Hot Fun in the Summertime

“End of the spring and here she comes back

Hi Hi Hi Hi there

Them summer days, those summer days

That's when I had most of my fun, back then

Them summer days, those summer days”

- Sylvester Stewart (aka Sly Stone)

While I was growing up we lived in a neighborhood that was ethnically diverse. Adjacent to the Bay, it was naturally called the Bayview District.  The houses were exactly like the ones in the Richmond and Sunset District in San Francisco on the, "other" side of town, but in a place where immigrants could more easily purchase homes. All the houses had gardens and well manicured lawns and white picket fences. My parents moved there in 1952.


My best friends were Darlene Lee, Sandra Smith, Ramona Sanchez and Esther Gomez. At Darlene's house her mother would feed us fried rice, at Sandra's we had pizza, and at Ramona's it was tortillas, rice and beans.  Esther's mother kept raw vegetables on the table. My favorite were green onions kept in ice cold water with a salt bowl for dipping. Imagine what we smelled like!  Daddy made the best fried chicken and white rice and (ugh) pickled pigs feet. 

We had the most terrific block parties.  The streets were blocked off by sawhorses with, get this, black round balls with lit Steno inside them. I can't remember what they were called but they looked like cannon balls with flames coming out of them. Traditionally, these were used everywhere in the City for work being done on streets, but would later be replaced by blinking lights. We played from the first light of day until late at night when our parents had to drag us into the house. We had flexies, bikes, hula hoops, silly puddy and went to the movies for 25 cents. All these activities were done in dresses because girls didn't wear pants back then, not until pedal pushers became popular. 

At the block parties our fathers would play chess and checkers with tables set up in our driveways. We had all kinds of food set out everywhere and anything you can imagine from every culture was there. Mexican, Chinese, Filipino and American, all followed with red Kool-Aid as a chaser, made with a full cup of white granulated sugar.

We all walked to school together, two blocks from home, skipped rope, held hands and shared our lunches when "fruit" was a tomato in our lunch boxes or bags. We played hopscotch, foursquare, tether ball and kickball in the schoolyard. We went on field trips throughout the city - the Symphony, Aquarium, the De Young Museum, City Hall, Golden Gate Park Carousal. When there wasn't enough room on the bus our parents would volunteer. We would cram 6 or 8 kids in a car, no seat-belts driving our parents crazy with our laughter and antics. There was a beach near our house that we played at forever before the commercial industry started building plants. It was always sunny and warm in the spring and summer.

We almost moved to Westlake in Daly City in the Summer of 1963. My tall, blond, Caucasian mother saw the house of her dreams: 4 bedrooms 2 bathrooms. To us it was a mansion. She wanted Daddy to sell the two houses we owned on our street and purchase the yellow and white house in Westlake.  But when my short, dark, thick-accented Filipino father went to look at the house, it was suddenly no longer for sale. I use to wonder what the Real Estate Agent thought when she showed my mother the house with all these Asian looking children in tow? Did she think my mother was a saint for having adopted an entire family of children? That was that. We didn't let it dampen our  fun. 


My father died that next summer but I will always have the all of the Falls, Christmases, Springs and Summers before to remember him by. 

Those were wonderful times, beautiful memories...especially the hot fun in the Summertimes...

Edited by LEM