POSTCARDS FROM A PARK

 

When I was a little girl I remember going to a park called Live Oak Park in Berkeley, CA – not that I remembered on my own that’s what it was called.  My Mom told me years later.  Anyway, she, with my little brother and me and a couple of her friends and their kids went to the park.  I thought it was pretty and smelled nice – the scent of live oaks growing near a little stream that ran through the park.  I definitely remember this big stone fireplace with the huge chimney and eating at the tables in front of it.  Fast forward to the present where I’m now living in Sonora, CA. where, one day a few years ago, I decided to take my bag lunch to a little park near where I was working at the time.  I sat down at a picnic table and slowly became aware of an old familiar scent.  When I looked around I realized I was sitting by a little creek surrounded by Live Oaks.  That scent sure took me back! J

Tilden Regional Park in the Berkeley Hills was a short drive from our house and we used to go up there every once in a while – mainly to ride the merry-go-round.  Sometimes we had picnic dinners up there first and then we rode the merry-go-round. J  When I was in my teens the church youth group I belonged to would go up to the park on a summer Sunday afternoon to play softball and have a picnic dinner, followed by an early evening vespers service.  Wonderful memories of those times!  And yes, there are live oaks there too, but no little creek where we usually went, so the smell wasn’t the same. 

The merry-go-round is still there with all its beautifully painted animals.

Lake Anza was another favorite spot in the park.  I don’t remember going there with my family, but I went with friends and my church group often enough.

Lake Anza was the first place I wore my new swimsuit – a “Catalina” in pink & white with a gingerbread man design and ruffles.  I loved it.  Unfortunately, the first time I wore it to Lake Anza, another girl – not with our group – had the same swimsuit on.  I was so disappointed.  I was 16 and had been so proud of my first ‘grown up’ bathing suit.  All my friends kept insisting I looked better in it than the other girl, but it was hard to believe as she was tall, blond, and willowy.  I wasn’t fat by any means, and tall enough at 5’6”, but you wouldn’t have called me willowy.  Oh well.  When I wore it to Tahoe that summer I got enough attention to make me believe I at least looked okay in it. J  

The steam train ride in the park, but I don’t remember riding it.  There was/is also a “Little Farm” with farm animals for kids to pet.  I don’t remember visiting that place, either.  Shucks.  There was/is a golf course too, but neither I nor my parents played golf.

The Botanical Gardens is another spot I missed when I was still living in the area.  Basically, my knowledge of Tilden Park when I was growing up was limited to the merry-go-round, the softball fields, picnic areas, and Lake Anza and that’s too bad because there is so much more to the park.  There are also riding stables and a good many walking and hiking trails within the park’s 2079 acres.  Maybe one day I’ll go back . . .  

I do, however, remember dancing in Tilden’s Brazilian Room.  I was attending the wedding of a friend.  The Brazilian Room is a famous wedding venue with the ceremony usually held outdoors – weather permitting, of course, and the reception inside.  It’s also used for large gatherings of other sorts as well.  

San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park is home to 680 forested acres, 130 acres of meadows, 15 miles of roads, and 33 acres of lakes.

The building shown here is the park’s beautiful Conservatory of Flowers.

The children’s playground and carousel.

My brother and I in those red double swings in the children’s playground in Golden Gate Park in 1945-46.

The bridge in the Japanese Tea Garden.  Walking up, over, and down the other side is not easy!

An overview of much of the park.  In the foreground are the De Young Museum and the Spreckles Temple of Music and Music Concourse.  Beyond is Stow Lake and Strawberry Hill.  Farther on is the polo field and to the right of it is Spreckles Lake – a lake for sailing model boats.

One section of Stow Lake.  The island of Strawberry Hill is to the left.  There is a walking path around the island. There is also a walking path around the lake, and there are two bridges connecting the two.  I could not find a name for the small island in the background?  Rowboats, peddle boats, and electric motor boats with set speeds are allowed on the lake but must go around the lake in one direction only, making Stow a one-way lake. J

At the top of the Strawberry Hill island is a small pond inhabited by ducks and heron and other waterfowl.  This pond and its quiet pumping system provide water for Huntington Falls which pour into Stow Lake below.

Huntington Falls.  The path around the island crosses the falls as you can see by the railing above the last fall of the falls.

My sister and I used to ride around the park once in a while.  There was so much to see and do!  You could never catch it all in one day!  Usually on a Sunday we’d take a bus across the bay, then a streetcar out to the park where we’d rent bikes.  Here she’s paused beside Lloyd Lake.  There are 11 lakes within the bounds of the park: Stow Lake including the pond at the top of Strawberry Hill, Elk Glen Lake, Mallard Lake, Metson Lake, Lloyd Lake, Spreckles Lake, Lily Lake, Alvord Lake, the Chain of Lakes – North, Middle, and South, and then there are the 3 large casting pools at Angler’s Lodge – a charming log cabin with knotty pine interior set among a small ‘forest’ of pine trees.

And last, but not least, right next door to Golden Gate Park and generally considered a part of it, is Kezar Stadium – seating capacity 50,000 - where the San Francisco 49ers football team played their first game on September 8, 1946.  Their last game at Kezar on January 3, 1971 was a playoff game vs. the Dallas Cowboys which the 49ers, unfortunately, lost.  They began their fall season in October of that year at Candlestick Park.  The Oakland Raiders played their first 4 home games in 1970 at Kezar, but moved to a stadium in Oakland after that.

The stadium, still called Kezar, was demolished in 1989 and rebuilt with a smaller seating capacity of 10,000. Since then it has hosted professional soccer games, cricket matches, high school football, and Stanford’s annual spring game.

In the fall of 1957 I danced in Kezar Stadium! J  High school bands and cheerleaders from around the Bay Area were invited to come play, cheer, and dance for a 49er night game.  It was quite a thrill.  There was only one problem . . .

That summer the cheerleading group I danced with had spent many weeks making our own pom-poms.  Back then manufactured pom-poms were made of crepe paper and were kind of chinzy looking – or so we thought.  We wanted big fluffy pom-poms.  So we bought a huge roll of white tissue paper and carefully cut long 1” wide strips of it binding them together with adhesive tape.  And they really were gorgeous fluffy pom-poms.

So there we were dancing at Kezar happily waving our beautiful new pom-poms around – other cheerleaders asking with envy where we got them.  But as the game went on, the famous San Francisco fog rolled in and after a while we noticed the dampness was making those long thin strips of tissue paper curl up.  Ack!  We spent the next several days painstakingly ironing out every single one of those long curled strips of tissue but at last we had our beautiful pom-poms back again.  And you can bet we never waved them around on a foggy day – or night – again!

:->

La Nightingail