A lot has changed in just a few short years.
This is a picture of Clayton right before Oakhurst was built. The photo was taken in a backyard of a home on Yolanda Circle.
Thanks so much to Tiffany for the photo.
ABOUT THE CLAYCORD ONLINE MUSEUM: The Claycord Online Museum is made up of historical photos, documents & anything else that has to do with the history of our area.
If you have any old photos or items that you’d like to place in the Claycord Online Museum, just scan or take a photo of them, and send them to the following address: news@claycord.com. It doesn’t matter what it is, even if it’s just an old photo of your house, a scan of an old advertisement or an artifact that you’d like us to see, send it in and we’ll put it online!
Click on the tag below titled “Claycord Online Museum” to view other items!
18 comments
I recall that Oakhurst was quite controversial at the time. Thanks for taking me in the Wayback Machine.
In the early 80s when I grew up in Clayton was the best time ever. The cardinet trail wasn’t as defined and the creek and where the golf course is now belonged to us neighborhood kids. We had about 8 houses with kids in our neighborhood and we played army in the creek, floated boats down it, and even robe tubes down the creek for a mile or two after a huge rain.
After the golf course was built we would find golf balls in the creek and sell them back to the golfers for $0.50 to $0.75 cents a piece after washing them. Made tons of money. We went door to door selling vegetables grown in put back yard. We even picked mistletoe in the creek and wrapped it in red ribbon and sold it in front of Safeway for $1 a bundle. So many memories Clayton was the absolute best place to grow up in the 80s and 90s. We could go anywhere we wanted in Clayton just be home by the time the street lights turned on…
Boy, that brings back memories of my 90’s childhood in Clayton.
Thanks for that
Nice post! We need more of this on here 🙂
Trump owned oakhurst before it was oakhurst
Are you implying that it’s *gasp* MAGA country???
The 70s in Clayton even better. ha ha. Tubed down the creeks back then too ! hardly any street lights, more stars visible in the sky, the sounds of cows, chickens, horses . friends getting together finding places to party around town, keggers at the dam up Morgan Territory rd. Black Diamond trail. running from the cops dragging our kegs up in the hills. meet you guys down at the eucalyptus grove. the good smells of the eucalyptus on the summer nights. alright, alright, alright ! “You’d be a lot cooler if you did.
Clayton sounds like a great place to have grown up back then. Wish I could have grown up here. I didn’t move to Clayton until 2008 when I was in my mid-40s. Have really enjoyed living here, I think it is a very special place.
Nice to have those memories. To bad things have gotten so out of control that we can’t live like that again.
You will can if you live in Danville,
alamo. ruby hill
Eastbound Clayton Rd. used to make a sharp right turn just beyond the present library, and became Marsh Creek Rd. Right at the turn was the windsock for the Easley Ranch dirt airstrip which ran roughly parallel to the current Oakhurst Dr. I saw airplanes take off from there. Concord Blvd ended just beyond Camino Estrada at a barbed wire fence, with pasture beyond. The only traffic was from local residents. In the early 80’s I explored most of the land around Keller Canyon/Ridge, saw the oil spill and sulphur spring, and climbed Seeno Hill. I remember walking beneath the power lines that were only about 20 feet overhead as they hummed loudly. The hair stood up on both my arms. In later years I drove the dirt road between downtown Clayton and Summersville which is now a trail.
That is so cool.
We moved to Concord in 1974, bought our first house there in 1975. At that time we thought The Crossings was too far out. We discovered Clayton in 1977 and fell in love with it and bought our house here that year. We’ve been here ever since (near the creek) and still love it here. We moved here with no children yet, raised 5 here and now some of them and their children live here. Clayton has grown and changed, but is still a special place.
Ha ha. When I was trying to find the Claycord Museum, instead of the usual 404 error, I got a message saying “You 404’d it. Gnarly, dude.
Surfin’ ain’t easy, and right now, you’re lost at sea. But don’t worry; simply pick an option from the list below, and you’ll be back out riding the waves of the Internet in no time.” Old language, but still funny.
My patents bought a house in Clayton in 1957 and we moved here from our two-acre Walnut orchard on Concord Blvd. We used to go down into town on the weekends and wave at the few cars that went by … people on their way to Stockton, mostly. We considered ourselves the greeting committee and got excited when they waved back.. We’d stop at the elementary school playground and swing for a while on the way home. There weren’t any fences or locked gates to keep us out. It wasn’t unusual to just hike straight across an open area like the one pictured above. You just had to make sure you didn’t annoy the cattle.
Gittyup – …and watch for bulls!
Back in the 70’s I used to fly my radio controlled glider from a hill atop Kirker pass. One evening I was alone, concentrating on flying when I heard a rustling.sound behind me. I turned to see a semicircle of about 15-20 cows about 50 feet away, all intently watching me. I turned around and flew my glider a few feet over their heads and they didn’t seem to notice. I yelled, stamped my feet and they ambled off. There was a bull in the group but it was not aggressive. Bulls are unpredictable and can be very dangerous.
Change is not always for the better. I cannot imagine all the creatures of nature who lost their habitats so a greedy developer could build those homes. Nature always bats last……..
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