bob hope

A friend sent this clip of Bob Hope.

SAN FRANCISCO HISTORY CENTER, SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY
https://sfpl.org/locations/main-library/historical-photographs

​Outside his father’s store in San Francisco’s North Beach, Figoni Hardware, my friend met Bob Hope. They had a nice conversation … about Bob’s eye problem. Figoni sold live worms, too. The store was near Fisherman's Wharf.

My dentist's office was a few blocks from Figoni Hardware. A novel by Frank Norris, McTeague, (1899) is about a dentist on Polk Street, an easy walk from North Beach over Russian Hill. I read the novel in high school.

Many of us were not politically aware or experienced. School, church, neighborhood, and playground filled up the days. I worked with a Chinese guy who never left Chinatown until he was 19. San Francisco neighborhoods are backed up against each other very tightly. If you said your school, I knew almost everything about you.