Pete Colombini is a 94-year-old retired farmer who knows there’s
no place like home.
Morgan Hill – Pete Colombini is a 94-year-old retired farmer who knows there’s no place like home.
He lives in the same Peebles Avenue farmhouse his mother built in 1906. The house used to be surrounded by nothing but prune orchards and vineyards.
Growing up, Colombini and his brothers and sisters – there were five altogether – had plenty of chores to keep them busy. Milking cows and driving horses were daily jobs. Back then, the farm had roughly 25 acres. Down the road, the family owned another 35 acres.
Additionally, the family held stretches of land on Malaguera Road and Burnett Avenue. There were also 90-plus acres across Little Llagas Creek.
“So, that’s why we had so much work to do,” Colombini said in an interview at his home Wednesday. “There were so many vineyards.”
In the 1960s, the family sold about 37 acres on Malaguera to Santa Clara County to become part of Anderson Lake Park. Additional pieces of land have also been sold off over the years as the family’s farming and wine-making slowed down in the 1970s.
Buy Colombini never left home. Today he still does all his own gardening and takes care of the house where he lives alone.
He never married after staying home during World War II while his brothers went off to war. But he has plenty of admiring friends who love to stop by and visit. He tells them farming stories, tales of historic land wars and even yarns about bootleggers during prohibition.
“I feel I’m so fortunate to know him,” said Connie Lucchetti, who lives down the road with her husband and three children. “He’s a living part of our history … of Madrone’s history.”
Lucchetti checks in on Colombini almost every day and frequently invites him to dinner. She met him through his older brother, Alfred Colombini, who was her landlord until his death in 1997.
“Every time I see him it makes me want to do more,” she said. “He does everything, pulling weeds, gardening … he’s inspirational.”
Colombini can still be spotted driving through town. He shops downtown, but prefers to stay away from the hustle and bustle. He mainly keeps busy around the house and in his yard, tending gardens and keeping the place spotless.
“I’m always looking for something to do,” he said. “I like to stay busy.”
The home he lives in was recently remodeled, but for the most part it’s the same structure his mother instructed workers to build a century ago.
The two barns out back used to hold horses and cows, but now contain only relics of Colombini’s farming past. A hand-cranked drill is mounted on one wall. Old saws and tools are cluttered on a shelf. Historic coffee cans hold screwdrivers and nails. He’s watched the valley change from an agricultural center to an outgrowth of Silicon Valley.
“Even in my own time I’ve seen South County change a lot,” said Bill Scott, a retired sheriff’s department sergeant and one of Colombini’s friends. “I’ve seen a lot of development down here and farming is starting to disappear.”
Scott said he enjoys keeping in touch with people he met during his 30 years of service in South County – he retired in 2004 – and Colombini is one of his favorite friends.
Scott’s wife is also Lucchetti’s sister.
“He tells farming stories … about how they used to farm way back when and how life was,” Scott said, adding Colombini recently sold him his 1954 International tractor, along with all the original manuals and maintenance records. “When I saw it I knew I had to get it.”
Colombini said Morgan Hill’s transformation doesn’t bother him too much. He has more neighbors these days, but he never considered leaving.
“There’s no place like home,” the cheerful farmer said.
Some changes he welcomes. As he opens the door to the barn where he used to milk cows at dawn, he laughs with relief. “I don’t miss that!”
