In My Life

Today we’ve seen another side of San Francisco – the streets near the First Baptist Church are strewn with people asleep on the sidewalks – those awake in their ‘beds’ looking half-past dead. Around the same streets are many more damaged people than we’ve seen in any other American city. Those on their feet seem to be stoned out of their brains – often speaking to invisible companions. There are some like that near our hotel, but not so many, and as our local corner store owner told us, they’re not bad or dangerous, just wrecks after years in jail or after doing things to mind and body way beyond breaking point. Glenys keeps saying when we see these people, “I could never live here!”
She had another fairly sleepless night and is looking tired today, so I’ve got her resting while I read the NY Times and write this update.
After church we walked back through the downtown streets and could see just how crowded it is everywhere – so much more than on week days. And it’s evident, today, that this is the gay capital of America.

Late yesterday afternoon we went to see a new American movie called Argo, which tells the true story of the attempt to get six escaped American embassy staff, hiding in the Canadian embassy in Tehran, out of Iran, while others, less fortunate, were being held captive for 444 days by the Iranians in the last days of Jimmy Carter’s presidency. Daring deception was used in the rescue bid, and I couldn’t remember what happened in real life back in the late 1970s. Anyway, the audience cheered and clapped at various stages throughout the movie when things went right. I had wanted to see this movie for this very reason: to witness the local response to what was a very humiliating time for Americans. They still take pride in their country and applaud the efforts of those who risk their lives for the sake of others.

Afterwards we had dinner at a place called Max’s where we were glad we ordered just one main and a salad because that was more than enough for our Australian-sized stomachs. Our one dessert would have been enough for four people – we certainly couldn’t finish it.

Tuesday morning we take a bus to L.A. to catch our plane back to Australia. What a time we’ve had!

This entry was posted on October 15, 2012 at 12:11 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.