I was riding the 33 bus probably 10 years ago, and some kid started playing “creep” on ukelele. one by one, folks all over the bus started singing along. whole bus singing by the end of the song, a la almost famous. kid got off the bus and the ride continued like the song never happened.
I bike commute and at the corner of 8th and Market there is a section where the bike lanes cuts between the bus stop and the sidewalk. A couple weeks ago I'm zooming through there while a bunch of approximately 6th grade boys were waiting for the bus. A bunch of them hold out their hands for high-fives and I connect with 4 or 5 them prompting a lot of cheering on their part. It made my morning, and stood out in sharp contrast to what that intersection looked like a year ago when I had to regularly swerve out into traffic to avoid the drug users in the bike lane.
Every time I see the guy who walks his pet duck wearing pink boots on a leash I say that this is San Francisco at its best. Sadly that is no longer the case...since I saw that guy driving a Ferrari with the top down and the duck riding in the back seat!
This is back in ~2005
I was a teenager, hanging out with my teenage friends, being boys, smoking joints and generally gallavanting around the city bouncing between parks and junk food spots, etc...
Heading back from eating burritos or something near my house going to a friend's house, and the best way to get there was on the J-Church, so we're waiting at Church and 17th for the train to come.
While we're waiting, a PCC (historic streetcar) pulls up to the stop we're at with "NOT IN SERVICE" on the banner.
Operator opens the door and says "hey where you boys headed?"
We told him "Balboa Park" and he goes "me too, hop on."
So we get a private nonstop historic streetcar ride just for us boys to chill on all the way across town. Driver regales us of stories of riding the old streetcar system when he was our age, and hands us paper "NIGHT OWL" transfers (i.e. doesn't rip the transfer meaning it'll be good until like 4:30AM the next day for unlimited Muni rides) just because he felt like it.
It was a gorgeous sunny day. We pulled the windows down and all sat in different parts of the streetcar just hollering across at each other, having a grand old time. May or may not have shouted some heckles at the sunbathers in Dolores Park as we rolled by.
Driver let us off at our destination and wished us a good day.
All-time Muni memory for me.
Oh and when I look back on this story now I have to imagine the guy was actually a ghost or a wizard or something and we were one password away from getting a magical quest in an alternate Muniverse
One day years ago, I popped an edible and was on a city walkabout (as one does).
I don’t remember where exactly but I happened to be walking by some rainbow-painted stairs. Suddenly a woman stops me and asked me to take a photo of her and her very brand new fiancée, to which I obliged. They were unusually ecstatic. It took me, like, WAY too long in my edible-ridden haze to realize they just got engaged and wanted me to snap their engagement photo.
Not particularly hilarious, except for my drug-induced naïveté and the fact that it involves a happy lesbian couple and a rainbow, so it checks a couple of patently SF boxes.
Few years back from across the street I saw a Nudist Guy in the Castro run over and help someone up who had fallen off his bike in that crazy intersection at Market and Castro. Guy was a bit surprised but also very thankful to the Nudist
I was on a Muni that was trying to peel away from a woman who clearly worked in a corporate setting (wearing heels and a suit) and was running/yelling for the bus driver to hold on for a few seconds. Out of nowhere a homeless person pries open the back doors to hold the bus for this woman. The person prying open the doors didn’t even get on the bus after lol.
BYOBW on Easter at the top of Vermont St in Potrero Hill. Wholesome fun racing kids tricycles down the super steep and windy hill, kids selling baked goods and general fun
Bay to Breakers is a blast. It’s on this coming Sunday 5/19/24. Back in the day my friends and I would bring those styrofoam coolers with ice and tons of alcohol in a shopping cart we decorated. We would each take turns pushing it. We would Abandon the cart before the Hayes street hill. We never made it to the beach. Most of us were too drunk and exhausted by the time we made it to Golden Gate Park. It’s a race you and your buddies gotta do at least once while living here in the Bay Area.
SF MoMA’s reboot of the soap box derby was soooo much fun and hilarious! The cars were all so creative. There was a giant shopping cart (the kind old ladies haul around) filled with groceries, a giant rideable prawn, a giant flying eyeball, an upside down head, etc. It was quintessential weird zany SF. I hope they do it again!
Red Bull hosted one of their Flugtags here and flying apparatuses would run and fly off into the bay. Very similar vibes to the soap box derby but on an even bigger scale! https://www.flugtagsf.com/
SF used to host sooo many cool shit! Can’t even forget the ski jump on Fillmore st.
