February 23, 1946
February 1946. World War II is over and wartime production jobs were ending. During the war, Carl and Georgie worked a number of jobs in several places, finishing the war in Pocatello, Idaho. They elected to return to Iowa, where they both had family, but opted to make a grand tour of the west on the way. Georgie wrote a journal of the trip. The story starts here.
The next morning we went into San Francisco on the bus with Earlene. Got off just off Market Street and walked down to Chinatown. Looked around. Saw many old curios, a lot of jade. Stopped at a little shop and saw a wild animal exhibit. Bought some Chinese fortune cakes which was unfortunate as they almost made me sick.
Took a cable car out to Fisherman’s Wharf which was the high spot of our visit. We walked out on one of the piers and saw the little sail boats which are used by the fishermen, mostly Sicilians. There were many fishermen on the wharf, mending nets, and they all spoke some language foreign to us. They use trawl nets and drag the bottom for prawns, scallops, abalone, oysters, crabs, clams, and other shellfish. There were several Navy vessels at the dock and out in the harbor we could see the dim outlines of the fleet in the haze. Also we could faintly discern Alcatraz.
We walked along the wharf where they were cooking seafood right on the sidewalk in large steam heated drums. We stopped at restaurant recommended by Duncan Hines and had a seafood dinner. Carl and Earlene took scallops and I had a mixed seafood dinner. We had French bread with our meal – it had a very hard crust and was soft inside. After we finished we walked past the steaming cauldrons of seafood again and we were almost overcome by the odor. Finally got out in the middle of the street. Across the way we could see Joe Di Maggio’s night club. Saw the tower of the Ferry Building.
We took the cable car back downtown. Saw Omar Kyam’s Restaurant, the Mark Hopkin’s Hotel, Coit Tower, Civic Center, where the U.N. held their first meeting. Saw Union Square, a street level park, covering a modern underground garage or 4 floors.
Earlene had to go to work, so we took a streetcar out to Cliff House which is right on the ocean. It is another eating place and is famous for its seafood and its view of Seal Rocks, so named because the seals are sunning themselves and playing on them. There is also a large curio shop, an exhibit of boat models, and an exhibit of many old-fashioned music boxes. Up the beach we could see an amusement park.
We stopped at the lounge at Cliff House overlooking the ocean and Seal Rocks. There were field glasses in the curio shop for a closer look at the seals. We were especially impressed by two life size statues we saw there. They were of wood and made in the Filipino, one of his mother and one of himself and they looked completely lifelike. We also saw many beautiful seashells and different kinds of coral. On the wall they had a cross section of a redwood tree with the growth rings dated. It showed the ring that grew the year Christ was born, the year Columbus discovered America, dates of wars, etc. There was also an indoor swimming pool at Cliff House. In the lounge, they had many autographed pictures of film stars and important people who had visited there.
We took the streetcar back downtown and after walking around for a while caught the bus back to Burlingame where we had dinner and saw a movie “Blythe Spirit.” Had to sit in the balcony and anyone who wanted to could smoke we felt like smoked herring when we got out.
Walt’s Comments
Mom sounds a little overcome by the sights and sounds of San Francisco. This wasn’t her first big city – she had visited Chicago before the war. But San Francisco was a lot more exotic than Chicago. Considering that it was the 1930’s and 40’s it’s quite likely Georgie had never encountered either Chinese food or fresh seafood before.
Er, Duncan Hines?
Why would a cake mix company recommend a restaurant, and why would anyone listen?
It turns out Duncan Hines was a real person. He wasn’t a chef, and the cake mix thing didn’t happen until he was an old man. What made him famous was his restaurant guide.
You see, Hines was a traveling salesman in the 1920’s and 1930’s. He criss-crossed America selling office supplies, and so every day he had to find someplace to eat dinner. There were no restaurant guides back then. Health inspections also weren’t a standard thing in those days, and Hines was desperate for a clean, decent place to eat.
Since there weren’t any published guides, Hines kept his own list of good places to eat. He would check out a diner’s kitchen and trash, and recorded what he found. He wrote down what dishes were good, what to avoid, what meals cost, the address of each establishment and the hours of operation.
Eventually, word of this got around, and his friends begged him for a copy of his notes. He obliged them, and then, seeing that there was a market for his information, he published a book, Adventures in Good Eating, in 1936. He updated the book each year until 1954, when Hines retired. The book was extremely popular, and “Recommended by Duncan Hines” was a sign hung with pride at restaurants that had earned his endorsement.
Digging Deeper
NPR had a nice article on Duncan Hines and his book.
Here’s the IMDB page for Blithe Spirit.
Sherrey
The way she writes, I can almost see things happening.