Letters: Memories of San Francisco, Colorado and Spain

The marvelous spread on San Francisco nearly brought tears to my eyes, with reflections of my “return” to that marvelous city in October 1958 [“San Francisco at Iconic Speed,” by Christopher Reynolds, July 21].

A native Californian, I had concluded a six-year tour of duty as an officer in the U.S. Public Health Service, stationed mainly in East Coast locations. Newly single, I had accepted a position with an organization whose headquarters was at 518 Sutter St., a block from Union Square. The town was mine.

My morning route to work was a short walk to the western terminus of the California Street cable car at Van Ness Avenue, followed by a cable car ride to Powell Street.

If a Powell line cable car was in sight I would transfer, and in three blocks arrive at Sutter and Powell, about 100 feet from my office building. If no Powell cable car was in sight, it was a short downhill walk to Sutter. I would do the reverse route at day’s end.

Once the cable car crew got to know me, briefcase in hand, marking me as a “local,” the offered fare of 25 cents was seldom accepted. And many an evening, a night on the town would end at the Buena Vista Cafe for a nightcap Irish coffee for 65 cents. I can still hear the barman shouting, “Make one!” and in the time it took to fabricate a fresh drink by the bar pit crew, it was slid along the bar top with deadly accuracy to the waiting barman.

Those were the days.

Robert E. Tumelty

Seal Beach

Regarding “The Happiest Place,” by Katrina Wosnicki, July 21: Fort Collins, Colo., this so-called bucolic campus town, is rife with violence, as witnessed by several large uprisings that the town police have called riots. These were large street parties that morphed into riots, complete with fires, looting, etc., according to a story in the April 28 USA Today. This is not the first time, according to media reports in 2010 and 2004.

See a pattern here? I could go on.

So next time you write about the “happiest place on earth,” please check your facts first. I am a former Fort Collins resident.

Vicky Boyd

Modesto

Frank O. Sotomayor’s fine July 14 article “Food, Family, Faith” brought back fond memories.

During my visit in Spain, a Spanish tourist guide drew on his superhero expertise to size up Galicia’s heroes. “We are a country starving for heroes,” he said.

He called Payo Gómez Chariño de Sotomayor the “great hope who will save us all.” St. James was the dragon slayer “who took on the bad guys with his bare fists.”

So who won? “Depends who has more kryptonite,” the Spanish tourist guide said, with a smirk.

Evan Dale Santos

Adelanto, Calif.