An hour south, in the peninsula region just north of San Jose - huge things were happening. The 8085 microprocessor had come out two years earlier; and the big buzz was 4k RAM chips.  I just got laid off from Airco-Temescal in Berkeley - a technology company which created semi-conductor fabrication equipment. A recession was going on.

But in Silicon Valley, the Sunday want-ads took up about 300 pages. If you understood electronics, you were pretty much guaranteed a job. And if you didn't like the one you were at, just walk across the street. The company on the other side of the street will pay you even more. 

Clearly this wasn't something I should pass up. I didn't. I left my $125/month roach infested studio apartment directly above a massage parlor on College Avenue in Berkeley - and moved to Silicon Valley.