It wuz a good day...

“East is east ‘n west is San Francisco.” O. Henry

Yestiday, Thursday...wuz a good day for me ‘n Millyrose even tho’ it commenced a little bit on the early side with an insufficient amount of coffee...for me, at least, since Millyrose no longer drinks the foul beverage having switched to that Witches brew, tea...

The three of us (did I mention that son Dave went along) climbed into the little car ‘n pointed it west on the Interstate on a bright, sunshiny day...our destination wuz the Portuguese Embassy in San Francisco...

The first time I saw SF wuz back in ‘56 when I wuz 18 years old...I tho’t it wuz the purtiest city I’d ever seen...’course, my experience with cities wuz fairly limited...I’d visited New York ‘n D.C. ‘n I’d passed thru Chicago a couple times...

anyways, the train brought me to Oakland, California where I got on a ferry boat ‘n crossed the bay to SF...the sun wuz shining as I recall, much as it wuz yestiday ‘n I tho’t SF wuz a magical place...’course, when you’re 18 years old, there is magic all around you in ev’ry new thing that you run across...the magic fades with age but once’t in a while, you still get the occasional glimmer ‘n since I didn’t have t’drive at all, I had the chance to look around ‘n marvel at the magic of San Francisco...crowded, narrow streets full of cars ‘n trucks ‘n buses ‘n sidewalks full of people going hither ‘n yon...(one duzn’t often get the chance to use hither ‘n yon in a sentence these daze)...Dave whipped the little car thru the canyons of Sf as if he’d been born to the job ‘n when the bizness at the Embassy wuz finished, we went lookin’ for sumplace to eat...I b’leeve we ended up in the Mission District at a place called ‘Jim’s Diner’...a simple meal, very good (better’n Susie’s Country Oaks ‘n cheaper) where we were serenaded by a Mexican street musician ‘n the view from the window wuz of a busy, crowded street ‘n more buses in an hour than I’ve seen in the last year in Ol Fair Oaks...I’m fond of telling people that I like San Francisco best in old movies but yestiday wuz that exception to the rule that crops up once’t in a while in life ‘n should always be appreciated...

I think it wuz the late Herb Caen that remarked, “Ain’t it nice that people who prefer Los Angeles to San Francisco live there.”