It didn’t feel like summer

I must have overslept and missed summer this year! Not only did it go by quickly, but I don’t remember a lot of sunny and warm days in San Francisco this season. It was more like the weather in Peter Stratmoen’s 1975 pictures. (cf. ‘Things that you might not notice’ from 7/17/2016) With a little over a week left of the summer of 2018, I thought I’d post some updates of vintage pictures from past summers in San Francisco.

A cable car at O’Farrell and Powell Streets late on a summer afternoon in 1958: (Shorpy Archives)

Obviously, the most famous San Francisco summer was the 1967 “Summer of Love”. The vintage photo from that year was at the intersection that more than any place in the world epitomized the Summer of Love, Haight and Ashbury.(National Geographic)

Hippies and, possibly grandbabies of hippies at the northeast corner of the Haight-Ashbury intersection in 1967 and 2018: (Vintage Everyday)

“Cop’s face is filled with hate. Heavens above he’s on a street called “Love”.

Actually, this was taken in February of 1967, four months before the “Summer of Love” officially started. I see Jimi! (opensfhistory.org)

Hippies on top of “Hippie Hill” in Golden Gate Park during the “Summer of Love” in 1967, and neo-hippies on top of Hippie Hill today: (National Geographic)

51 years is a long time ago to try and find an exact spot, but the only tree on top of Hippie Hill that remotely matches the one behind where those hippies were sitting in the previous picture is the one in the center of this photo.

Although still resembling the Summer of Love by the summer of 1969 when the vintage photo was taken, the dream had faded out due to multiple drug overdose problems and a rising crime rate in the area. (opensfhistory.org)

The northeast corner of Haight and Cole Streets in 1969: Wow, dig that groovy peace symbol wreath in the modern picture! Far out! What a trip, huh? #pseudohippie (opensfhistory.org)

Moving forward to the summer of 1971, a cable car leaves Aquatic Park to climb Hyde Street. That’s the Ghirardelli Square tower behind the cable car in the vintage picture. (Vintage Everyday)

Children Playing at the Mermaid Fountain in Ghirardelli Square in the summer of 1971: That was 47 summers ago; they’ll all be approaching senior citizenship by now. Oh, well, if I can handle it so can they. (Vintage Everyday)