Letter postmarked November 30, 1967 (Part 4):
This is Part 4 of the letter postmarked November 30. This part covers Sunday, November 26, 1967.
Sunday morning David Wayne got sick and vomited several times. I think it was just excitement and he had gotten too hot while sleeping. He got alright about noon and we left, but we had planned to leave earlier. The drive home took 9 hours and we really ran into the traffic. I finally just went to sleep. That long drive nearly killed me and I haven't fully recovered yet - none of us have.
[That sounds like the best road trip ever, doesn't it? The start of trip is delayed until noon due to a vomiting five-year-old, and then the trip that took 7-1/2 hours a few days ago takes nine hours due to traffic. I bet Mom was miserable.]
Dave has decided that we will have to rent a trailer when we come home because I'll have to have a bed in the back seat. Also, he is resigned to the fact that it's going to take longer getting back than 2-1/2 days.
[Yeah, if we drive back to Texas while Mom is still pregnant it's going to be a great trip, isn't it?]
[Speaking of cocktail napkins, I ran across a few more that Mom saved. First, from this San Francisco trip, is one from The Franciscan restaurant at Fisherman's Wharf. That must have been where we ate dinner Friday night. The Franciscan Crab Restaurant is still there today and looks like a very nice place, having been recently remodeled.]
[Mom also saved three cocktail napkins from the Napkins of Distinction line by a company called Beach Products in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I assume she got these from Finocchio's on Saturday night. Each of these napkins has a theme and they have that distinctive 1960's look. The three themes are "On The Rocks," "Famous Quotes," and "Songs To Drink By." They have short quips covering one complete side of the napkin (four panels), such that you have to unfold it completely to see everything at once. I may dedicate a post to the scans of these napkins, but for now here is one side of one of them.]
[Next, Mom saved a couple of cocktail napkins from that French restaurant called Taix that Mom and Dad went to on November 17, which Mom wrote about in the November 21 letter. According to Google Translate, "Les Freres" (accent over the first "e") means "The Brothers."]
[Thus concludes our Thanksgiving trip to San Francisco. We'll go over the rest of this letter on November 30.]
Letter postmarked November 30, 1967 (Part 3):
This is Part 3 of the letter postmarked November 30. This part covers Saturday, November 25, 1967.
Saturday morning David Wayne went to the zoo again and the adults stayed home and watched TV and just plain enjoyed each other. I guess that it had been so long since David Wayne had had a child to play with that he wanted to stay with Ginger all of the time. And she was good with him. Anyway, I let her keep him Saturday night while we went out on the town.
[Yet another trip to the zoo for just me and Ginger (assuming I didn't go by myself). No injuries or other incidents reported, so that's good. Now let's see what kind of trouble the adults got into Saturday night.]
First, we went to the top of the Fairmont Hotel (which is the thing now - it used to be the "top of the Mark" Hopkins Hotel). This place is all glass at the top and it was just beautiful looking at the lights of San Francisco and the bay. We rode down on an outside glass elevator!
[A quick internet search seems to indicate that Top of the Mark has regained its spot at the thing in San Francisco.]
[Mom did save several mementos from this trip to San Francisco, starting with a couple of swizzle sticks (drink stirrers) from the Fairmont Hotel. Here's a picture of them with the obligatory quarter for scale. In case you can't read the text on them, it says "Fairmont Hotel and Tower - Atop Nob Hill - San Francisco."]
[The next item Mom saved is a cocktail napkin from the Fairmont Hotel. This one has drawings of several of the notable sites around San Francisco, such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower, Candlestick Park (demolished in 2015), and Alcatraz. The next two pictures are scans of that napkin.]
Next we went to the show at Finocchio's - all female impersonators. I have never laughed so much in my life. These "girls" were really funny and some looked so good as women I just couldn't believe it. Mary (Cliff's wife) and I just loved the show, but Dave and Cliff were not impressed.
[Just the thought of Dad sitting uncomfortably through a drag show cracks me up. I'm surprised he and Cliff agreed to go. Maybe they didn't know what it was before they went in. Mom did save the flyer from Finocchio. You can't really tell what it is from the front of the flyer alone, but there's no doubt if you look at the inside. Sadly, Finocchio's closed in 1999.]
After the show, we just walked the "strip," eyeing the outside pictures of the nude women in the topless shows. We could tell Cliff wanted to go to one but Dave couldn't have stood it - his eyes were already red and protruding from looking at the pictures!
[Too bad Ginger and I weren't with them on this little walk down the strip.]
[Tomorrow's segment will cover the trip back to Los Angeles.]
Letter postmarked November 30, 1967 (Part 2):
This is Part 2 of the letter postmarked November 30, covering Friday, November 24, 1967.
Friday we took David Wayne across the Golden Gate Bridge. He immediately said it was a giant dinosaur, with its feet tied to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. All day we just drove around the coast, stopping at places that looked interesting (Muir Woods for one). That night we ate at Fisherman's Wharf and I got my first lobster. I loved it and David Wayne ate his scallops until I thought he would bust. Then we walked around the wharf, watching them boil oysters and crabs in big pots on the sidewalk. All of us enjoyed the day.
[I'm glad the trip to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco turned out better than the trip to Fisherman's Wharf in Los Angeles.]
