Passing Through Sonoma - Bill Blosser
Bill’s Sonoma Journey
This is the first of three stories about Bill’s relationship with Sonoma.
🟩 Passing Through Sonoma - Chapter 1 (You are reading this story.)
🟥 A Place That Always Felt Familiar - Chapter 2
Click the story title above to continue Bill’s journey as Sonoma becomes his home.
🟦 Giving Back to the Community That Became Home - Chapter 3
Bill’s final story describes how he and Darlinda became involved in building the Sonoma community.
Passing Through Sonoma begins below.
-
As a child, Bill Blosser often passed through Sonoma on family trips from Oakland to visit relatives in Willits. Although Sonoma was never the destination, the Plaza and the town’s character left a lasting impression. More than sixty years later, those childhood memories would become the first chapter in his Sonoma journey.
-
My family’s roots in Northern California go back to the 1850s. Although I was born and raised in Oakland, generations of Blossers lived in Willits, where there is still a Blosser Elementary School and a family cemetery that remains an important part of our family history.
As a child, I often traveled with my parents from Oakland to visit relatives in Willits. Those trips always took us through Sonoma.
At the time, I was not thinking of Sonoma as a destination. It was simply a town we passed through on our way to see family. Yet somewhere during those drives, Sonoma quietly captured my imagination.
Even as a boy, I was drawn to the Sonoma Plaza. The park, the historic buildings, and the character of the town made an impression on me. Along with places such as Healdsburg, St. Helena, and Petaluma, Sonoma represented the Northern California I loved growing up.
Life eventually carried me in another direction.
After graduating from Stanford in 1966, I moved to Portland so my wife could attend graduate school at Reed College. What we expected to be a temporary move became a lifetime. My career, my family, and eventually most of my relatives all became centered in Oregon.
Yet my memories of Sonoma never disappeared.
Now, more than sixty years after those childhood trips, I can stand in the Plaza and still recognize the place that first caught my attention. What strikes me is not how much Sonoma has changed, but how much has remained the same. The square, the park, and the buildings surrounding it still create much of the impression they did all those years ago.
Looking back, I realize those early visits shaped me more than I understood at the time. They gave me an image of the kind of Northern California town I admired long before I ever imagined living here.
I did not know it then, but those family trips were the beginning of my Sonoma journey. One day I would return—not as a visitor passing through on the way to somewhere else, but as someone coming home.
-
Childhood impressions can last a lifetime
Bill’s connection to Sonoma began during family trips through town. Those early memories stayed with him for more than sixty years.
A place can become meaningful before it becomes home
Bill developed an affection for Sonoma long before he considered living here.
A visit can begin a much longer journey
What started as passing through Sonoma on the way to Willits eventually became the first chapter of Bill’s relationship with the town.
-
This story was developed from a recorded conversation with Bill Blosser. It is the first chapter of Bill’s Sonoma journey.
Sonoma Stories publishes stories soon after they are prepared so they can be shared with the community. Storytellers are welcome to revise, expand, or correct their stories at any time. If they ever decide they no longer want their story published, they may ask for it to be removed at any time.
