BY JOELLEN COLLINS
I am now living very close to the place I was born. My current residence is in Walnut Creek, California, not far from the hospital (Alta Bates) at UC Berkeley. A few days after my birth there, I was taken to a place run by the Children’s Home Society and eventually adopted by a very loving family in San Francisco. We resided in a home atop a hill off 19th Avenue, with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge. The Bridge and I began our lives in the same year, 1936.
Today I am looking at that burnt-orange colored span across the Bay and almost sense I’m home, even though I still feel like I belong in the Wood River Valley. I spent my first seven years playing among Golden Gate Park’s delights, like the Japanese Tea Garden, the Conservatory of Flowers, playgrounds, rolling lawns, picnic spots, and a bounty of magical places. During those same years I could observe from our home the lights of the city go out as air raids of WWII sounded. My father, born with club feet, couldn’t serve in the military, but as a popular radio announcer, he was chosen as one of the civilians heading the USO. We often entertained soldiers and sailors for Sunday dinners. I especially remember how glamorous that seemed, and how “cute” my cousin Helene and I thought they were, as we whispered and giggled to each other. We wished that we were old enough to dance with these fascinating young men at the USO.
Now I am growing even older here, in an unexpected full circle, where I first experienced San Francisco, then a city of magic to most.
When I went with my daughter and my granddaughter to see the seasonal performance of “The Nutcracker” at the San Francisco Ballet, I was moved by the fresh set design and staging depicting the city in 1910, recreating the high ceilings and welcoming rooms of that era. Again, I felt the echoes of my life experiences during that magnificent evening, even recalling the time, as a toddler, that I wore a tiny tutu when our dance class entertained servicemen at The Palace of Fine Arts.
Today I once again experienced the beauty of the city I knew as a child, though from a different perspective. My grandson, sporting a small drone, filmed from the edge of the bay in the Marina (following maritime regulations) a wide panorama of what was always beautiful to me decades ago. To the left was the Bridge, then an expanse of water to Sausalito, and far across the small waves to the right, Alcatraz. While I have traveled to many magnificent cities and hamlets of the world, here I find myself, revisiting the city of my beginnings through the technology of the future. I feel awe at its timeless beauty and gratitude for my place in this circle of life.