PEOPLE SHOULDN’T LIVE WHERE PALM TREES DON’T GROW

The title to this memory comes out of the mouth of a wise old hillbilly that I met on arrival at work in San Fransisco. On hearing where I was from and where I had been born and raised, he came out with that profound utterance. He may not have been that far wrong. This memory had deep effect on my psyche and I spend the next 30 years following his sound advice. That however is not the subject of this little trip down memory lane. What I am reminded of, whenever I think of our first days in San Fransisco is the weather.

We were truly excited to be headed for the Bay Area in California. I had visions of sun, sand, surf and Disneyland. The girls had visions of Disneyland, shopping, Disneyland and beach. The very first thing we noticed was the climate inside of the city. In the middle of summer, San Fransisco barely ever reached higher than about 62 degrees Fahrenheit (or 18 degrees C). Now that was not what I was expecting! It was bloody cold inside the city even on a sunny day. On the other hand living out across the bay in Concord, Ca., the temperature would be hot, hot, hot. Maybe on a similar day, about 90 degree F (27 degree C).

I guess you know where we chose to live. There seemed to be an unending migration of people from the city, moving across the Bay to get warm, and people from across, moving back for a more moderate climate! In the winter, the climate of San Fransisco never dropped 1 degree, it was still about 65 degrees and warm. Across the bridge, out where we were, it could get downright cold, with even a skiff of snow in the nearby hills. It was very strange. I remember attending a baseball game (in San Fransisco) in the summer, wrapped in a quilt to stay warm, and then watching a football game in the stadium in the fall, in short sleeves!

The title I chose for this piece, came from the mouth of an old engineer that had been assigned to my group. He uttered those prophetic words after hearing where I had just arrived from. It may have been the last semi-intelligent thing he was to utter. Other than this one utterance, this guy was not “deep”!