I grew up in San Mateo.  At the time, it was a sleepy little suburb without a whole lot going on.  It was a safe place to be, the weather was nicer than it is in San Francisco, and well, for years, it felt like it was always the exact same place.  These days, when I go home (my family still lives there), I am struck by how much is “going on” now — the downtown is filled with restaurants and people, and many things have in fact changed.  The library is big and fancy, there are hip restaurants with celebrity chefs, “young” people living there (this was probably always true, but since I was a kid, the adults just all seemed like old grown-ups).  The one thing that hasn’t changed is the bank building in this picture.  It’s been there forever.  My guess is that it was built sometime in the 50s or 60s, but it was always a landmark building — when I saw it, I knew we were almost home.  I’m a little sad that I never thought about taking pictures of the town when I was growing up there.  While I’ve been camera obsessed since I was a kid, it didn’t occur to me to take “urban landscape” shots back then.  (If it had, I suppose you might have called me precocious or a tiny genius perhaps).  I’m thinking of heading down with my first film camera and doing that now, one of these days.  I think it would be interesting to shoot places that do look at I recall them & I need a new personal art project.  Stay tuned. . . .