Friday,
Dec 30…
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| The Rock |
We celebrate our anniversary
at Alcatraz. What a fasci-nating place! I had no idea it dated back to the Civil
War (when it was used to house prisoners accused of treason). Nor did I know
that Native Americans occupied the (recently closed) site for 18 months
(1969-1971) to bring the plight of American Indians to the world’s attention.
As a federal prison, Alcatraz only housed prisoners who had messed up in a
previous institution. No women were ever incarcerated there, but many families
of staff members lived on the island. A ferry took their children to school in
San Francisco each day, and the wives could go as well if they wanted to shop
or visit friends. Some people felt they were safer on the Rock than in the
city!
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| San Francisco Skyline |
BlogThoughts… At Alcatraz we took the audio tour of the actual cellblocks, and the narrators were either former staff members or former prisoners. I thought having prisoners recount their own impressions was very powerful. Also interesting was the fact that, despite the fact that all the inmates were serious “bad guys,” some 70% went on to live productive lives after finishing their sentences. (Escapees didn't fare so well.) Christina McMorris's novel The Edge of Lost tells a good story that starts w/ young Irish boy with a flair for dialect emigrating to the U.S. and ends with an Alcatraz escape attempt. As they plan you learn a good bit about the prison.
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| In duh 'hood. |
After a quick lunch (for me, a good crabcake w/ slaw on a Kaiser roll) at one of the piers on Fisherman’s Wharf, we took a standard bus tour of the city. I confess to dozing through a fair amount of the narrative, but we did stop at some great viewpoints. (I do remember Haight-Ashbury, the hill climbs (especially in a bus bigger than our own rig), and the million+ dollar homes that had originally been built from Sear-Roebuck mail order kits.)
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| Prime Real Estate |
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| On a clear day, you can see forever. |
San Francisco is very pretty. I should have thought it through - my friend Booker came to town and stayed in San Francisco. Had I planned and paid better attention, I could have gone down there for a day or two to meet you and him both. Looks like a fun time!
ReplyDeleteI never knew Alcatraz had such rich history - you sure do tell it well. :+)
Of course - your anniversary. Happy 26th! No matter how remote you are, there is still no excuse to forget. I think I'm out of excuses for forgetting anything now, though. If I ever remembered something, one would wonder what happened. I'm glad you got the mistletoe up! I recall that's what I gave you for your 25th wedding anniversary last year. :+)
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