When I think back to visiting San Francisco, back in the early 1990’s and the street cars attached to wires like giant TV antennas to heaven and the hills looking like a different country and it smelled like Eucalyptus and I didn’t find Janis Joplin in Haight Ashbury, but there were tie-died kids there who were following the Grateful Dead and they were talking about Babylon and our wrong ways, my wrong ways, I felt belittled, but they were barnstormers like Satchel Paige and so I warmed up to them and learned a new vocabulary. Shwag meant shitty weed. And a kind sister was someone to trust and I don’t remember the other terms, but there were many and good for them. I didn’t hop onboard, but it’s great that America offers so many cults to join, baseball being probably the biggest.
And so I stood in the midst of Haight Ashbury, knowing full well, paranoid that I was a square, a sheep in Babylon with a 9-5 slave job, working for the man, paying taxes, and soon a spot in a local cemetery and so I walked on from Haight Ashbury feeling lowly and lonely; I walked through Golden Gate Park and stumbled on a field of buffalo and I had never seen buffalo before and knew very little about them, just that the Plains Indians relied on them for food and building teepees and whatever else and that they thanked the buffalo for dying on their behalf and welcomed them to reincarnate or something like that and I thought about Lyman Bostock and continued, one foot in front of the other, to the windy, breezy, sandy dunes of cold Pacific Ocean and I wondered what was on the other side.
brewers baseball and things 
June 23, 2024 at 11:01 am
I enjoyed the sharp, inspired writing here. Steve; lines such as, “The hills looking like a different country and it smelled like Eucalyptus.”
San Francisco is one of my favorite places. Visits there transform me, and your post captured some of those feelings.
On one of my trips there _ also, like you, in the 1990s _ my wife I went to Haight Ashbury, too, to pay homage, if you will, and then we went to Golden Gate Park in search of Japanese Gardens. It was a sparkling weekday morning and as we wandered the park, I said to her, “You know, it’s a swell day for a ballgame, and the A’s are home this afternoon against the White Sox, and you and I have never been to Oakland….” She said, “Nothing’s stopping us. let’s go,” and we did, and we got tickets at the gate and people were nice to us and we had a great time, seated among the sparse crowd, talking to A’s fans about why the club traded Jose Canseco, and just feeling a lot of good vibes. It’s the only time we ever got to the Oakland stadium.
June 23, 2024 at 10:09 pm
I’m glad to hear you enjoyed this Mark and that we share the same affinity for San Francisco. It’s a shame that the Bay Area will be without the A’s. That’s great that you were able to see a game at the Coliseum and enjoy some conversation with fellow fans.
June 23, 2024 at 12:09 pm
I made it to San Fransisco in the 90’s as well. I made it to City Lights bookstores, but it was late and closed, but I made it there. I think I would prefer the Buffalo to the hippies. Nothing against the hippies. And like you, I would have stood on the shore of the Pacific and wonder, what comes after?
June 23, 2024 at 10:05 pm
Remember the bar next to City Lights? I think it’s called Vesuvios. They have a second floor with tables that overlook the action down below. I don’t know why but I always remember that…..maybe because sitting there felt like being in the upper deck of a baseball game.
June 24, 2024 at 2:45 pm
I’m not familiar with the bar. But sounds great. Haha, I like the upper deck feel.
June 24, 2024 at 10:29 am
Greta one. I have many stories about SF as I’m sure everyone who has been there does. It’s funny how “shitty weed” was so common in the 90’s and now you couldn’t find it if you tried.
June 24, 2024 at 10:44 am
Yes, weed is definitely enjoying its golden era, but there are no more seeds in the store bought packages. I guess they don’t want us growing our own.