“My folks and I sailed into SF in 1961 after being stationed overseas for several years. California looked damned good to me back then.”
Eric, I was born in San Francisco just about 75 years ago. My father left a year later when he enlisted in the Navy and was gone to Australia for four years. And you’re right as far back as 1961, it was still a choice place to settle. Unfortunately, for those of us who were natives, a lot of what ended up being undesirable elements thought so too. Particularly those who came here to work in shipbuilding and at the Ford plant in Richmond, which also turned out war materiel. When the war ended, all those facilities closed, and Ford, GM and Chrysler decided to discontinue building cars and trucks here, leaving these “immigrants” to depend on welfare. And they continue on it today. San Francisco is outwardly, still a beautiful city, and with the mega businesses like FaceBook, Google, Apple, etc. booming (our youngest daughter’s boyfriend just landed a job at Apple, he was asking for $95 to $105k and they offered him $125k, plus stock and a signing bonus), and they are driving housing prices off the charts, making all the harder for the welfare recipients to stick around. But SF is rotten inside, as you can readily see from it’s direct complicity in this murder.
We sailed in under the Golden Gate Bridge on the MSTS ship, General W. A. Mann. MSTS was known as the “Army’s Navy” back when troops and military dependents sailed to or from Asia and other assignments.
The Mann dropped anchor in Oakland, at what was then a good sized Army depot. Dad caught a cab over to Lane Buick Company where he picked up a new station wagon and drove back to the pier.
My mom and I and our dog, plus some of our carry on necessities were jammed into the back of the Buick and we drove east to Iowa where my mom’s people lived and where I completed high school and college in Iowa City.
Between 1951 and 1961, Mom and I made six crossings of the Pacific on various MSTS ships, all named for historic Army generals. The trips were usually to and from Seattle but our last trip in was into SFCA.
I’ve visited California a dozen times on business and always liked the people and good chow. One of the last companies I worked for wanted to build an asphalt plant in Stockton and I headed up the negotiations with the city administration. But, by the time the state air board, the county board and the neighborhood blackmailers got done with us, the plant went in at Reno.