December 23, 2004

STREET SCENEGraystone Lane

The entrance to Graystone Lane over the Los Alamitos Creek is adorned with Osborn’s red ribbons. Photo by Jeanne Carbone Lewis

There’s a very special street in Almaden. A few miles long it encompasses all that is wonderful about living in the area—history, natural beauty and great neighbors.

Entering over the bridge to Graystone Lane, Los Alamitos Creek passes underneath while hikers and bicyclists enjoy the trail of the same name. A few yards past the waterway, a small historic building stands—built in the 1870s—that housed tools for a quarry long ago.

Graystone Lane features ranch-style homes, many on generous acres, as well as newer upscale estates that wind up the hill, abodes with spectacular mountain and Almaden valley vistas. They’re called million-dollar views and for good reason. The real estate fetches those kinds of prices. But along with the pricey custom residences, a sign posted states: “Caution many deer cross here.” Amid the Bay Area’s housing boom of out-of-this-world prices, Graystone Lane still has a sense of the country and neighbors you can count on.

And every year, someone ties large red Christmas ribbons to every available fence, mailbox and telephone pole spreading yuletide with a simple act of kindness.

“I’ve never seen them go up in the three years I’ve been here,” said neighbor Allison Johnson. “They just appear one day and last through the Christmas season.”

This year, Johnson discovered who the elf was when she witnessed the decorating on a fence. It was Gerri Osborn, a resident who lived on Graystone Lane since 1961 who tied the 160 bows adorning the street with the help of her granddaughter, 15-year-old Tessa.

“I started in 1969, and I’ve missed only one year since then,” Osborn said about her random act kindness. “I always loved Christmas and would decorate my home. It began with my 14-year-old son, Todd, helping to make bows and Christmas Eve at midnight we would attach them to mailboxes. Now he’s 49. I liked to decorate and even went to school and studied floral design in 1971.”

Osborn relates that one time while Todd, 6 feet tall at the time, and she were walking down the street at midnight, carrying shopping bags full of bows, a policeman drove down from upper Graystone Lane.

“What are you doing?” the man in blue asked, spotlight on the pair from the patrol vehicle.

“Would you believe we’re putting up bows on the mailboxes?” Osborn replied.

“What a nice thing to do,” the officer responded. “That’s really special.”

Osborn commented that when she began decorating the street there were only 20 homes. That and the ribbons were plastic that Todd and she made so many years ago. Now she’s upgrading them to the waterproof velvet. She met many of the residents in the area through the years, even one man who stuffed a $20 bill in her pocket and drove off saying he wanted to help her continue the Christmas cheer. And the many children in the neighborhood call her “the bow lady.”

“This is my joy and it is a fun thing to do,” the 74-year-old grandmother comments. “Espec-ially during war time.”

Time moves forward and all of Osborn’s children are grown providing her with eight grandchildren. Twenty-year-old Alec Ganzel is one of Osborn’s grandchildren. The Marine was injured in Afghanistan with a compounded fracture and is awaiting surgery to repair the fracture. Osborn commented that even he wanted to know “have you put the bows up yet?” She relates that she’ll continue her Christmas tradition for as long as she is able to.

And, of course, she has created a yellow bow in honor of her grandson.

“It’s one of those acts of simple holiday kindness and spirit that aren’t seen as much these days,” Johnson said about her neighbor. “And several times a day, for that minute or so I’m on Graystone Lane, in a hurry to get here or there, it always makes me pause and remember that it’s Christmas time.”

Graystone Lane—where beauty meets history and a random act of kindness by “the bow lady” is appreciated by all.

—By Jeanne Carbone Lewis