No president, no flood, no fire - "a great community"
Jeanette Giovannoni's homework assignment was the second oral interview transcript regarding Friendly Acres that I found at the Redwood City Archives. Irene Winnick's essay/transcript was the first. Irene's work is from April 12, 1945, the day F.D.R. died - but Jeanette's essay is undated. When I initially saw them I presumed they were written in the same year, for the same class, but they may have conceivably been written a couple of years apart. Both documents are wonderful artefacts and a creative way of recording and preserving local history information.Both girls spoke to Mr. Giovannoni to get information. While Irene Winnick spoke to several people, Jeanette interviewed one person only: - Giovannoni. Her excuse for not interviewing anyone else smacks of classic chauvinism, maybe that's because Giovannoni was her father? - then again, it could simply be teenage unwillingness to complete assigned homework, for whatever reason.
For those of us in the know, Giovannoni's comment on the lack of flooding is an eyebrow raiser... Presumably, rain and storm runoff in those days had a better chance of getting back into the bay.
