Looking Back Decisions

2024Decisions (Approx. 1,000 wds.)
Looking Back: Life’s Decisions
When you’re an old guy like me you tend to look back at the decisions you made in your life; what else do you have to do? By far the most significant decision I made in my life was when I was about 27. I decided to leave New York City, where I had lived all my life (specifically in the Bronx) to go 3,000 miles West to California (specifically, San Francisco). Why did I decide to do this? The main reason came down, as many decisions do, to basic economics. I was drafted into the Army after college (Korea), was stationed in Germany, returned to my parents’ apartment in the Bronx, got my first job, in an advertising agency, the agency went under, then got a job with a firm called Outdoor Advertising Inc, that promoted outdoor advertising. Advertising was then reputed to be a glamour business, which it may have been, but my entry-level salary was far from that. Rents in New York were high (for that time) and I couldn’t afford my own place. So I was back to living in my parents’ place in the Bronx and taking the subway to an office in midtown Manhattan five days a week, not a satisfactory existence. Beyond this, I found New York to be hot, crowded and noisy. I was ready for a change.
Why 3,000 miles away to San Francisco? In my piece on life’s what Ifs I recount how I met a fellow named R--- F--- in the Army in Germany, who was a Cal Berkeley grad and was always telling me I should move to San Francisco, which was the greatest city in the world. I asked what if I hadn’t met R---; would I have gone to San Francisco? I think I would as I had heard from others that it was much preferable to New York, jobs were easier to get and rents were lower. Of course I wasn’t the only person going to California at that time. Many veterans who’d been stationed there during Korea had liked the great weather compared to where they’d lived and re-located there. I think that also played a part in my thinking. L know that I watched the Rose Bowl game every year and saw people sitting in the sunshine while outside in the Bronx it was gray and cold. Knowing someone in San Francisco. like R---, clinched the matter.
In any case, I took the plane (propeller, not jet) to San Francisco at the start of 1957, stayed at the house which Ron and a few other UC Berkeley grads were renting, got a job with an ad agency that had a few clients that used outdoor advertising and as soon as I could moved into my own apartment. The rent, it sounds unbelievable now, was $60 a month. I thought I might have to drive in my job, to look at outdoor signs, so through one of R---‘s friends I bought a used car and, through the same friend, went to a driving school, took three lessons and got my driver’s license. I think the driving school had a deal with the DMV that their students would pass the driving test no matter what. I then learned to drive and luckily didn’t run anyone down or crash into anything.
My $60-a-month apartment was on Hyde Street, where I found out Sam Spade’s office had been, and from there I could walk to my office in Montgomery Street. When I got my car I couldn’t park it on the street but I found a nearby garage that was affordable. So, instead of living in my parents’ apartment and taking the subway to work I had my own place and had a nice walk to my job. When I learned how to drive, I could explore San Francisco, going to Fisherman’s Wharf, Golden Gate Park and the ocean, all pretty close; San Francisco was a relatively small city. I thought I’d made a good decision.
Of course as time on went life in San Francisco had its ups and downs. I went from the ad agency to being sales research manager for a regional brewer headquartered in the Midwest and one down was that the brewer decided to close its western operation and I was out of a job, which is how I ended up working for the State. It wasn’t the greatest but it was more secure than working in the private sector. I’m sure I made a lot of decisions during this time, maybe taking the brewer job was a bad one, but one decision I made still baffles me, this was taking in a kitten. Growing up in an apartment in the Bronx we’d never even considered having a pet and if we had it would have been a dog, certainly not a cat. The way I got the kitten was from a girl who worked in my office at the brewery and I can only think that she told me that if I didn’t take that kitten it would be euthanized. So I took in the kitten, named her Mickey and became a cat person.
I eventually met Beverly and she became my wife, the best thing that ever happened to me. I can’t really say though that this was the result of a decision I made. The first time Beverly came to my apartment, I’d moved to another one from Hyde Street and the rent this time was up to $85 a month, Mickey jumped in her lap. This, plus Beverly later told me that after our first date she’d told her roommate she was going to marry me. So, as Mickey showed her approval, it wasn’t something I decided. The decision had been made for me.
There would be other decisions after Beverly and I were married but this piece has gone on long enough so I’ll leave those for future writings.
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