Before I retired I traveled to San Francisco often, usually to consult at UCSF Medical Center. San Francisco is perhaps my favorite city to visit, the restaurants are among the best in the world.
For several years I would rent a car at the airport and drive into town; the hotel I liked to stay at was a half block from Union Square. I found that I usually left it parked for my entire stay, taking taxis or walking wherever I went. Then I belatedly discovered BART, and found that I could get into the city center faster and much cheaper.
One Sunday I flew in, my talk was scheduled for the next morning, and took BART to the Market St. Station, went up to street level, and this greeted my eyes:
Market street was wall-to-wall, or I suppose sidewalk-to-sidewalk, with no break in sight. I had to cross to get to my hotel, so I joined the fray, me and my roll-aboard, wearing a suit. As I tried to angle across, I was handed a bloody mary, given a paper hat, and merrily walked along. It was like getting into a river and attempting to cross against the current, except a lot more fun.
4 blocks and several minutes later I emerged, now carrying a balloon in addition. It was great fun, a 'pause for the cause', as we used to say.
San Fran has always been and will always be an exciting city. I spent time as a teenager there in the 60's.
ReplyDeleteMe too, I was there earlier in 1959 as a 8th grader.
DeleteMy wife Cary and I were there for two weeks the summer of '66, before I flew out of Travis AFB.
I've been to SF once, and would go back in a heartbeat. Look at the story you came away with!
ReplyDeleteGot many, many stories about SF, Joanne. Misty fog in Golden Gate Park in 1966, drinking with Herb Caen in the Gold Rush bar, etc.
DeleteLove SF, great you got to participate and a free drink to boot!!
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
It was great fun, I didn't emphasize that enough. My point was that gay pride parade was fun for a straight guy. I just muddied it up with too much SF, and too little parade.
DeleteI understand and share your affection for SF. Two of our kids have made their homes there, so we visit pretty often.
ReplyDeleteWow, in the city?
DeleteI find my favorite things about SF are in the past....walking from Union Square through Chinatown, finding some hole in the wall with no english to eat great food, walking over to North Beach then back. The North Beach Restaurant in the 70's, abelone steaks, sand dabs, Lorenzo, the owner, died recently.
A great city indeed.
Great city!
ReplyDelete'Tis indeed.
DeleteWhat better way to get where you were going?
ReplyDeleteExactly. The point of my post, but not well-communicated as written.
DeleteI was there in '66. My uncle had lived there for many decades and when we were out driving one day he said let's go look at the Haight-Ashbury district. I hear it's changed. He said it had been a quiet area of old homes and old residents. What we encountered was anything but that. It was a vast parade along the sidewalks and streets of hippies, flower people, young druggies, whatever you want to call them. I saw something that interested me and put the brake on. My uncle, terrified, shouted "DON'T SLOW DOWN!" That was my only experience with the Haight.
ReplyDeleteyeah....well, after I came back from VN, I was driving my dad someplace in 1969, maybe the store. There was a couple hitchhiking on the road through town, young, long hair, backpacks. My dad pointed at them and said we should swerve the truck and clip them. I asked why....he looked puzzled, then said something like 'those are those hippys you read about, communists.'
DeleteDifferent time, different experiences for those guys. I don't blame them, just wish they'd had a bit more empathy for people.
Would my dad have understood my kids, or grandkids? Don't think so, it's best he's moved on.
Oh, lovely! We should all be greeted with a Bloody and a balloon. :-)
ReplyDeletePearl
As I remember, I gave my balloon to another marcher, tossed my empty BM plastic glass in a wastecan, and left, quite pleased.
DeleteMmmm. Perhaps you might have bumped into my cousin Ned crossing that parade. My dad of that older generation tried to give me a heads up on Ned by saying he was "of a different persuasion." We all knew anyway...:)
ReplyDeleteyeah. dunno about you TB, but a couple of my cousins were ' of a different persuasion', and we didn't make a thing of it. Eastern Oregon, the early 60's, it didn't register with us. A couple years ago, I asked one of the cousins if they every got married, he shook his head, a guy my age, and said "it ain't legal yet here." Another, wife at his side, said "Bastids". Everybody nodded.
DeleteI loved SF too the one and only time I got to spend a week there. Naturally, I imagined how nice it would be to live on Russian Hill :)
ReplyDeleteGlad you had so much fun crossing the street. I remember the first year it was held in Portland we were at the Powell's bookstore downtown - right on the parade route too. We had fun watching as well.
I so wish I had access to a place like Powell's.....I actually know Mike Powell, met him decades ago.
DeleteI never did meet Mike, but I spent an hour or two there nearly every Sunday for 18 years.
DeleteI love San Francisco! It's a city with everything.
ReplyDeleteI hitch hiked up to SF with a friend during the summer of love. We were getting ready to start our senior year in high school. We told our parents that we were taking a bus to my older brother's house in San Jose, but hitch hiked to Haight-Ashbury for a week instead. It was everything I thought it would be and It was also a lot of things I hated and some I loved.
I actually like the city better now. I have to say though, there are just too many brazen and aggressive homeless people around Union Square.
Pat
DeleteI was there the previous summer, my then-fiancee and I spent a week there before I flew out of Travis AFB on my way to the bad place. I've heard that that summer, '67 was quite a party.
You are correct about Union Square...in the past I'd get a coffee and the SF Chronicle and sit in the park. Now, you're there 10 seconds before an aggressive panhandler is right on you.