Friday, September 18, 2009

Paul

Gold Alley
North Beach
Saturday afternoon

***

San Francisco is home. I was born and raised here, in the Inner Sunset, actually Forest Hills. Born and raised on rock and roll. As I travel throughout the world, enjoying every minute of it, I never tire of looking out the airplane window and seeing San Francisco come into view. It always does that.

I feel so lucky to have grown up in San Francisco during the 1960s. I mean, it's always been a musical city... it was the first place to play "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Cathy's Clown," etc. It was and still has such a magical, international feeling to it. Different cultures, different people all coexist together. There's no place like it. Though it has changed, it still retains the smoke from the past.

I miss places like Playland (I caught the last few years of it), but San Francisco is still the town where Playland was and still is in my mind. Growing up here was a treasure: the characters, the neighborhoods. No matter how far I go away from here, there's still a piece of San Francisco in me and I'll always come back.

2 comments:

meg said...

goosebumps. what an experience to grow up a music-lovin child here in SF, in the 60s!!!

MELI. said...

love this. I'm lucky to be around people that have seen SF since the 40s, including my landord, who grew up in north beach & has a picture of him by the bridge in its inaguration... he's in his 90s.
those italians go a long way.

great posts as always, xo/m