[Muir Woods National Monument, a little north of San Francisco, is a redwood forest, with most trees there between 500 and 800 years old per Wikipedia. Mom doesn't mention it here, but I did get a bank from Muir Woods. Here are some pictures with the obligatory quarter for scale and some bonus dust.]
[This bank is made out of wood. I doubt it's made out of redwood, but I'm no expert on species of wood. There are small labels on the top and the front that say "Muir Woods Calif." A small deer is glued to the top of it, with eyes that are not unlike the eyes often seen on depictions of aliens. The large label on the front that looks like a scroll has this clever poem:]
I'm just a little deer
But I'll someday cure your woe
If in this slot upon the top
You'll drop some of your "doe"
[I think I got another bank during this trip to San Francisco, which I no longer have. This one, which was from Fisherman's Wharf, wasn't really a bank per se but it was a large shell (perhaps a real one) with a colorful ceramic fish glued to the front. I think I eventually threw that one away after too many pieces broke off of it.]
[The photo album contains two pictures of me from our drive along the coast. (And one picture of a gopher we watched dig a hole.) The gopher head is very difficult see in his picture, so I won't bore you with that one even though my shoes are in the picture. But I will bore you with both pictures of me since there is some military history to be learned.]
[Mom's caption on the first picture is "These holes looked like some kind of defense around coast." You can see that I'm standing on some sort of concrete structure, and to my left there is a square metal frame around a large hole. It looks like the metal frame likely supported a door at some point. You will also note that I'm wearing my mouse shoes (huaraches) as well as a shirt and a pair of pants that fit.]
[Mom's caption on the second picture is "Taken on top of cliff at San Francisco." In this picture I appear to be standing on a large pile of dirt or a large boulder. The expression on my face, combined with my body language, indicates I was concerned about my ability to safety get down from my current position and I was in the process of stating my case to my parents that I needed some assistance. Either that, or I didn't want to get my new clothes dirty, which seems unlikely for a five-year-old boy.]
[In the second photo, if you look to my left, over the boulder, you can see three concrete structures that have curved tops.]
[I believe I was standing on top of one of those (or one just like them) in the previous photo. I did a little googling, starting with a phrase that was something like "California coastline defense," and determined that these are observation bunkers built during World War II so military personnel could be on the lookout for attacks coming from the Pacific Ocean. Here is the link to a 2009 article from The San Diego Union-Tribune about some of these bunkers along the coast, very close to the US border with Mexico: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-border-bunker-battle-2009aug25-htmlstory.html. I also found a closeup photo of one of these bunkers at Muir Beach (near San Francisco) at this link: http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/california-san-francisco-muir-beach-u-s-high-res-stock-photography/145094775. So we learned two things here: Mom's caption on the first photo was correct, and the premise of the movie "1941" had some basis in reality.]
[That's a wrap on day two of our Thanksgiving trip to San Francisco. I wonder what kind of adventures we'll have on Saturday?]
Letter postmarked November 30, 1967 (Part 1):
The CCZCC now stands at 5.
You may recall from the November 21 letter that we were planning to take a trip to San Francisco for Thanksgiving. Since Mom's next letter was postmarked November 30 and is somewhat long and covers the whole trip, I have decided to break it up into parts. Here's part 1, covering Thanksgiving Day.
Dear Mother and Mike,
I feel like it's been a long time since I have written to you. I was very busy right before we went to San Francisco for Thanksgiving. I had to get David Wayne some clothes as he had only one pair of pants and no decent shirts.
[Hopefully I got some shirts that cover my belly.]
Also, I needed a winter "dress-up" dress for going out on the town. We were gone Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Since I have been back, I've been busy - Monday I went shopping at Century Plaza with Barbara Hansen, Tuesday I went shopping with Suzie Dirr, and this afternoon Suzie and I are going to take David Wayne and see "The Sound of Music." No telling when I'll get this letter finished, but at least I'll begin now.
First, I'll begin on our trip to San Francisco. It took us 7-1/2 hours to get there, but it was a pleasant trip.
[Google Maps says it's about a 5-1/2 hour drive from L. A. to San Francisco now. Chances are we had to stop several times for bathroom breaks for both me and Mom.]
David Wayne got to see mountains with snow on top. We did run into a heavy fog, but other than that it was a nice drive. I'll admit I got very tired and uncomfortable. When we got to "Clip's" house we were met with a big Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings.
[As previously noted, "Clip" is what I called Dad's coworker Cliff.]
After eating, David Wayne and Ginger (11 year old stepdaughter) went to a zoo which is right across the street from their house. That night we all went riding around the city - went to Coit Tower, Chinatown, the nightclub strip, the ocean, etc., etc. Cliff really knows his way around that city, but his driving leaves something to be desired - poor Dave sat in the front seat and I thought we would lose him several times. You know, those hills got a lot steeper since I was there with Myrna and Julia. We drove (maybe raced is more descriptive) down Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world. If Dave survived that, I will not worry about his heart for a long time.
[It sounds like they let me and Ginger go to the zoo by ourselves. I guess they really trusted her to keep little five-year-old me safe. Given my history with the animals at Jungleland, that's a bit of a surprise.]
[So that was a rather full Thanksgiving day that began with a 7-1/2 hour drive. Let's see what the rest of the holiday weekend has in store.]
