The City and all that

[Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>]

At 02:49 PM 6/13/97 -0700, Roger Beamon, fellow sojourner and seeker after
tru wrote:
>"Frisco" was in common use during WWII, long before most of  
>today's residents, who tend toward the politically correct, were 
>around. Frank Sinatra often invoked it, both personally and in the 
>flicks of the day. Of course he had his gang to back him up.

And you all get upset when two or three of us get off on a lens-head thread?

I lived in the Bay Area thirty years ago, long before "pc" meant 'personal
computer', much less 'political correctness'.  "'Frisco" is ALWAYS wrong.
Period.  If you live in the City, then you live in 'the City', precisely as
the Romans inhabited 'urbs'.  If you are unfortunate, then you live in the
environs, in which event, you live in 'the Bay Area'.  

Someone referring to 'Frisco is taken to be a, well, jerk.  The danger is
that, if we don't warn our wayward brethren and sistren, they may make the
error of walking into that wonderful old bookstore on Monkey Street or down
on the Wharf and speaking of "'Frisco", being taken for a tourist, and
fleeced for all their loose change.

God bless, but there ARE days when I miss the hills and fog.  I learned to
drive there -- a '60 Beetle on all those slopes.  You used to be able to
get a cup of crab meat and a slab of sourdough bread outside of Alioto's
down on the Wharf for a buck.  Great eating.  And then you could fend off
the P&F Party types or ride a cable car back to Union Square.

My Senior Prom was at the St Francis.  Afterwards, my date and I went up on
Mount Tamalpais and watched the night away, listening to KFRC and watching
the golden glow through the fog become the red of the bridge pillars as the
sun came up.  A week later, they closed Mount Tam at midnight.

As Herb Caen said about the Cliff House, 'sad the way its gotten -- it used
to be something, once.  But didn't we all?'  And now he's gone, too.

No, don't call San Francisco, "'Frisco".  Or, please, not to anyone who's
lived there.

Marc


msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!