-just had to shoo away a motorist in a boat of a car trying to park out front of the house in a compact parking space. Why, oh why do people try to cram their massive metal boxes into a wee spot like some sort of entitled wicked step-sister?
Look mf'ers: If it don't fits, then you don't sits.
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| NO. |
Speaking of parking, there had been two motor-homes sort of perma-parked on this block since at least mid-November. Last week, two police officers approached the vehicles and knocked on their windows. No one answered the call, but the next day I had noticed that one of the RVs had moved along. I am inclined to think that the owners live in their vehicles full-time. Sadly, there are now areas of town in which scores of larger vehicles sit parked with occupants living inside.
A quick google search of 'RVs in San Francisco' gave me this:
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| An informal 'mixed use' stretch of roadway--Students of SF State University park alongside those who are living in their vehicles (2018). |
On December 24th, a small group of us convened on Zoom in order to celebrate the Xmas eve birthday of a friend. There were a handful of us on the call who had grown up together. I hadn't really known the other home-towners as they were solely friends of the birthday girl in junior high and high school. As we all caught up with one another we began to play the 'did your older siblings know my older siblings?' game when it came to pass that one of us is friends with someone who had been a rather high profile comedian in the late 80s/early 90s. I should note that neither his films nor his stand-up has ever tickled my funny-bone. Like other still marginally successful performers, this person has become a vocal right-wing kook on social media. So not only is he not funny, but his political views are shite. Just after one of the Zoomers had said that his older sister had graduated with Mr. Funny (so had mine, btw) & right before said Zoomer mentioned his friendship with Haha Dude I was *about* to talk major shit about the guy. I'm so glad I bit my tongue as I wouldn't wanted to have make the birthday celebration awkward.
***
I leave you with a photograph given to me by my uncle (the one who has my father's wooden box) that had been in my grandfather's possession. It's a time-capsule of sorts showing my parents' first Christmas in the house they bought after marrying in 1968. Mom is 22 in the photo. Dad is only six years her senior & was a divorced parent of two. I really like this snap shot as every one in it looks cheery and festive.
Lovely photographs (except for the RV).
ReplyDeleteThank you, Tasker.
DeleteWhat it is about has-beens and problematic political views? Do they identify a bit too closely with the orange clown?
ReplyDeleteI think that they must do. It's effing weird.
DeleteWhat gorgeous parents! Another world, hey? 22 and a step-mother and a home-owner. The stuff of science fiction for the yoof of today. I love the telly getting a prominent role in the Xmas decorating! That cat ... determined.
ReplyDeleteI know. It's so nutty to think about. I was a total pleasure-seeking knucklehead at 22. I can't imagine how foreign this scene must seem to the young'uns now.
DeleteThat TV, like much of our furniture & the like, was a hand-me-down from my great-grandma Bea. That meant that we had a black and white television long after others went 'color'. :)
That's a lovely family photo!
ReplyDeleteI hope you had a great Christmas.
Thanks, Joey! Hope you all did, too! x
DeleteAnd just five years later I was the the thirty year old divorced mother of two, eight and five. It was different, as you can tell in how we raised our children.
ReplyDeleteI visited SF in 1980. We were camping, and found an RV campground in or near SF. All big rigs like in your picture. Our little camper and tents felt so out of place.
And ten years later mom was a 32-year-old divorced mother of me. Dad kept my older sibs as he had after the dissolution of his first marriage. I can only imagine how tough raising two children sans spouse must have been back then. Mom seemed to struggle with just me at home.
DeleteI'm sure camping out here must have been enjoyable back then. I wonder where the RV campground was...I know of one located in Memorial Park, San Mateo Co. -lots of redwoods; lovely locale.
Hoe you had a good Christmas. Lovely family photo.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Susan. It was peaceful. Hope yours was lovely as well.
DeleteThat is a gorgeous family photo.
ReplyDeleteSadly I think that many people (the world over) are living in their cars at the moment. Or in less salubrious places.
It's a fun photo. Even at the ripe age of fifty, I still sometimes wish we had not been split by divorce in ten years' time.
DeleteOh, yeah. There are so many who have lost their homes. It's tremendously sad.
That girl's hair (is it you?) must have taken hours to do. Hollywood child-star ringlets.
ReplyDeleteI was not yet a twinkle in anyone's eye at this point. My mother was a whiz with curlers. I imagine that she set my sister's hair the night before Xmas. The ringlets do look very Old Hollywood.
DeleteBut cats DO boxes.....
ReplyDeleteYes, they fully do! :D
DeleteI hear there is flight from SF. Housing must come down methinks. The RV's must be a godsend for some. I would love one but how could anyone survive in such close quarters. That cat is too funny.
ReplyDeleteYes, it would seem that job loss and WFH has meant a move away from SF for many. There have also been a record no. of intra-city moves. Rents have dropped, so folk have shifted from over-priced rentals to less over-priced rentals.
DeleteRVs must indeed be a lifeline for many. -too true.
I wonder if the cat needs a bigger box-- just askin'???
ReplyDeleteQuite an undertaking at 22 for your Mom -- I wouldn't have been ready, but many in my generation did have families when quite young. Didn't wed 'til 28 and was 33 when first child born. Any sooner would not have been good for the kids ... or probably me either. I recall Mom said my young grandmother had married a widower who had several children and then they had more. Single parenting never easy and I vividly recall the challenges my mother had which strongly influenced some of my attitudes, some to my benefit.
Yes, it was quite an undertaking. I think that she thought that, as a former foster kid herself, she could make her own family, if that makes sense. Blood relations were not the sum total of what a family could be for her. Sadly, the marriage would not last. Perhaps had my mother not been working class--meaning had decided to attend university--she would have married and began a family a bit later as you had done.
DeleteDear Bea. as Joared said, marrying your dad at 22 with his having two children already must have been "quite an undertaking for your Mom." I remember myself at 22, ready to enter the convent, and as a psychiatrist later told me, being all of 13 emotionally! I never could have done what your mom did. Valiant she was. Peace.
ReplyDeleteThat is kind of you to say, Dee. I had never thought of my mother being valiant, but I see it now. Be well. x
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