October in the West - San Franciscan ventures

It is often said that the people of the United Kingdom and the people of the United States of America are divided by a common language. The framer of this much-quoted aphorism, which has something of the cliché about it, was articulating the myriad of ways in which so-called American English and so-called British English differs. Just as a ‘sidewalk’ is a pavement, the ‘trunk’ of a car is the boot, a supermarket has ‘carts’ and not trolleys and road users are told to ‘yield’ rather than give way so it is in the world of hearing devices.

I have, therefore, a set of instructions for obtaining hearing aid filters when on vacation in the United States. When preparing to travel internationally it is advisable for the hearing aid user to pack enough (wax) filters to cover the period away. To those not familiar with such matters the filter is a small perspex finger-tip sized piece of plastic which is affixed to the hearing aid to prevent wax from the inner ear entering the device. In the United Kingdom they are known as ‘filters’ and in the United States as ‘wax traps’.

Step One: find a representative of the company that supplies your hearing aids (or listening devices as the current parlance has it) by way of internet search and the discovery of an exhibition (Hear the World – www.hear-the-world.com ) at a downtown department store in the city. Macy’s Department store, Union Square, San Francisco was the scene of the latest stage of the globe-trotting exhibition of celebrity photographs by the celebrated musician Bryan Adams aimed at publicising hearing loss issues specifically and the promotion of hearing health issues more widely. The exhibition consisted of a series of photographs of artists striking a hand-behind-ear pose as if they were straining to hear something being said – a typical every-day gesture brilliantly conceived to make the wider point. The singer Annie Lennox graced the front cover of the publicity leaflet which relayed a number of startling facts: one in every six people worldwide is affected by hearing loss which is equivalent to the number of people who own a car and on average people with hearing loss wait 10 years before doing anything about it.

Step Two: Contact the Hearing & Speech Center of Northern California and discover that the nearest audiologist dispensing hearing aid accessories has an office in the next bloc to the bookshop you are visiting.

Step Three: Locate the audiologist in his office and after some initial confusion about the elusive Dr Schindler (who has moved to the other side of the city) subsequently you are presented with two complimentary packs of wax traps. All courtesy of the company network via Macy’s department store, the Hear the World exhibition and the information resources of the Hearing and Speech Center of Northern California – a wonderful example of the combination of American know-how, can-do philosophy and pure serendipity.

Sitting on a balcony in Tiburon, California overlooking the yacht club in late October with the sun pushing its way through the cloud amid the famous fog rolling across the San Francisco Bay, one would be forgiven for thinking that there cannot be many better ways to spend a late autumnal day. The former railroad terminus town of Tiburon, named after the Spanish word for shark, faces San Francisco across the Bay which is itself flanked by one of the greatest engineering wonders of the world and symbol of the city the world over – the Golden Gate Bridge The town once known as rowdy and raffish – think navvies, trains, saloons and hard-living – is now a sought-after commuter town of smart shops, smarter houses and even smarter cars. - with the many BMWs, V-Ws and Mercedes to be seen, the European car market is being supported mightily in Northern California.. The nearest to a disturbance of the peace to be found of an evening these days is an argument over protocol in the Corinthian Yacht Club, scene of the annual Commodore’s Ball which is the social event of the autumn season. To be seen twisting the night away in the main room of the clubhouse is proof that you are on good terms with the cognoscenti and the ‘movers’n’shakers’ of this Californian enclave which could be a town out of Hollywood central casting with its wooden houses, main street, coffee shop and every kind of boutique outlet imaginable. It is reminiscent of the setting for the movie Roxanne, a remake of the French play Cyrano de Bergerac, starring Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah, based in small-town America.

The people of Tiburon have what is perhaps one of the easiest and most scenic commutes in the world. For those with houses overlooking the quay where the ferry docks it is a matter of watching the approaching vessel from kitchen or bedroom window and moseying or sauntering down to the waterfront, perhaps via the coffee house to pick up the obligatory ‘take out’, before boarding. Then it is sit back and admire the view of the Bay as your water-borne version of bus or tube conveys you towards the city either resplendent in its fog-bound glory or newly emergent from it as the ferry sails stately onwards.

