News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
FIRST PERSON | Chuck Smith Strange. I feel as if I’ve always been a San Franciscan, even though we’ve only lived here for 16 years. The city was in me before I was in it. As soon as my wife, Lorna, and I arrived in San Francisco, we were drawn to this neighborhood, and a few years…
FIRST PERSON | John Maccabee I recently moved to the East Bay and had to leave behind an office I had rented for 20 years upstairs at 2001 Fillmore Street. Leaving the neighborhood was wrenching, although I joked that I was ready to go; I had wrung every cubit of creativity from my 200-square-foot studio.…
FLASHBACK | HONEY GREEN It was October 1966, just a few days before my birthday. Bill Graham had booked an amazing show. Headlining was the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, with Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, Mark Naftalin, Elvin Bishop and a host of many others. The second band was the Jefferson Airplane — Marty, Jorma, Jack,…
FIRST PERSON | RONALD HOBBS Aunt Beebee — Bertha — and I were no kin at all. She was “that nice old colored woman” who worked at the Donut Hole. Her niece, Bettye, called her Aunt Beebee. It caught on with us regulars. The joint must have served 500 cups of joe a day and…
FIRST PERSON | Fran Johns Beyond the pain, angst and despair of downsizing, there is always a story. And there are questions: How can I convince my parent or spouse or partner that it’s time? Who’s going to take care of the logistics and legalities, not to mention the tricky finances? Will I lose my…
“We’ve begun to long for the pitter-patter of little feet — so we bought a dog. Well, it’s cheaper, and you get more feet.” — Rita Rudner FIRST PERSON | DAVID LANDIS It all began when we put up the Christmas tree in December. My partner Sean Dowdall is a cafeteria Catholic and I’m a…
By MARKOS KOUNALAKIS BUDAPEST, Hungary — Many of my Saturdays used to start out with a saunter down Fillmore Street for an early morning cup of coffee while the rest of my family was still in bed. Budapest is also a coffeehouse city, but more famed for the conversations and art that grew out of…
FIRST PERSON | Barbara Kate Repa My friend Johanna and I honor a tradition of embarking on an adventure together to celebrate our birthdays, loosely based on Eleanor Roosevelt’s exhortation that doing scary things makes you stronger. So when my big day neared this year, I urged an outing to the Imperial Spa at 1875…
FIRST PERSON | Tom Bergin Life flies by so fast. It has been almost 10 years since I sold Tom Bergin Goldsmith on Fillmore Street to Eric Trabert. I miss the customers — many of whom became friends. I miss the neighbors who popped in to say hello as they passed by on their daily…
FIRST PERSON | Amy Bernstein When we started telling friends that we were moving from San Francisco to Boston, we could count on getting one of two responses: an incredulous “Why?” or “Boston’s great. It’s a lot like San Francisco.” My partner Nanette Bisher and I were moving because I had just landed a dream…