Side Trip

Drove in the rain today. Mom likes to see her grandmother's house. Her mother's earliest memory was of being carried down the stairs here early in the morning of April 18, 1906.

A block east of Mission, between 23rd and 24th

We drove around looking at churches and schools that she can still remember as they were in the early 1930s when her parents' young family had to go live with Grandma. The block around which she learned to roller-skate, like that. Finally, in February of '35, they moved out to a farm town, where my grandparents lived out the rest of their lives. We looked for the house she remembers held her last San Francisco Christmas, but she doesn't know the address, only the street.

She likes to think it was this one

And she allowed that there is no one left on the planet who would care anything about this connection. She misses her sister.

Of course, all roads lead to fish and chips

and clouds over the sea

and dessert.

Not to mention the WPA-era murals on the ground floor of the Golden Gate Park Visitor's Center and a blues band playing for no one particularly.

Finally we went to see Grandpa Frank.

My grandmother's step-father, Marine veteran of the Spanish-American War

The Presidio is a beautiful place. Some day I'll grab a friend and walk around taking pictures. For now though it was perfect to hang about with my mother a bit.