At the ferry terminal building in San Francisco there is the wonderfully-named bookstore ‘Book Passages’ which contrasts in atmosphere and approach to the big down-town Borders bookshop on Union Square in middle of the city where the statue to Commodore Dewey hero of the Spanish-American war in late 19th Century (later made an Admiral) stands proud in front of Macy’s department store.

Fisherman’s Wharf with shops, such as Seasons dedicated to Christmas gifts and the National Football League (NFL) official outlet for American football merchandise, boasts restaurants and views of the harbour overlooking the infamous Alcatraz, now a museum.

As Tony Bennett describes in his signature song, I Left My Heart in San Francisco, the cable cars do rise half-way to the stars and the morning fog may chill the air -
through the evocative names of the streets as the cable car makes its journey up, over and through those famous avenues ( “the little cable cars rise half-way to the stars”).

The hills of San Francisco are well-known for the large houses perched on top of the impossibly vertical streets named after robber barons from the romantic buccaneering days of the Gold Rush and the frontier: Nob Hill is named after Leland Stanford of the Union Pacific railway and founder of California’s Stanford University – who had a house on Nob Hill. The name Russian Hill conjures up White Russians escaping both the Bolshevik Revolution and the frozen steppe with Dr Zhivago not far behind; and downtown can be found the streets where the iconic car chase scene in Steve McQueen’s Bullitt was filmed.
Twenty years after the first visit of the Tutankamun exhibition to San Francisco, the young pharaoh and his entourage into the afterlife was back at the city’s de Young Musuem. Dedicated to fine art, this now-venerable institution was set up by the patronal family that founded the daily newspaper the San Francisco Chronicle. Our early morning tour, before the museum opened for the day, was facilitated by a member of the fundraising committee and we were accompanied by the ladies of that committee . The guided preview , often undertaken by volunteer guides or ‘docents’ at the Museum. The story of how the archaeologist Howard Carter and the aristocrat Lord Carnarvon unearthed the tomb of the boy Pharoah is still a stirring one of adventure and romance. The exhibition was enhanced by all the knowledge and understanding developed over the succeeding decades and also featured the photographs taken at the original opening of the tomb in the 1920s now stored in New York (on loan to de Young). The physical access for disabled museum-goers is very good – hearing access is facilitated by trained museum guides and there is a deaf docent service provided by an organisation called Deaf Media. (www.deafmedia.org / www.tutsanfrancisco.org / www.deyoungmuseum.org).

The de Young specialises in art and a striking piece of sculpture was the anti-war installation model of a Cathedral, by Al Farrow, made out of old and decommissioned weapons and consisting of further materials such as guns, bullets, steel, glass, bone. It serves as a graphic illustration of the link between war and religion – http://www.alfarrowcathedral.com. My art education has been enhanced considerably and given a boost courtesy of Amy Whitaker’s book on museums (Museums Legs – Fatigue and Hope in the Face of Art)

The Muir Woods National Park Monument is a living museum of nature. Set up in 1908 by naturalist, frontiersman and ranger Gifford Pinchot, who was appointed first head of the US Forest Service (forerunner of National Park Service) by President Theodore Roosevelt, it boasts some of the tallest and oldest trees in the United States – the redwoods. These majestic trees can live up to 2200 years and many stand taller than the Statue of Liberty. They are guardians of the plant and animal life which grows in profusion across the national park and they are playing a vital role of environmental protection through carbon capture and water preservation. Pinchot was influenced by the pioneering environmentalist and woodsman John Muir, who founded the Sierra Club. The founding/organising conference of the United Nations in 1945 was held at Muir Woods. (http://www.nps.gov)

A Sunday afternoon trip to the Marin Headlands National Park which sits atop San Francisco Bay affords spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Bay and City. The land was originally farmed by the “vaqueros” cowboys of Spanish origin – followed by the Portugese community who made a living from dairy farming. The lighthouse commanding the entrance to the Bay, a difficult passage for vessels past and present, stands on its own promontory with the original mid-19 Century glass still intact which continues to bring light and relief to those who may find themselves in peril on the sea. A reminder of recent Cold War history and the real possibility of nuclear confrontation in those decades is the NIKE missile military encampment which stood on the Marin headlands, before the advent of the inter-continental ballistic missile rendered the base obsolete. The base is now a museum.

