Month: May 2024

That reminds me of a talk show I was watching long ago, with Lee Marvin as a guest. The host said to Marvin, “I understand that you were awarded a Purple Heart.” for Lee’s service during World War ll. Marvin, who was wounded during the battle for Saipan, replied, “You’re not awarded a Purple Heart, you’re given one. I’d rather not have received it.” I’m looking back over several military oriented posts I’ve shared in the past, some of them directly concerning Memorial Day, in honor of those who “gave the last full measure of devotion” so the rest of us can enjoy the weekend. These are some of the places where they will be remembering the real meaning of the observance. (Thumbnail images)

  

They’ll be observing the day in the Presidio, where the old Military Hospital Building is. They once had a great Army Museum in this old building.

  

Soldiers gearing up for battle during the 1898 Spanish-American War. “Bully!”

  

The old Montgomery Barracks in the Presidio, dating back to the 1800s: The top picture, where the old Parade Grounds were, I took in 2007. Nice pickup truck in the earlier picture. If you’re wondering if it still runs, yes, it does.

  

When the Presidio was mostly closed to the Army:

  

A Memorial Day service in May of 1943 at the monument to the Unknown Dead at the Presidio Military Cemetery: (Vintage picture, San Francisco History Center)

  

San Francisco is first and always a navy town. This is a 1985 picture I took of the USS Enterprise, sailing into the Bay under the Golden Gate Bridge during the October Fleet Week.

  

The USS Tennessee sails into the Bay under an unfinished Golden Gate Bridge in the 1930’s, and the battleship USS Iowa sails out to the Pacific Ocean under the bridge in May of 2012: This was almost certainly the last time a battleship will sail under the Golden Gate Bridge.

  

Old Fort Mason, in a slide picture I took in 1985, and an update in 2018. The area is quiet now, but the amount of activity that went on here during the Second World War was incredible, and many military people left from here that didn’t make it. It’s those we honor this weekend.

  

A picture honoring survivors of the Bataan Death March on a marker at the old train stop building, still there, at Fort Mason:

  

They’ll be commemorating the weekend onboard CV-12, the USS Hornet in Alameda, as well.

  

The World War ll submarine, the USS Pampanito, will be remembering the 52 United States submarines with their crews that didn’t make it home during the war.

 

And the crew of the Liberty Ship, the Jeremiah O’Brien, held their Memorial Cruise last weekend. My pictures were during the 2018 Memorial Cruise. Next weekend, the Jeremiah O’Brien, a survivor of the 1944 Normandy Invasion, will be holding another event to honor the 80^th anniversary of D-Day.

The City as Suydam saw it; like Professor Harold Hill’s Gary, Indiana, it kind of rolls off the tongue. Edward Howard Suydam, pronounced Soo-damn, was an illustrator, born in 1885 and died in 1940. There’s not a lot on the internet about him, he came to my attention, due to his sketches that are in two San Francisco biographies written by Charles Caldwell Dobie during the 1930s,’San Francisco, a Pageant’ and ‘San Francisco’s Chinatown’. Although Dobie’s books are interesting histories of San Francisco as well as vintage tours of the city during the 1930s, they’re not without imperfection. For example, his racist remarks on his description of the 1930s South Park in ‘San Francisco, a Pageant’ is hard to take. However, E. H. Suydam’s pencil drawing, many in areas of the city not usually covered by artists, are fun to look at. I’ve covered some of his drawings in the past, and here’s another collection I did recently trying to duplicate in photograph some of his pencil sketches. (Thumbnail images)

  

O’Farrell Street, looking toward Market Street and the Call Building: This would have had to have been drawn no earlier than 1939 when the Call Building was remodeled and its dome removed.

  

Market Street, looking toward Mason Street and the old Admission Day Monument: The monument is now located at Market Street and Montgomery. The Western Insurance Building on the left has been remodeled and is still there.

  

Looking toward the Clift Hotel on Geary St. from Mason Street:

  

The old Pacific Stock Exchange Building on Pine Street at Sansome, with the Russ Building on Montgomery Street in the background:

  

Old Beckett Alley in Chinatown, once notorious for having the most brothels of any street in San Francisco:

  

California Street at Grant Avenue in Chinatown, looking toward St. Mary’s Square: The Russ Building can barely be seen from here now.

It might not make much sense that a person would escape to Disneyland to get away from a crowd. As I’ve mentioned, I have an income tax filing practice, and the “madding crowd” of March income tax filers is far more stressful to me than any Disneyland crowd has ever been. I had family flying out from Virginia to visit Disneyland at the beginning of this March, and they wanted me to be there. I knew that I’d get behind in my work, but I’ve never been to Disneyland in March, and it didn’t take much for a Disneyland revelation like that to get me to go. Before I headed down there, I found a collection of interesting pictures taken by a photographer named Larry Syverson on a visit to the park he took with his girlfriend in August of 1969. The Disneyland before the New Millennium of California Adventure and Downtown Disney is the Disneyland I have the most memories of.  It’s probably why I keep going back there, so I did some updated photos of Syverson’s 1969 images of Disneyland the way it was. (Thumbnail images)

  

The Sleeping Beauty Castle:

  

The old French Market in New Orleans Square: That’s Larry’s girlfriend in the pink striped outfit.

 

Tomorrowland and the old People Mover Ride: The People Mover track is still in Tomorrowland.

 

It’s a Small World, and Larry’s girlfriend again on the left:

  

The riverboat Mark Twain in Frontierland before the opening of the Big Thunder Mountain Ride:

The Monorail Station, the People Mover Ride and Submarine Ride in Tomorrowland:

  

The Jungle Cruise in Adventureland:

  

The Mark Twain Riverboat passes by the frontier town where the Mine Train through Nature’s Wonderland and the Pack Mule Ride left from. The Thunder Mountain Railroad Ride is there now.

  

The Main Street Plaza from the top of Omnibus Ride:

The Disneyland entrance at the Main Street Train Station: