Northridge faculty, staff, Friends of the Oviatt Library and other community members received an early holiday treat in December when author and Valley historian Catherine Mulholland gave a presentation on "Valley Lives: A Memory of Grandfathers." Held in the University Student Union Grand Salon, the event was sponsored by the Friends of the Oviatt Library.

About 150 people were in attendance to hear Mulholland talk of her family and her experiences growing up on an isolated ranch in the northwest Valley. Mulholland spoke first of her maternal grandfather, John Haas, who came to Calabasas in 1888, when the population of the Valley "numbered only a few thousand." Beginning as a cowboy and ranch hand, he often served as deputy sheriff "in the rowdy and sometimes violent little settlement of Calabasas," Mulholland reported.

Mulholland then spoke of her more famous grandfather, William Mulholland. Born in Ireland in 1855, Mulholland "created a water system which enabled the city to grow. As builder of the Owens River Aqueduct, he also achieved great renown as an engineer, but also provoked controversies which persist to this day."

In addition to her recollections of her grandfathers, Mulholland also spoke of her own childhood, recalling growing up on the ranch, and her house at the intersection of Plummer and Corbin, where a K-Mart now stands.

After having left the valley to go to Berkeley, where she attended college, married and raised a family, she returned years later to a much different Valley. She likened herself to Rip Van Winkle, when she found herself in a place where little remained of the world she had known.

"I determined to write something about a place I had taken for granted and which had vanished in the face of overwhelming growth and change, "Mulholland recalled. Two books, Calabasas Girls and The Owensmouth baby were the result. The evening concluded with a session of numerous and interesting questions from the audience, after which Mulholland autographed copies of her books.