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On the eve of the end of The Almanac’s 60th year of covering this remarkable community, our journalists traveled to the Portola Valley Library to look back at our past and help inform our future.
In the Portola Valley Library’s Heritage Room sits a nearly complete run of The Almanac’s newspapers, from the first issue published on Sept. 8, 1965 until 2003, when the newspapers stopped being bound into weighty tomes and stories were archived online. What began as a hand-assembled labor of love on the kitchen tables of three Portola Valley women has since blossomed into the newspaper of record for southern San Mateo County.
Today, The Almanac is powered by three San Mateo County natives: Editor Andrea Gemmet and reporters Jennifer Yoshikoshi and Arden Margulis.
The first time Gemmet was mentioned in the paper she now leads was in 1990, in an article about scholarships received by members of Woodside High School’s graduating class. Hired as a reporter after college, her first major byline in The Almanac was for an article about a Menlo Park resident who died in the crash of TWA flight 800 to Paris in the July 24, 1996 edition.
Almanac reporter Jennifer Yoshikoshi puts a book of old newspapers back into The Almanac’s archives at the Portola Valley Library in Portola Valley on July 27, 2026. Photo by Seeger Gray. 
Town historian Nancy Lund shows Almanac staff the collection of film negatives and handwritten index cards from The Almanac’s archives at the Portola Valley Library in Portola Valley on July 27, 2026. Photo by Seeger Gray. 
From left to right: Almanac summer intern Sydney Feldman, editor Andrea Gemmet and reporters Arden Margulis and Jennifer Yoshikoshi look through The Almanac’s archives at the Portola Valley Library in Portola Valley on July 27, 2026. Photo by Seeger Gray.
Beyond chronicling our own history, old editions provide a local perspective on some of the defining moments in American and world history. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, The Almanac spoke with the family of Portola Valley resident Andy Garcia, killed in the crash of United Flight 93 when passengers fought back against the hijackers. As the community mourned, Menlo Park’s Ace Hardware sold out of American flags, and local residents volunteered to travel to New York to help search the rubble.
We also profiled Russian immigrants who found refuge at Ladera Community Church following the collapse of the Soviet Union. “People took to us so kindly, we couldn’t imagine it could happen,” Mikhail “Mischa” Kaluzhinsky said about the Ladera community at the time. “The people are more wonderful than the California fresh fruits and vegetables.”
Alongside the tragedies and triumphs, old editions of The Almanac preserve the everyday lives of the people who call this community home. They record where Menlo-Atherton High School students gathered for lunch in 1984, how local leaders confronted rising poverty among women and countless other stories that otherwise might not have made it into the historical record.
Familiar faces appeared throughout the decades. Portola Valley resident Andrew Browne was featured recalling his experience witnessing the bombing of Pearl Harbor when he was 14 years old. Now 98, Browne was profiled in May of this year, along with photos of his weekly vigil for tolerance on Alpine Road.
In a 1997 issue, we told readers about Ali El Safy opening his first restaurant, Bistro La Luna. Nowadays, El Safy, the owner of Bistro Vida and Bar Loretta, is well-known as an energetic advocate for downtown Menlo Park.
Together, our pages tell the story of 60 years of life on the Midpeninsula. We aim to keep telling those stories because, 60 years from now, someone will be able to look at a 2026 edition and discover what life looked like in our communities today.
Celebrate 60 years of The Almanac with us during a free concert on Aug. 12 in Menlo Park. More information here.
The Oct. 25, 1989 edition of The Country Almanac in The Almanac’s archives at the Portola Valley Library in Portola Valley on July 27, 2026. Photo by Seeger Gray. 
The Sept. 19, 2001 edition of The Almanac in The Almanac’s archives at the Portola Valley Library in Portola Valley on July 27, 2026. Photo by Seeger Gray. 
A picture of Ali Elsafy in an old newspaper in The Almanac’s archives at the Portola Valley Library in Portola Valley on July 27, 2026. Photo by Seeger Gray.
