Lunch at Union Square (and thinking about Tuesday’s elections)

Vintage photos compliments of opensfhistory.org

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Union Square in 1960: No, they didn’t move the Dewey Monument; I just couldn’t get a perfect lineup because they’re putting up the holiday attractions. The City of Saint Francis is getting ready for the Christmas Season! The beloved City of Paris Department Store was demolished in 1980.

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A pro marijuana demonstration near the southwest corner of Union Square in 1964; Proposition 64 comes to mind. I can’t tell which is higher up from the ground, her dress or his pants! If that fellow is an example of how wholesome marijuana is, he’s a bad argument!

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Same pro marijuana rally: The street preacher doesn’t seem too happy about the demonstrators. At first, I thought I got a picture of Hillary Clinton on the right when I got back to the office; I always wondered what she looks like in jeans!

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Richard and Patricia Nixon crossing Powell Street from the St. Francis Hotel toward Union Square at a rally for his presidential run against Kennedy in September of 1960: He lost. (Trust me; there are people who don’t know that!) Most of the buildings on the north side of Union Square in the back have been replaced.

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Darn, everyone was enjoying the birds, and then Alfred Hitchcock came along and screwed everything up!

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The northwest corner of Union Square in 1958: I like the old traffic signals better. Now that’s what San Francisco needs for election week, more Old Crow billboards! Actually, I only drank a bottle of Old Crow once with two girls named Laura and Merrilee when I was 17 and we were supposed to be in school. We got so drunk, we swore off drinking! Merrilee and Laura may have kept that pledge! Wikipedia says that Old Crow was the favorite of Ulysses S. Grant; another person to win the Presidency who knew nothing about politics!