Fifty Dollars and a Help Wanted Sign - Walt
Walt's Sonoma Journey - I Visited page
This is the first of three stories about Walt's relationship with Sonoma.
🟩 Fifty Dollars and a Help Wanted Sign - Chapter 1 (You are reading this story.)
🟥 I Turned Left and Found Sonoma - Chapter 2
Click the story title above to continue Walt's journey as an unexpected rental leads him to discover the town that will become home.
🟦 Keeping Sonoma Moving - Chapter 3
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In 1976, Walt set out from Connecticut to tour the country during America's Bicentennial. After visiting Florida, the Grand Canyon, and Universal Studios, he planned to continue to Seattle. But when he reached Santa Rosa, he had only fifty dollars left. A Help Wanted sign at the gas station where he stopped changed his plans. Walt was an auto mechanic with his tools in the van, so he took the job and stayed.
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My journey to Sonoma began as a trip across America.
It was 1976, the country's Bicentennial year, and I wanted to see the United States when it was two hundred years old. I started in Connecticut, traveled down to Florida, crossed through the middle of the country, and stopped at points of interest along the way.
I was not the only person doing something like that. At places such as the Grand Canyon, I saw cars painted with "Happy Birthday America" and flags flying on the freeway. There was a celebratory feeling everywhere, and people seemed especially friendly.
When I reached California, I wanted to see how movies were made, so I visited Universal Studios in Hollywood and took the tour.
My next planned stop was the Space Needle in Seattle.
I never made it there.
By the time I reached Santa Rosa, I realized I had only fifty dollars left. I pulled into a gas station near College Avenue and Morgan Street to buy gas. There was a Help Wanted sign outside.
I was an auto mechanic, and I had brought my tools with me in the van. I asked about the job, they hired me, and my cross-country tour suddenly became a move to Sonoma County.
At first, I lived in my van behind the gas station. The owners allowed me to stay there for a couple of months while I tried to find a place to rent.
Finding housing was difficult because I still had an out-of-state driver's license. Landlords in Santa Rosa would not rent to me.
Eventually, a man named Dave Johnson agreed to rent me a house near Mountain and Buena Vista avenues in Boyes Hot Springs for three hundred dollars a month. I mailed him the rent in an envelope every month and did not see him again for nearly a year.
I thought I was living on the outskirts of Santa Rosa.
Most days, I turned right at the end of Mountain Avenue and headed toward work. Then one day, I turned left instead.
That was when I realized there was another town nearby.
The town was Sonoma.
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Walt began traveling across the country during America's Bicentennial in 1976.
He planned to travel from California to Seattle but reached Santa Rosa with only fifty dollars left.
A Help Wanted sign led Walt to take a job as an auto mechanic and remain in Sonoma County.
Walt initially lived in his van because landlords would not rent to someone with an out-of-state license.
A rental in Boyes Hot Springs placed him near Sonoma before he realized the town was there.
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This story was created from a recorded conversation between Walt and Don Lundgren as part of the Sonoma Stories project. The conversation was edited for clarity and length while preserving Walt's experiences, reflections, and voice. Once published, Walt may request changes at any time or ask to have the story removed.
