He’s not the wizard of this Menlo Park

Are the folks at Trader Joe’s in Menlo Park just trying to “pull our leg”? Or do they really think that Thomas A. Edison is the wizard of Menlo Park, California?

I was fortunate to learn about Edison from a man who worked with him in Menlo Park, New Jersey — the grandfather of a classmate  — when I was in grade school at Hillview (which was a K-8 at the time).  If you don’t know about Edison’s life, here’s a good summation from the state of New Jersey:

“Thomas Alva Edison was one of the most famous and prolific inventors of all time, responsible for such innovations as the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture as well as improving the telegraph and telephone. In his 84 years, he acquired an astounding 1,093 patents, an average of a week over the life of his career.
Edison was born in Ohio, grew up in Michigan and worked in several Midwestern cities as a telegraph operator. He then moved to Boston where he invented an electric vote recorder.

“As an adult, Edison moved to New Jersey because of his work with the telegraph industry. In fact, while he is best known for his work with light, his earliest inventions were connected to the telegraph, including an improved stock ticker and a way to send four messages on a single wire.

“In 1878, Edison built his famous laboratory in Menlo Park, where he invented the phonograph and electric light. Edison soon became known as the “Wizard of Menlo Park” because of the miraculous nature of his inventions which so radically changed how people lived.”

Aside: the TJ’s mural is stranger still in that it doesn’t look much like Edison — I can not find a photo of him wearing glasses!

Photos by Robb Most (c) 2024