It’s 2004 and we’re living in San Francisco thanks to the generosity of the Stegner Fellowship and Stanford University but while the stipend is generous this is also San Francisco and even if it’s San Francisco during the brief lull in insane housing prices between the last dot-com bust and the next dotcom boom the stipend alone isn’t enough even for a one-bedroom apartment above a bar on the not-fashionable end of Mission Street so side jobs were required. At first I parked cars for a valet service and to the extent that I can still parallel park, that’s how I learned, in the crucible of having to reverse uphill driving a stick with my knees crammed under my chin because you never NEVER touched the customer’s seat position.
A tasty and refreshing piece; “a lesser Cana” is also very good. Fritz Maytag sounds like a character name in Vonnegut. That you were able to experience Anchor like that in its heyday is pretty neat.
I suppose many have written about the shift in where American trends originate, but you’ve got me thinking about that in the context of food and drink. A century ago, or maybe even sixty years ago, food trends often started in NYC, for example Nathan’s Famous hotdogs or General Tso’s chicken.
But by the 60s and 70s there was like a polarity switch or something to the West Coast, with mega changes to how and where beer is brewed (hoppy and local), influenced by Anchor and the English Campaign for Real Ale, coffee roasting with Peets and Starbucks, Alice Waters’ ideas, etc., accelerating into this century, a good example being the popularity of Huy Fong’s sriracha.
Thank you for sharing a glimpse of your life and those you shared it with. Precious memories that will live on even if the place won't. And what a beautiful poem.
A tasty and refreshing piece; “a lesser Cana” is also very good. Fritz Maytag sounds like a character name in Vonnegut. That you were able to experience Anchor like that in its heyday is pretty neat.
I suppose many have written about the shift in where American trends originate, but you’ve got me thinking about that in the context of food and drink. A century ago, or maybe even sixty years ago, food trends often started in NYC, for example Nathan’s Famous hotdogs or General Tso’s chicken.
But by the 60s and 70s there was like a polarity switch or something to the West Coast, with mega changes to how and where beer is brewed (hoppy and local), influenced by Anchor and the English Campaign for Real Ale, coffee roasting with Peets and Starbucks, Alice Waters’ ideas, etc., accelerating into this century, a good example being the popularity of Huy Fong’s sriracha.
This is beautiful. I loved working there.
I might have more to say but I’ll need time.
Thank you for sharing a glimpse of your life and those you shared it with. Precious memories that will live on even if the place won't. And what a beautiful poem.