Recollection: Being in San Francisco in the 1960s - part 3

Part 3 was delayed because I have been sick - a cold - strep throat, and eye infections (the left then the right eye) and I waited to get better - and I am better.  Also, the Tour de France started on 29 June and will end on 21 July, 2013 - this year is the 100th Tour de France and since I am a fan I watch it live every morning on TV for 3 hours (then barely watch TV the rest of the year...) I re-read all the comments my blogging friends so graciously left on my last post.  Several commented that I should write a book about my experiences and memoirs, but that would not be an exciting read - this blog is my book, virtually, where I can recount my recollections.  Thank you also for your emails - someone suggested that I should dictate my memoirs as an "oral history."  Just a few people would listen to that and it could be boring without the pictures.  I prefer to write these past events on my blog where I can include some of my vintage postcards, like those below.  I did not take pictures of Chinatown then but I remember having dinner in many small Chinese restaurants - and it usually cost about $1.00.  I would hop on a cable car on California Street; it was fast and cheap... then.  (Click on collages twice to enlarge.)

I worked close to Union Square and could walk to Pam Pam restaurant, or even Blum's Coffee Shop for lunch.  Below is a postcard of Union Square at the time - Blum's is across Union Square in the center.

On the left of the postcard above was the department store "The City of Paris" with the Eiffel Tower on the roof.  I rarely shopped there as it specialized in clothing for an older and affluent crowd, but I was offered a job there because I was French - I already had a job so I refused.  This store was founded in 1850 by Felix Verdier from France and the same family owned it until it closed in the mid 1970s.  Below are closer pictures of the City of Paris (authors unknown.)

The tall building on the right above was the department store called I. Magnin.  This was a high-end luxury store.  I preferred to shop at Joseph Magnin which was more youthful and trendy.  I bought a pink dress there once that I really liked and wore all the time (see below.)  I also shopped at Roos Atkins - you can barely see the store at the end of the street close to Market Street on the left on the bottom picture above (I bought a white hat there once.)  Close by on O'Farrell and Powell streets was George Mardikian's Armenian restaurant called "Omar Khayyam."  I went there to eat some shish-kebab once and George Mardikian came to break bread with me.  He also offered me a job in the restaurant because I was Armenian (jobs were easy to obtain then.)  But I already had a job so he gave me a copy of his cook-book and autographed it for me.

 For entertainment I would go to North Beach and listen to jazz, or watch some comedy shows at the "hungry i," or look and purchase books at City Lights bookstore.  Below are some pictures of San Francisco in the 1960s (some of my slides did not weather the years well.)

In the spring of 1966 I decided to go back home to Paris, with a stop in the UK.  Jim, a friend from work I had started dating earlier that year, came with me.  First we stayed a few days in London as Jim had never been to England.  It was cool and windy in London so I bought a coat and a brown scarf in Carnaby Street in Soho, which at the time, was famous for hot fashion.  Then we toured the sights.

For several days we drove through the Cotswold's then on to north Wales.  The scenery was delightful and I took many slides - they show their age though.  I'd love to go back and take proper digital photos.

Then after staying several days in Wales and going up to Chester we went back to London and then took the ferry across the Channel to France, where I gave Jim a good tour of Paris - going all the way to the top of Notre Dame de Paris.

Back in San Francisco I changed job as I did not wish to work at the same place as Jim since we were dating.  I quickly found a job at Watson & Meehan, on Folsom Street - a Cummins diesel engine distributor.  There I made a good friend from Taiwan - I-Mei.  She was a Nichiren Buddhist and explained the religion in detail.  Jim and I went to Nichiren Buddhist meetings with her several times and then we joined.  Later though, after we moved from San Francisco, we no longer went to the Nichiren Buddhist meetings.  I still enjoy the philosophy but follow another branch of Buddhism (just as in Christianity there are several branches of Buddhism with a variety of practices and traditions.)  Here is I-Mei below with her little son.

In the 1960s the Greyhound Bus Company used to offer a special Holiday Package from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe in Nevada for New Year - I don't remember how much it cost then but it was very inexpensive.  It included 3 nights and $5 in casino chips.  We went two winters in a row I think 1966 and 1967, or maybe 67 and 68 I am not sure.  We did not gamble but used the time to enjoy the beautiful scenery there.

