[Nifster]

and California (even Oakland) was a very different place then....It was indeed a nice place not only to hit land but to live as well

[Eric in the Ozarks]

My folks were stationed with the Army in Japan, 1951-1961. In those days, transportation was by ship, two weeks at sea from Yokohama to Seattle or Oakland.

We sailed in to the bay, under the Golden Gate Bridge which I had never seen. Someone said, “There's Nob Hill where the rich folks live.”

We got off the boat and took a taxi to Lane Buick and picked up a station wagon my dad had ordered and drove back to the pier.
Loaded up, we drove “home” to Iowa.