It was a special time in a special place, never before seen and never again to be experienced. It was San Francisco at its best. It was a time that allowed a kid to become all that he could be, with or without the help and guidance from parents and others. This is a story about kids who grew up in the Golden Age of San Francisco in the 1940s and 1950s and three particular “brothers” who came from completely different backgrounds – an immigrant Latino kid from El Salvador who spoke no English, a kid from a low income Irish family in the Mission District with an alcoholic father, and a kid from a middle income family in the Sunset District with an abusive father with excessive expectations. Each of the “brothers” was raised by one strong parent figurehead and blessed with the right attitude, determination, and lady luck in their corner in order for each of them to overcome their own handicaps during the two best decades in San Francisco history.
The times we lived in were exceptional, special and unique in many ways. They were the best of times. If there were negatives, they stemmed from things beyond our control, such as, the inability to choose our parents, cruel classmates, or the innate stupidity from being young. The freedom, independence, opportunities, friendships, schools, teachers, coaches and unique features of San Francisco provided the closest a kid could ever get to Shangri-La or Camelot.
It was an era unlike any other. Many grandparents lived through the hardships of the First World War. Parents lived with the challenges of the Great Depression in the 30s. The same parents and their children survived the sacrifices made in the Second World War. And many of us were children of immigrants to the U.S. who started with nothing. We came from a humble background but tough stock. We adapted to living without things, thought nothing of living in lower class neighborhoods, found our own ways to cope with being a have-not, and overcame challenges to rise to a much higher level. This is the story of those kids’ journey through remarkable times in San Francisco history. This is the story of one of those kids, the “brother” he never had, and another “brother” who was the mirror image of his life rising from nothing to someone who came a long way. The journey included their best friends and classmates through grammar school and high school – their critical formative years. The local radio personality Don Sherwood signed off each morning, “Out of the mud grows the lotus,” which served as a constant reminder of my humble roots to self-motivate myself throughout my youth. Those roots were nurtured and built upon as I grew to excel in whatever I put my mind to do.
For 18 years, my generation moved in and out of different “sandboxes” (environments). We were born at the beginning of WWII to parents, many of whom were immigrants, who started with little and worked hard throughout our youth to provide the best for their children. We lived in the aftermath of a war where we developed a patriotism and pride in our country. We learned to appreciate the simple things in life coming out of a period of sacrifice and rationing during the war. San Francisco provided so many interesting experiences, opportunities and dedicated teachers for kids to meet their potential. We were fortunate to experience a life of sacrifices to be motivated to do better than our parents. There were opportunities at an early age to work part-time to be financially independent and lighten the load on our folks. Parents stressed the need for a good education and enrolled us in schools that provided discipline, Christian values, quality education and an environment that surrounded us with kids who had a good influence on us – a pool of good kids for establishing lasting friendships. Most importantly, we felt free as young kids. We had parents who gave us the independence to explore on our own. We could walk and ride our bikes all over. We were allowed to make our own decisions so we could learn from our successes and failures to build self-confidence.
Our youth was actually spent in three “sandboxes” during the years that shaped and determined the adults that we became. In each sandbox, we learned and adopted different interests, habits, qualities, virtues and values. We also made different mistakes, which we learned not to repeat. The first sandbox was the one at the playground and its surroundings up to age five. The next sandbox was grammar school and the neighborhood to age 14, and the last sandbox was our high school and the City of San Francisco to age 17 or 18. The kids that emerged from those sandboxes are the adults we are today. Along the way, I concluded that “the meaning of life” was that this life is our only chance at heaven, as we envision it. This is the story of my journey along with my “brothers,” friends and classmates that shared that journey. Each of us was in the same or similar sandboxes, but we all turned out differently but similar in some respects for the better. We were no angels, but that was not a prerequisite to enter my heaven.
This is a book about kids, for kids. We all faced challenges, albeit different challenges, during our childhood. Some had greater handicaps than others, whether they were physical, racial, mental, social, parental or financial. Some wound up bigger winners than others. But as the cliché goes, “It is not who wins and loses but how you play the game.” It was why “C” students could be bigger “winners” than the “A” students – because they started out with bigger handicaps. The fastest kid in the class is always going to win the race, but he seldom improves his time much. The slower kids can improve their times considerably, so their personal goals are more often exceeded. This book is about kids blessed with growing up in the best possible “sandbox” of a city, which kids today do not have a chance to experience, and about our challenges, joys, sorrows, successes and failures from which today’s kids can learn from to “get it right” for themselves and make fewer mistakes than us. Even parents and teachers might benefit from this story. Welcome to my sandboxes!