The year 1967 in San Francisco was when up to 100,000 people from all over the US and abroad came to the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.  There was music, sexual freedom, psychedelic drugs, pot, and liberal politics.  A blogger commented last week that "it was shameful about the way that our soldiers were treated upon their return" from the Vietnam War.  This applies to other towns surely, because in San Francisco they were welcome.  Jim was in the military reserve and told me that many veterans came directly to San Francisco - I saw many there.  They were treated at the Free Clinic and found comfort amongst the citizens of the counter-culture communities, even from the bikers - the peace activists there never treated the veterans with contempt as reported by the media.  Jim introduced me to "folk" music - we spent hours listening to Pete Seeger and Joan Baez, and we saw her in concerts in the Bay Area several times.  Later on we also went to see the first performance of the rock-musical "Hair" and I bought the LP album - the refrain "Let the sunshine in" stayed in my ears for a long time...

1967 was called "The Summer of Love"  A song written by John Phillips of the group The Mamas & the Papas was created to promote the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival.  The song was "If you're going to San Francisco" and went on ... be sure to wear flowers in your hair... It was made popular by Scott McKenzie.  Actually we saw both the group the Mamas & the Papas and Scott at that festival on Sunday June 18, 1967 and they sang that tune among others like "California Dreamin" and "Monday, Monday."

Jim and  I were married on Saturday June 17, 1967 and went to the Monterey Pop Festival the following day.  I already wrote a post about our wedding last year for our 45th wedding anniversary, see "Recollection - A San Francisco wedding in 1967." On the top left photo above are Vince and Leslie on the left, me, then Jim and George on the right.  Jim and I moved to an apartment on Guerrero Street near Market Street, just one block off Dolores Street in the Mission district.  I was still modeling for Clairol and had to go to their hair shows at the Fairmont Hotel.  The Fairmont is on top of Nob Hill and is a massive, luxurious hotel opened in 1907 - it is on the National Register of Historic Places.  I never took pictures while I was there but below are vintage postcards of the hotel, the view of San Francisco from the hotel in the 1960s, and on the bottom left the current view of the front of the hotel (courtesy Wikimedia Commons.)

We did not have a cat or a dog but still had our bird.  Unfortunately our parakeet, Dimitri, passed away from a cold.  We then acquired Diego, a cockatiel.  I taught him to speak and he was very friendly - he would perch on my shoulder all the time.  Dimitri is in the black and white picture and Diego in the colored picture below.

In May 1968 Jim and I went back to France to see my family but first we stopped in Holland for 10 days.  It was tulip time and the flowers were gorgeous.  I took many slides but the colors have faded.  We were in Amsterdam at a bed and breakfast (I am at the left window on the top floor below,)  then the Keukenhof Gardens, Gouda, Volendam, Marken and other places.

Once in France, we went on a tour of the Chateaux de la Loire then on to the south of France to Monaco and a stop in Italy.  We rented a car and my mother came along.  Being the month of May, the weather was perfect.  We stopped in St. Tropez where there was a festival that day and I took pictures of charming little children wearing folk costumes from the Provence.  I am standing at the entrance of my parents' house on the left below and on the right is one of the towers from the Azay-le-rideau castle.

We did not realize that by traveling in May 1968 we had chosen the month that became a watershed for French life.  That May 68, youth revolted.  There was a general strike with several millions of workers going on strike and paralyzing the country.  Students took to the streets in Paris to protest and set up barricades.  There were riots with 400 people hospitalized.  Unrest spread all over France.

We were pleased to return to peace loving San Francisco.  Jim went backpacking with our friend George - they went to the Hetch Hetchy area of Yosemite National Park.  Unfortunately they did not have a tent and encountered a blizzard...

George is on the left on the photo above.  In my last post I mentioned that since the early 1970s we had lost track of George, unfortunately.  Well - because of the Web - we found him last week.  I was reading comments on books on Amazon and saw a comment by a George Smith.  I clicked on the name - what were the chances?  and I recognized him!  From there I did track him and since my last post we have exchanged several emails.  He even sent me an old picture he took of me in a painting class at the San Francisco Art Institute where we both studied - here it is below.

It is so wonderful to find old friends.  It reminds me of the lyrics from Simon and Garfunkel's 1968 song "Old Friends" -

"Time it was and what a time it was, it was

A time of innocence, a time of confidences

Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph

Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you..."

- Simon and Garfunkel

All these old photographs are printed in my mind.  The 1960s are now gone and some of my friends have passed on.  I am grateful to have all these remembrances to write about as the past would be so empty without these long ago images.  I would not have stayed uprooted half-way across the globe from Paris if it had not been for San Francisco - the city was good to me.  I read somewhere that nothing good is ever lost, it stays within you.  It becomes part of you.  As we left San Francisco that last day of 1969, another good friend, Roland, gave us a portrait of Jim and me and our new baby daughter Celine which he had painted.  I see the painting in the hall daily (I moved it to take its picture.)

When we left that last day of December 1969 we thought we would be back to San Francisco within 3 or 4 years - but we never did .... until this last June.