DAY 12: The Rock

 

Day 12: No Escape

I was in San Francisco in 1992. That was fifty years after my mom took a train from Norfolk, Virginia where my dad did his naval training to the Golden Gate City where my father would be temporarily stationed before shipping out to war. I'm sure a lot had changed, but some constants remained. 

Trolleys. Lombard Street. The Beuna Vista Cafe. The big red bridge.

And, of course, Alcatraz. The Rock. The backdrop for classic movies like The Enforcer (Dirty Harry), The Birdman of Alcatraz, and The Rock with Connery and Cage.

I viewed the landmark from Pier 39 while eating crab cake sandwiches and drinking a can of beer wrapped in a paper bag. I was there with a dozen other people but no one wanted to go over t other island. Instead, we watched sea lions swim and bark and sun themselves. I was fairly certain it would be like visiting any other historic site. A guide or a plaque would indicate 'Here's where....happened.' Still, sometimes you just want to stand where the notorious stood.

San Francisco was memorable for many reasons. I made a dinner reservation at a swanky seafood restaurant for fourteen. When we all sat down, everyone looked at the one empty chair. The waiter asked if we were waiting for someone. I said we were all there. One of the guys in the group asked why I made a reservation for fourteen. I told him no restaurant of any worth would ever take a reservation for thirteen. The waiter called me wise and told the party of the fire at the Coconut Grove.

Frisco was also the trip where I bought neckties from a guy on the street. Three for five bucks. A block later a merchant was yelling at a truck driver, 'What do you mean you lost a box of neckties? They were sitting right there...'

We ran into the man who screamed, 'With NAFTA you get the shaft-a!'

There was the super model in the limo who looked at me and said 'Hi. What's good to eat here?' and all could say was, 'Gravy.' I think I meant to say 'groovy' which still wouldn't make sense but it was more apropos than gravy.

Finally, it was in San Francisco where my buddy and I met Chuck Gideon. In a thick beer fog, I misunderstood what my friend was saying. I finally said, 'Wait wait wait. Who is Chuck Gideon and why did you push him out of the window?'

A San Francisco legend was born that night.

STUMPSTONE QUOTE OF THE DAY:

'Is the NAFTA a stepping stone to the new world order? Absolutely.'--Used because of the paranoid man on the streets of San Francisco.