by Jud Snyder, The Community Voice
April 18, 2014
Slip-sliding along from unnamed pastures, farms and chicken houses to streets and upscale homes now in quiet collision with their predecessors, that chunk of maybe Cotati or maybe unincorporated county, lying south of where Lancaster Avenue ends and east of Old Redwood Highway, is probably terra incognito to most Cotatians. Even more so to Rohnert Park residents.
Go east on Fern and Eucalyptus avenues past the newer homes and you’ll slip past the dividing line into neatly trimmed pastures, older farm homes, sturdy mature trees, cows and chickens, crows and vultures.
The contrast is readily visible. It deserves a history of its own before the new inevitably chews up the old.
John and Katie Fomasi have lived on a seven-acre farmstead in the middle of the old section for the last 60 years. John will be celebrating his 93rd birthday in a month or so and Katie’s 89 years old. They have four children ranging in age from 70 on down to the 30’s, Marlene, Janice, Carol and Raymond. The refrigerator in the Fomasi house’s kitchen is filled with photos of them plus their nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. You can bet when there’s a family reunion (they all live in neighboring towns), the Fomasi farm is alive with juveniles.
Continue reading at The Community Voice – John, Katie Fomasi represent old, rural Cotati.