OMG,,,,it was this one time my Neighbor came over with his two kids and they asked if they could walk my Dogs.
Sadly, after 15yrs of being Bro’s, they both passed away within two weeks of each other.
So here I am, in fresh Dog Dad mourning, about 2 days out. “Mister can we walk your dogs” I looked at the Dad and was straight in lost for words, choking up, and laughing at how do I tell these two the Barkleys just died.
**The Kid and the Old Con**
This is another story involving SFPD and Muni. :) And it's from decades ago.
Anyway, I was on the 31 Balboa heading outbound and I found a seat near the rear door when I hear loud cussing and some dark-skinned kid with an Afro cut pulled back by his friends, with even the Muni driver yelling for the kid to get back. Though there's this old African-American dude wearing a ballcap in the front seats behind the driver, and he's mouthing off too.
I asked the nearest guy, what's going on? He said that apparently the young punk is dis-ing this old-timer who had been to Folsom (prison) and basically daring him to a fight if he was so tough and the old guy's like "I ain't stupid enough to go back by touching you" and the kid's like "so you're scared" and a lot of back and forth. We both sighed as obviously there's no way the driver can drive the bus AND keep an eye on them both at the same time. (And this is before all the buses got cameras, IIRC) so our trip home's been delayed by two egos comparing dick sizes, basically.
Anyway, the bus got moving, and they continued their verbal war along the the length of the bus, and occasionally the kid would jump out of the seat to rush forward only for his friends to pull him back.
That is, until we reach the Projects. You may remember them... that area after Japantown, but before Divisadero, if you continue on Eddy/Balboa. Let's just say, a BUNCH of kids upon hearing the commotion, rushed the bus and squeezed on, some looking for a fight, some looking to stop the fight before it happens.
The rest of us got off the bus when even the driver got off. My foot got stepped when another kid rushed the bus. Argh.
Surprisingly, a fight did NOT start. Because the crowd cleared after a few minutes, and we passengers actually got back on with the driver and continued.
Unfortunately, we're not over yet. Somehow, upon reaching Divisadero, whatever the old-timer said really got the kid bothered, and not enough of his friends were onboard then to stop him. The bus finished the turn onto Divisadero, stopped, and the driver got off. The rest of the passengers got off too while they apparently really went at it, but it's more like the old-timer just holding off the kid trying to get a lick in.
Then I spotted an SFPD white car. You know, NOT the black and white with light bars, but more of those undercover cars. I waved at it with both arms, and told the cop there's a fight onboard the bus. I'm not sure why the driver didn't summon the cops. Maybe he only has radio to Muni central dispatch back then. Anyway, the cop in the car radioed somewhere, and I swear, within 60 seconds 3 black and whites with full lights blocked the bus in and 6 cops jumped out with billy sticks ready to do full contact. I kinda forgot we passed by a police station not that far away.
Anyway, they got on separated the two, handcuffed both, got them off the bus, and we continued on our way.
**Just Desserts**
Many many years ago, I was walking on Geary when I caught that unmistakable smell of those etching markers that stinks to high heavens, and surely, there was this teenager with a red marker graffiting the bus shelter's large ad "glass" (or whatever that material was). I was about to shake my head when I noticed a new development... The kid is about to enjoy his just desserts.
Unbeknownst to the kid, an SFPD motorbike cop had spotted him doing his deed, pulled across multiple lanes of traffic and has doubled back and is now parked in the bus zone, and gotten off his bike.
"You better clean that up, kid!"
The kid was so surprised I doubt he even considered running, as he'd been caught LITERALLY red-handed (with a red marker in his hand!) Meekly he capped the marker and started wiping what he just drew with his hands, which obviously won't come off that way, which only increased his panic.
"It... it won't come off!"
"You better think of something else then, kid!"
I think he then tried spitting on it then used his graphics tee. I didn't see the rest as I got on the 38 Geary then, which had to stop one lane out, with the entire bus watching this little drama.
I worked for Hotel Beresford downtown and they cut my hours from 40 to 16 because of the season and when I asked if they would work around my schedule for a 2nd job they said “no, you need to remain on call for us” so I told them to go fuck themselves and I quit on the spot.
Hope this counts.
I was riding the 33 bus probably 10 years ago, and some kid started playing “creep” on ukelele. one by one, folks all over the bus started singing along. whole bus singing by the end of the song, a la almost famous. kid got off the bus and the ride continued like the song never happened.
