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Where Little Cable Cars Climb Halfway to the Stars
Special to FreeRepublic ^ | 16 December 2006 | John Armor (Congressman Billybob)

Posted on 12/16/2006 8:17:38 AM PST by Congressman Billybob

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This is my "Christmas card" to the readers of my column. Hope y'all enjoy it.

John / Billybob

1 posted on 12/16/2006 8:17:41 AM PST by Congressman Billybob
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To: Congressman Billybob
The fastest way to get around the City was by cable car, averaging 14 miles per hour. The slowest way, just a touch slower than walking, was in a private car.

It still is. It once took me two hours to go 1/2 mile on a Friday afternoon. I think I could have crawled faster.

Anyone wishing to spend a day in San Francisco should leave their car at the Oakland Colesium and take the train.

2 posted on 12/16/2006 8:24:13 AM PST by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: P-Marlowe
Anyone wishing to spend a day in San Francisco should leave their car at the Oakland Colesium and take the train

And if its August, don't forget a jacket.

3 posted on 12/16/2006 8:34:23 AM PST by King Moonracer (Bad lighting and cheap fabric, thats how you sell clothing.)
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To: Congressman Billybob

My brother who lived in San Francisco for many years said that if you didn't get an apartment with a view in that city, you got screwed.


4 posted on 12/16/2006 8:36:57 AM PST by Rockitz (This isn't rocket science- Follow the money and you'll find the truth.)
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To: Congressman Billybob
Good story,

Merry Christmas, John!
5 posted on 12/16/2006 8:37:20 AM PST by BIGLOOK (Keelhauling is a sensible solution to mutiny.)
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To: King Moonracer

As Samuel Clemens once said, "The coldest winter I ever saw, was a summer I spent in San Francisco".

Yep. I've sweltered in 95 degree weather in San Jose, driven 40 miles to San Francisco and been cold in 50 degree fog.


6 posted on 12/16/2006 8:46:06 AM PST by jimtorr
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To: Congressman Billybob
It's a fascinating city. I love going there, I even love driving there. Sitting in traffic in "the city" is anything but boring if you just look out the window(s).

My wife and I took our motor home there once. We were climbing to the top of one of the hills behind a city bus on a street where every cross street is terraced, when the city bus went over the top the rear end went up in the air. You could see just about the entire under-carriage of the bus...my wife gasped and held on for dear life.

7 posted on 12/16/2006 8:49:38 AM PST by lewislynn
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To: Congressman Billybob

Yes, a beautiful city...

I fear you would find the current inhabitants to be several rungs down the evolution ladder, with many as obvious genetic defects --- from the time you spent there.

I live nearby, visit only when out of town/country guests at my home request it - and minimize the money I spend in the city proper, not wanting to subsidize the bastards.. For meals, we slip across the bridge to Sausalito.

Merry Christmas to you, partner.
I've always enjoyed reading your measured input to the forum.
Semper Fi


8 posted on 12/16/2006 9:14:59 AM PST by river rat (You may turn the other cheek, but I prefer to look into my enemy's vacant dead eyes.)
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To: Congressman Billybob

Brings back wonderful memories. At about the same time you were there in the city, I lived just around the corner (Taylor and Washington) from the trolley barn and would go the few down the hill to Chinatown and look for the restaurants with the longest lines of orientals...hmmm, mighty good eats.


9 posted on 12/16/2006 9:20:40 AM PST by Rudder
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To: Congressman Billybob
San Francisco is, indeed, a great place for views, history...and food.

Walk-around crab cocktails on the Wharf, cioppino, Ernie's, Chinatown, fresh hot piroshkis out on Geary Street, DUNGENESS CRAB, the Caprice in Tiburon, brunch with Irish coffee down by the Powell & Hyde turntable at the Buena Vista...

Slurp!

And a very Merry Christmas to you, too, sir.

10 posted on 12/16/2006 9:20:58 AM PST by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: IGNORANCE ON PARADE)
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To: Congressman Billybob
This is my "Christmas card" to the readers of my column. Hope y'all enjoy it.

...very nice. Thank you. Twin Peaks. What a place to live!

11 posted on 12/16/2006 9:36:19 AM PST by Freee-dame
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To: Freee-dame

I really have trouble correlating what I knew of SF in the 60's and what I hear and read about it now. It was primarily a staid, Catholic blue suit and white gloves town then. Sure the entertainment and hippie parts were a little wild. but they did not run the city.


12 posted on 12/16/2006 9:48:20 AM PST by ClaireSolt (Have you have gotten mixed up in a mish-masher?)
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To: Congressman Billybob

Thanks. And Merry Christmas.


13 posted on 12/16/2006 10:05:43 AM PST by SmithL (Where are we going? . . . . And why are we in this handbasket????)
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To: Congressman Billybob

A San FRancisco Bay Area, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas BumP


14 posted on 12/16/2006 10:15:15 AM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ...... Merry Something PC.)
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To: Rudder; Congressman Billybob
S.F. "eats" must always include Tadich Grill (a/k/a/ "Tadisch's").

One thing I'll say about San Francisco - it's got flavor; something that my home area of Los Angeles had not one iota of.

15 posted on 12/16/2006 10:15:53 AM PST by ErnBatavia (recent nightmare: Googled up "Helen Thomas nude"....)
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To: Congressman Billybob

I visited Paris before I visited San Francisco. I had thought that Paris must be the most beautiful city in the world. That was short lived. A few years later, we flew from Seattle to San Francisco and the pilot flew a circle around the city as we prepared to land. I saw the whole of the city with the bay and the bridges and I still can't imagine a sight more beautiful than that.

We have been back many times since and every view of San Francisco is just spectacular. Thanks for the great article.


16 posted on 12/16/2006 10:30:20 AM PST by AUsome Joy
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To: Congressman Billybob

San Francisco, one of the most beautiful cities in the world! It's one of the places I miss since I moved to Washington State.

I found that walking could be a little hazardous to your health a few times, what with people running red lights and such, but loved riding the cable cars around the city.


17 posted on 12/16/2006 10:43:29 AM PST by Theresawithanh (Veni, vidi, velcro - I came, I saw, I stuck around)
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To: Congressman Billybob
Well done.

I lived in the old People's Hospitol, on the Presidio of San Francisco. My room was on the 6th floor, overlooking the city.

At the time, the bulding was used as a branch of the Defense Language Institute (1984).

18 posted on 12/16/2006 10:49:30 AM PST by patton (Sanctimony frequently reaps its own reward.)
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To: King Moonracer
Anyone wishing to spend a day in San Francisco should leave their car at the Oakland Colesium and take the train

And if its August, don't forget a jacket.

I had a conference in SF in July 1983. Mrs. jimfree joined me and we took a couple days after the conference as vacation. It was warm every day until we went down to the wharf of an afternoon. Temp dropped 30 degrees. Souvenir sweatshirts saved us from the cold evening.

19 posted on 12/16/2006 10:51:12 AM PST by jimfree (Freep and ye shall find.)
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To: Congressman Billybob
Ahhh, Sanfransicko.

Dad's company moved him from their LA to their SF office, and Mom, with a baby daughter in tow, followed after wrapping up the household in Glendale.

She says she arrived the week the Bay Bridge opened, which was convenient because they settled in Oakland.

So the elder brother was born in East Bay. If Dad's asthma could have resisted the cold and dank weather, he would have stayed. As it was, he got hemself reassigned to the office in his home town, Chicago.

So that's how I missed being a SF Boy.

I visit when I can.

20 posted on 12/16/2006 12:09:58 PM PST by Erasmus (Go to Sebastopol and Crimea River.)
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