39 Years in Sonoma County

Since the mid-1970s the Sonoma County Harvest Fair, including a big wine judging and public tasting, has taken place on the first weekend in October. Coincidentally, my wife and I moved to Santa Rosa on Harvest Fair weekend of 1980.

We did have good
wine back then

So that makes it 39 years of living here. Why not wait to talk about 40 years? Well, the fair board, in their infinite wisdom, wants to end the Harvest Fair. (See previous post). So if I want to link the years living here to that fair I guess I'd better do it this year.

I recall as I was unloading the U-Haul that maybe we should take a break and check out this fair, but instead we stuck with the unloading and moving in tasks. The next year we made it and as far as I know I made it every other year since even through having babies and whatever else may be going on.

Sonoma County has changed in that time as pretty much anywhere has. It's been a fairly drastic change, I suppose, but it crept up so it isn't a shock that the town's population went from 80,000 to 185,000 or we went from a dozen tasting rooms in the county to hundreds. Not to mention being on no one's vacation list to being a major tourist destination now. Honestly, if you'd have come in 1980 you'd likely get a bit bored with the choices of wine and food not to mention your choice of a couple motels in Santa Rosa for lodging.

We had maybe two choices for really nice restaurants where now there are dozens in the county. We now have traffic. I recall the first traffic jam on US 101 that runs through town. It was the weekend before Christmas (don't remember the year) and it was at the exit ramp for the town's mall.

Dairy was far and away the major agriculture crop in dollars. Wine grapes probably ranked down the list also behind apples and eggs and probably a few other crops.

It's been a fun run and I'm glad I didn't spent it anywhere else.

Wine list page from the fancy pants John Ash Restaurant circa 1980
An amazing number of Pinot Noirs for the time