Something changed inside of me but at the time I didn’t realise this. I loved San Francisco and I continued to enjoy being there. I made a point to walk the Golden Gate Bridge for leisure with a thousand thoughts racing through my mind like the choppy ocean below.
One of those swirling emotions was in regards to Noori. By now I had written to her a few letters. Of course I could only mail them to my family home and trust that my sister or mother would be sure to give these to her. But you know I never, not once received a reply.
Down the road a ways I heard many tales of what happened in her life since I left. It’s really quite saddening because I couldn’t help as a lot of us do, to think, ‘what if?’
It was around mid-summer when I changed jobs from the Italian restaurant and through the Union I moved uptown into a position in a very nice hotel. There was a lovely American restaurant on the rooftop level, the 17th floor as memory serves and well, that was a good experience to have.
I left the Italian joint under very good circumstances. They were all too happy to provide me with a letter of recommendation as well. It had been a good relation; roughly 6 months of employment and all good memories.
Even though I am not able to recall the name of that beautiful hotel now, what I remember most about working way up there is how much I always enjoyed the view, oh the view!
By now you should know how much I absolutely loved watching all the ships coming and going through the Bay. And at night I would be mesmerised by the lights on the Bay Bridge. What a treat as far as I was concerned. Very nice.
Back to my new position. The food in this establishment was top notch, spread out in a delectable buffet. The selected dishes were of excellent quality and the clientele definitely had the wallet affording to pay for that phenomenal view.
I was quickly flowing with the hotel restaurant staff, customers and management and yes I’ll admit it, I was loved. I made an hourly wage and kept my own tips and really good tips they were! I stayed employed here about 4-5 months.
I still enjoyed the occasional ‘joyride’ on the cable cars, heading out to the turnaround point at Market & Powell Streets. I loved helping turn the car and waiting for people to climb aboard for the traditional thing to do in San Francisco.
When some friends and I would head out to Fisherman’s Wharf, we were going not for the fish but for what we thought was the best pizza and ice cold beers. Saturdays however were reserved for crab eats!
I’ve been living in the city for all of the seasons now and winter was once again setting in. It would be cold earlier than later and I remember my friends and I walking around the city and always realising ‘suddenly’ that it was so cold!
We would pop into an inviting coffee shop, plug a nickel or three into the jukebox and enjoy a hot coffee or chocolate to the sounds of Ricky Nelson, Dean Martin, Elvis, Patsy Cline, Frank Sinatra, well you get the idea.
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