The Fort Bay yacht club stands in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge – it has a raffish, down-at-heel slightly faded but charming old-world feel with an air of past glory but uncertain future. The rather theatrical old salt of a barman was dumbfounded when confronted with the idea of a shandy – mixing beer and lemonade – which he regarded as both mystifying and almost sacrilegious. A white wine sprizer (white wine and soda) was incomprehensible so we settled on a glass of white wine straight – almost acceptable!

A late afternoon trip to Mill Valley reveals a slice of American and Californian social history. It is one of the original hippy communities of Northern California (“if you are going to San Francisco be sure to go with flowers in your hair”) complete with Mill Valley Market selling everything organic from West Coast to Eastern Oriental and back via Northern approaches – including Yorkshire tea. Mill Valley also boasts some fine restaurants – Italian a speciality.

A Saturday afternoon spent sailing on San Francisco Bay aboard the fifty-foot yacht Georgia J with the Vice-Commodore of the Corinthian Yacht Club and her husband-Captain is quiet an experience. Under Captain Kim we sailed around the former prison and military camp of Alcatraz (being reliably informed that Burt Lancaster as the bird man had flown long ago) and into the famous fog – which descends and lifts in an instant – after nearly losing both the winch and the Captain’s hand. The ever-present sealions in and around the bay – sometimes to be seen sitting on the yacht club dock – provided an amused audience. It all brought to mind the old sea shanty, The Mermaid, that tells the story of how ships were lured on to rocks by pretty creatures holding a comb and a glass: “ when we set sail, and our ship not far from the land, we there did espy a fair pretty maid, with a comb and a glass in her hand….”. The night was danced away at the annual yacht club ball when tales of the sea were swapped to the sounds of the 1970s.

The wine-country of Northern California, based in and around the Napa Valley and its towns, was traditionally a patchwork of family-owned vineyards and wineries which are now increasingly being taken over by larger commercial entities. The region also has a growing reputation internationally for olive oil. As a sign of affluence, confidence and ‘chutzpah’ many of the vineyards boast art installations and architectural structures not out of place in big city plazas. They are incongruously sited in the middle of the Napa Valley ranges, commanding views across the Valley.
Just as the European immigrants who found themselves in Southern California used the natural resources (of light and space) to invent and develop the quintessential American art form of the 20th Century – the motion picture – so their compatriots who came to Northern California brought with them the skills of their forefathers in wine production, making use of the abundant natural resources of the Western fertile plains.

The history of the state of California is also bound up with the Spanish missions which were built by missionaries along the length of the coastline from San Rafael in the North to San Diego in the South – all the names we know that are synonymous with Californian living have their origin here. Indeed, the American rock band The Eagles – whose sales of records necessitated a new category (platinum) to be invented by the record industry – pay tribute to the “mission bells” which line the route of the highway across the state in the hit song Hotel California.

A visit to Angel Island, across the Bay from Tiburon, was a sobering one. It was the historic immigration station – the ‘guarded gateway to the West’ - and former Civil War Army base, although San Franciso never heard a shot fired in anger during the American Civil War of the 1860s. All the immigrants from Asia – particularly Chinese and Japanese – were held on Ellis Island (sometimes called California’s equivalent to the New York entry point Ellis Island) whilst paperwork was processed. A poignant moment was provided by a Chinese man, on a works outing from a city-based company who told the assembled company that his own mother had been held at the barracks we were visiting, as one of the last cohort of immigrants to pass through before closure in the 1940s. This is a powerful reminder that the American Dream is a story based on injustice as well as heroism, brutality as well as courage. The manifest destiny of the United States was forged in adversity and history lives on in people’s lives. The Island affords views of the Bay, the Golden Gate Bridge and the city from various vantage points.

In the canon of American popular music there are many songs celebrating the joys of particular places at particular times of the year: Frank Sinatra sings of the delights of Autumn in New York or Moonlight in Vermont, Joan Baez begs the object of her love (‘a rambling boy’) to Please Come to Boston for the Springtime. The Great American Songbook lyricists and composers turned their attentions to European cities as well – Yip Harburg on April in Paris or the Gershwins on A Foggy Day in London Town.. There should surely be a hymn to San Francisco in October, for it is very heaven. Perhaps it was October when Tony Bennett left his heart in the City by the Bay. I certainly did.