SAN FRANCISCO

13 September 2021

I came across this video of driving around the streets of San Francisco on YouTube today.  I love San Francisco and love coming across videos of the city, even videos like this which don't really concentrate on the famous sights, but more on the city streets. This was taken in the 1960s, shortly before I moved to Berkeley.

The hill that is shown driving up a few times, is very similar to the hill that I was raised on, except our hill was a bit steeper and we had parallel parking.

The movies taken of downtown brought back so many memories.  You never went downtown without dressing up -- your good clothes, high heels, hat, and gloves.

My mother and grandmother

How I hated gloves.  They made me feel claustrophobic.  I had to wear them every Sunday when we went to Mass, and managed to take them off before the end of Mass.

The car drives down the twisted part of Lombard Street and when it gets to the bottom, if you turn right and drive 3 blocks, you will be driving up the hill on which I grew up (and learned to parallel park).  To the right of my street is Filbert Street, the steepest street in San Francisco, at a 31.5% grade.

The shot of Lombard Street is interesting because there are NO tourists standing at the bottom with cameras.  Definitely not what you see today!

It may be 60 years since I moved out of San Francisco, but I still think of it as "home."