get squashed too. Sometimes, we would put things on the tracks that were so big, the trolley conductor would have to stop the trolley and get out and move them."