As we enter the waning days of summer, two events will be turning back the clock about a century at History Park in San Jose.
Car enthusiasts will no doubt be zooming over to the Santa Clara Valley Model T Ford Club’s 25th annual Cars in the Park celebration, which the club says has grown into the largest antique and classic car show in the west. All of the cars displayed were made no later than 1949, and the emphasis this year is on race cars made in 1931 or earlier. There’ll be music, food and other vehicles besides cars like vintage tractors, motorcycles, bicycles and fire trucks.
Dennis Mattish, who wrote a book on the Bay Area auto racing history, will give a presentation on that topic at 1 p.m. and Mike Hennessy will lead the popular Model T put-together starting at 2:30 p.m. behind the Electric Light Tower. You can get tickets at www.historysanjose.org.
But wait, your time traveling weekend isn’t over. The Art Deco Society of California will be hosting its 40th annual Gatsby Picnic at History Park on Sunday for the first time. The elegant affair — attendees are requested to dress in 1920s-’30s period clothing or at least clothes that don’t break the spell — had been held at the Dunsmuir House in Oakland, but the group moved it because of safety concerns at the historic mansion.
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This sounds like it’ll be a shindig worthy of old Jay Gatsby himself, with jazz music, a Charleston contest, the crowning of Miss Art Deco and, of course, lots of vintage cars on the grounds and rides available on History Park’s historic trolleys. You can buy tickets and get a lot more information — including a guide on “how to Gatsby” — at gatsbypicnic.com.
ITALIAN MEMORIES: Did you know that San Jose’s Italian American Heritage Foundation traces its roots back to 1975. That’s when it was a civic group and came together to bring the U.S. Army Band to San Jose to help celebrate the country’s 200th birthday the following year? I didn’t either until the IAHF Cultural Chair Ken Borelli filled me in on the history.
The group, then known as the Italian American Bicentennial Committee, first met on Aug. 5, 1975 next to the Lima Family Mortuary on Willow Street. Don Lima, always a champion for civic causes, headed up the organization, which became the Italian American Heritage Foundation the following June.
Now, half a century later, the group is celebrating its 50th anniversary at the historic and gorgeous Messina Orchard on North Capitol Avenue. The festivities, bridging the late afternoon into the evening and emceed by former San Jose City Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio, will include dinner, dancing and a program looking back at the group’s five decades. You can get more information on the event, and the history, at www.iahfsj.org.
BOUNCING BACK: They say cats have nine lives and that must be true for the Dancing Cat adoption lounge in San Jose, too. You might have seen that somebody plowed their car into the side of the building on Julian Street last week. Amazing that neither of the two people or 11 cats inside were seriously hurt. But one cat wasn’t so lucky. I’m talking about “Becky,” the mural featuring 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 injury, but no cats were harmed or escaped, according to center officials. (Lauren Slayton/The Dancing Cat)
Co-founder Mary Rubin says that the organization has been through a lot in 10 years — floods, COVID-19, power outages, etc. — but expects to get through this as well and will re-open as soon as possible. In the meantime, potential adopters are meeting cats in foster homes. Of course, admissions and other events at the Dancing Cat helped pay the organization’s bills, so the Dancing Cat has launched a fundraiser (www.thedancingcat.org/building) to make up for that lost revenue.
The best news? Rubin tells me Victor is ready to restore the mural when the building is ready.
