08 June 2007

The Castro

Walking down 17th Street from Haight to the Castro - and getting thereIt doesn't really show on the photo, but this local cinema was having a "Grease - singalong" night. I felt that was very appropriate :)
Rufus sings about 14th street - and even though I don't know for a fact that it's this one, I think it's a fair assumption. I forced my sister to stand in the middle of the street just so she could take this one. Fortunately, traffic was low... Just after she took this picture, a little old lady walked up to us and actually straight onto us. Pushing us aside as she walked. My sister commented on this in Norwegian. The little lady turned around - really slowly... "I've got a steel knee and I have to walk in a straight line", she explained. (Q: Did she understand Norwegian??) Then continued - "I'm 81 years old, I've lived here all my life. Tomorrow will be another fine day like this, and then the temperatures will drop". (Q: did her steel knee tell her this?) "What did you want to photograph here? There's a nice church just down ..." At this point she waved a hand in the general direction of Mission Dolores and then left us, trying to make it across the street on green...
We'd already been to Mission Dolores. Unfortunately, it was closed for some reason (though the sign stated the opposite), so we only got to see the outside.
Quite pretty on the outside too, though!
- is that bullet holes...?
Bagdad café, where we lunched. And learnt that "small portion" is actually ample...
So, was the Castro really different? Of course, there were rainbow flags everywhere. (Incidentally, last time I was in Rome, a few years back, there were rainbow flags everywhere there too - only they were symbols of peace, and used by the 'Americans out of Iraq' movement...) I saw 4-5 couples (one female) holding hands or holding their arms around eachother. I know I saw two guys in drag, possibly a third one but it could have been a girl... And there was that giant poster advertising family planning; two hot guys holding eachother and a woman standing discreetly a little way off - the tummy mummy? Other than that, it was just a really nice neighbourhood. Beautiful houses, clean, friendly, with some great bookshops (I didn't visit any other kinds of shops, come to think of it), and a lot of cute guys walking around...
Really don't see why this would have to happen only in the Castro, though. I'm all for people holding hands, whatever their preferences may be. And I really dislike people making out right in front of me even if they're as straight as nails...

1 comment:

Devil Mood said...

Is Castro the gay neighbourhood? Pardon my lack of S.F.-knowledge.

Old ladies everywhere have plenty of stories to tell!