Eagle Shack still rocks

Some of the city’s most venerable residents came to the Adobe Building last weekend to help recreate the 1940s Eagle Shack, dancing the afternoon away and sharing stories about the event, the building and the era that brought the region’s youth together.

Sunday’s dance proved to be a powerful experience for many, who recalled dancing as teenagers at the Eagle Shack events — held in the very same building — after World War II. The Adobe Building was restored in 2001.

“This was, for us, a very special event,” said Bob Weaver, president of the Mountain View Historical Association.

Over 100 people, many in their late 70s, danced to the Los Altos Big Band, which included a few members of the Melody Mixers, the original Eagle Shack band. Refreshments were offered, and a crowd of people chatted outside. Original Eagle Shack membership cards were reproduced and given out. The event was organized by Eugene Sharp, an original member of the Melody Mixers.

One of those happily reliving his youth was Charlie Olsen of Sunnyvale, who used to take a bus to the Eagle Shack along with other Sunnyvale teens. On Sunday he was tearing up the dance floor with friend Connie Portle. Olsen is known for his family’s cherry orchards, some of which remain today.

“It was like a meeting place,” said John Hirschtek of the old Eagle Shack. It was the place to go with your buddies on a Saturday night, he said.

The Adobe Building also housed the National Guard for several years. Hirschtek joined the guard at 16, lying about his age, as did many other Mountain View High School students during those days. So on a Tuesday in the late 1940s, Hirschtek could be found at National Guard training sessions there, learning to fire large artillery pieces like the 105mm Howitzer.

Then on Saturday nights, he would be back at the Adobe Building as a regular 16-year-old, dancing the night away at the Eagle Shack.

If it happened in Mountain View, it happened at the Adobe Building, said Betty Lamica Evans. She even remembered getting polio shots there. She also talked about how great it was to grow up in Mountain View a half century ago, when the city had only a few thousand people.

“These days, people spend a lot of time in front of a screen,” she said, instead of in face-to-face interaction. That includes “hugging a person you grew up with,” she said, hugging her friend Victor Penna.

“We were all involved in each other’s lives,” she added. “We were all on the same level, regardless of income.”

“A lot of us worked with fruit [in the orchards] while we were kids,” she said. Penna, for example, worked on his family’s 10-acre farm in Mountain View. “We lived through that,” Evans said. “So now we have a sense of what really matters in life.”

“To have a good life you don’t need a lot of money,” Penna said. “If you’ve got your health and your freedom, you’ve got everything.”

At the end of the event Sharp asked the crowd, “You guys want to do this again?” They responded with a resounding “Yes!”

“Alright. Same here,” Sharp said. “Goodnight everybody.”

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