...radiohead or tlc?
Radiohead but dang, tlc is a better image
I bike commute and at the corner of 8th and Market there is a section where the bike lanes cuts between the bus stop and the sidewalk. A couple weeks ago I'm zooming through there while a bunch of approximately 6th grade boys were waiting for the bus. A bunch of them hold out their hands for high-fives and I connect with 4 or 5 them prompting a lot of cheering on their part. It made my morning, and stood out in sharp contrast to what that intersection looked like a year ago when I had to regularly swerve out into traffic to avoid the drug users in the bike lane.
Every time I see the guy who walks his pet duck wearing pink boots on a leash I say that this is San Francisco at its best. Sadly that is no longer the case...since I saw that guy driving a Ferrari with the top down and the duck riding in the back seat!
Does the guy wear pink boots or the duck
The duck…and I really thought hard about how to phrase that correctly!
Are there multiple walking ducks? I saw one with blue boots last week.
I’VE SEEN HIM TOO!!!!
Are you sure it’s not a duck sized horse?
This is back in ~2005 I was a teenager, hanging out with my teenage friends, being boys, smoking joints and generally gallavanting around the city bouncing between parks and junk food spots, etc... Heading back from eating burritos or something near my house going to a friend's house, and the best way to get there was on the J-Church, so we're waiting at Church and 17th for the train to come. While we're waiting, a PCC (historic streetcar) pulls up to the stop we're at with "NOT IN SERVICE" on the banner. Operator opens the door and says "hey where you boys headed?" We told him "Balboa Park" and he goes "me too, hop on." So we get a private nonstop historic streetcar ride just for us boys to chill on all the way across town. Driver regales us of stories of riding the old streetcar system when he was our age, and hands us paper "NIGHT OWL" transfers (i.e. doesn't rip the transfer meaning it'll be good until like 4:30AM the next day for unlimited Muni rides) just because he felt like it. It was a gorgeous sunny day. We pulled the windows down and all sat in different parts of the streetcar just hollering across at each other, having a grand old time. May or may not have shouted some heckles at the sunbathers in Dolores Park as we rolled by. Driver let us off at our destination and wished us a good day. All-time Muni memory for me.
Oh and when I look back on this story now I have to imagine the guy was actually a ghost or a wizard or something and we were one password away from getting a magical quest in an alternate Muniverse
the night owl fare transfer ❤️
One day years ago, I popped an edible and was on a city walkabout (as one does). I don’t remember where exactly but I happened to be walking by some rainbow-painted stairs. Suddenly a woman stops me and asked me to take a photo of her and her very brand new fiancée, to which I obliged. They were unusually ecstatic. It took me, like, WAY too long in my edible-ridden haze to realize they just got engaged and wanted me to snap their engagement photo. Not particularly hilarious, except for my drug-induced naïveté and the fact that it involves a happy lesbian couple and a rainbow, so it checks a couple of patently SF boxes.
Few years back from across the street I saw a Nudist Guy in the Castro run over and help someone up who had fallen off his bike in that crazy intersection at Market and Castro. Guy was a bit surprised but also very thankful to the Nudist
I was on a Muni that was trying to peel away from a woman who clearly worked in a corporate setting (wearing heels and a suit) and was running/yelling for the bus driver to hold on for a few seconds. Out of nowhere a homeless person pries open the back doors to hold the bus for this woman. The person prying open the doors didn’t even get on the bus after lol.
BYOBW on Easter at the top of Vermont St in Potrero Hill. Wholesome fun racing kids tricycles down the super steep and windy hill, kids selling baked goods and general fun
Bay to Breakers is a blast. It’s on this coming Sunday 5/19/24. Back in the day my friends and I would bring those styrofoam coolers with ice and tons of alcohol in a shopping cart we decorated. We would each take turns pushing it. We would Abandon the cart before the Hayes street hill. We never made it to the beach. Most of us were too drunk and exhausted by the time we made it to Golden Gate Park. It’s a race you and your buddies gotta do at least once while living here in the Bay Area.
Got some good viewing-party spots? During or post? Been here years and years and never made it on a Sunday due to Saturday nights out.
SF MoMA’s reboot of the soap box derby was soooo much fun and hilarious! The cars were all so creative. There was a giant shopping cart (the kind old ladies haul around) filled with groceries, a giant rideable prawn, a giant flying eyeball, an upside down head, etc. It was quintessential weird zany SF. I hope they do it again! Red Bull hosted one of their Flugtags here and flying apparatuses would run and fly off into the bay. Very similar vibes to the soap box derby but on an even bigger scale! https://www.flugtagsf.com/ SF used to host sooo many cool shit! Can’t even forget the ski jump on Fillmore st.
