"This is San Francisco" by M. Sasek

It is going to take a lot more than smoke in the air to make me break up with San Francisco, because you see, we go way back. I moved here in August of 1989, two months before the Loma Prieta earthquake. The day the Bay Area shook, I was on the second floor of a building on the corner of Grant and Geary, working as an editor at a travel magazine. My co-workers and I clung to each other, and then gingerly tip-toed out of the building, watching each others’ backs. In the days that followed the earthquake, I knew I was not going anywhere. I had already decided that this was my city, and soon it would become my daughters’ city, too, because it is quirky, funny and friendly, just like us. I came into The City yesterday to walk with a friend, because that is what we do in San Francisco, we walk, a lot, even when there is smoke in the air. I then did a zoom yoga class in my apartment and in the middle of a triangle pose, I spotted this book smiling at me from Lily’s books case. “This is San Francisco” is a beautiful children’s book by M. Sasek with iconic images of The City. After my yoga zoom, I opened the book and read through it for probably the first time in at least 10 years. I smiled at nearly every page, and marveled at the drawing of the Embarcadero freeway that is no longer standing. There is a picture on page 44 of some telephone poles and it says “300 days a year the western sky is blue.” That figure might not be accurate any more, but there is still no other city I would rather live in. When the pandemic is over, when the heat wave is done, and when the fires have been tamed, I will still be on Turk, heading out on another walk. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.