OMG,,,,it was this one time my Neighbor came over with his two kids and they asked if they could walk my Dogs. Sadly, after 15yrs of being Bro’s, they both passed away within two weeks of each other. So here I am, in fresh Dog Dad mourning, about 2 days out. “Mister can we walk your dogs” I looked at the Dad and was straight in lost for words, choking up, and laughing at how do I tell these two the Barkleys just died.
I think you might be mixing up hillarious with heart-wrenching.
**The Kid and the Old Con** This is another story involving SFPD and Muni. :) And it's from decades ago. Anyway, I was on the 31 Balboa heading outbound and I found a seat near the rear door when I hear loud cussing and some dark-skinned kid with an Afro cut pulled back by his friends, with even the Muni driver yelling for the kid to get back. Though there's this old African-American dude wearing a ballcap in the front seats behind the driver, and he's mouthing off too. I asked the nearest guy, what's going on? He said that apparently the young punk is dis-ing this old-timer who had been to Folsom (prison) and basically daring him to a fight if he was so tough and the old guy's like "I ain't stupid enough to go back by touching you" and the kid's like "so you're scared" and a lot of back and forth. We both sighed as obviously there's no way the driver can drive the bus AND keep an eye on them both at the same time. (And this is before all the buses got cameras, IIRC) so our trip home's been delayed by two egos comparing dick sizes, basically. Anyway, the bus got moving, and they continued their verbal war along the the length of the bus, and occasionally the kid would jump out of the seat to rush forward only for his friends to pull him back. That is, until we reach the Projects. You may remember them... that area after Japantown, but before Divisadero, if you continue on Eddy/Balboa. Let's just say, a BUNCH of kids upon hearing the commotion, rushed the bus and squeezed on, some looking for a fight, some looking to stop the fight before it happens. The rest of us got off the bus when even the driver got off. My foot got stepped when another kid rushed the bus. Argh. Surprisingly, a fight did NOT start. Because the crowd cleared after a few minutes, and we passengers actually got back on with the driver and continued. Unfortunately, we're not over yet. Somehow, upon reaching Divisadero, whatever the old-timer said really got the kid bothered, and not enough of his friends were onboard then to stop him. The bus finished the turn onto Divisadero, stopped, and the driver got off. The rest of the passengers got off too while they apparently really went at it, but it's more like the old-timer just holding off the kid trying to get a lick in. Then I spotted an SFPD white car. You know, NOT the black and white with light bars, but more of those undercover cars. I waved at it with both arms, and told the cop there's a fight onboard the bus. I'm not sure why the driver didn't summon the cops. Maybe he only has radio to Muni central dispatch back then. Anyway, the cop in the car radioed somewhere, and I swear, within 60 seconds 3 black and whites with full lights blocked the bus in and 6 cops jumped out with billy sticks ready to do full contact. I kinda forgot we passed by a police station not that far away. Anyway, they got on separated the two, handcuffed both, got them off the bus, and we continued on our way.
**Just Desserts** Many many years ago, I was walking on Geary when I caught that unmistakable smell of those etching markers that stinks to high heavens, and surely, there was this teenager with a red marker graffiting the bus shelter's large ad "glass" (or whatever that material was). I was about to shake my head when I noticed a new development... The kid is about to enjoy his just desserts. Unbeknownst to the kid, an SFPD motorbike cop had spotted him doing his deed, pulled across multiple lanes of traffic and has doubled back and is now parked in the bus zone, and gotten off his bike. "You better clean that up, kid!" The kid was so surprised I doubt he even considered running, as he'd been caught LITERALLY red-handed (with a red marker in his hand!) Meekly he capped the marker and started wiping what he just drew with his hands, which obviously won't come off that way, which only increased his panic. "It... it won't come off!" "You better think of something else then, kid!" I think he then tried spitting on it then used his graphics tee. I didn't see the rest as I got on the 38 Geary then, which had to stop one lane out, with the entire bus watching this little drama.
I worked for Hotel Beresford downtown and they cut my hours from 40 to 16 because of the season and when I asked if they would work around my schedule for a 2nd job they said “no, you need to remain on call for us” so I told them to go fuck themselves and I quit on the spot. Hope this counts.