"THE CITY WHO KNOWS HOW" - HERB CAEN - SAN FRANCISCO

No one calls Baltimore Baghdad by the Bay. - Herb Caen, San Francisco Columnist

San Francisco is a beautiful city with steep hills, incredible views at the top and valleys where the fog rolls right over you toward the next hilltop, bustling crowds, arts and a big ocean to gaze upon. 

Have you been there?

In 1956 along with my family, I emigrated to San Francisco, California. My father sought a better life for us. Work for a Catholic in Glasgow, Scotland weren't good. We brought to our new country much of our old country and soon settled into neighborhood of the city named Eureka Valley and now known to most as "The Castro."

San Francisco is divided into quite a few areas - neighborhoods - with their own brand of culture. People of same races and foods leave in a small area for San Francisco for being so world renowned is a small city (approx 46 sq miles) full of characters, good and great food, art and plenty to see (North Beach, Chinatown, the Embarcadero, Fisherman's wharf, the ballpark, Dolores Park, Ocean Beach, Golden Gate Park + more.)

It's truly a city to walk through! Get your walking shoes on when my beautiful city - plan to take some cable car rides and be at the top of the world! 

From Paris, France on Amazon.com came this review on my novel The Skye in June.
  
"If you enjoyed Armistead Maupin and his "Tales of the City", you will love sitting down with "The Skye in June." 

 I enjoy her look at what the story had to offer and comparison to one of my all time favorite columnist, Herb Caen, who wrote about the city's daily going-ons, gossip, happenings, society, political figures and fights with a true, bug in the ear kinda feel.

The author, J. Ahern, has an enchanting way of taking you up and down the hills of San Francisco. You could hear the clacking rosary beads of the religious penguins, feel your lace mantilla tickling your shoulders and recall the nausea from the heavy incense of the Stations of the Cross. If you weren't lucky enough to experience the live San Francisco Sound, flower power of the pungent smell of patchouli oil and marijuana on the streets of "Baghdad by the Bay" or the "City that knows how",  - Herb would call his city.  

June will take you there. She will also give you the strength to stand up for your beliefs, get in touch with your intuitive powers, appreciate the love and force of family, but most importantly, accept and embrace that which makes one a unique individual. I wait with impatience for a sequel." - Madeleine P., Paris, France

Photo by Jerry Breisach

Read about the story and my other novel at juneahern website. 

Take a Ghost Walk of San Francisco's infamous Barbary Coast with June Ahern.
http://youtu.be/TU4BvpvX5AQ

MY CITY - BAGHDAD BY THE BAY

In San Francisco's newspaper, The Chronicle renowned columnist, Herb Caen, coined the term Baghdad-by-the-Bay for San Francisco's exotic multicultural, multi-crazy citizens in my city.

I hear some natives who have long moved away from the city, talk about how it's not like it used to be!

That is true because the city on the bay is a place of constant change -- people sail in, sail out and the beat goes on.

My novels, The Skye in June and City of Redemption, set in this interesting city tell of times gone past. What hasn't changed are the hills the characters climb up and down, in and out of shops nestled the valleys as fog lingers nearby. The history.

Mission Dolores, Dolores Street, SF

A visit to Playland (no longer there but most remembered) to listen to the hysterical Laughing Sal (now seen at Santa Cruz boardwalk) is a reminder of an amusement park that remains in many memories.

A writer can't tell a story about San Francisco without taking readers on a cable car ride with a clang, clang of bells and end  at Woolworth's store on Market. 

The city is full of history of unsavory characters and wild happenings. When the bloom of Summer of Love, 1967 in the Haight Ashbury paled, the squalor was left for those who called San Francisco home.

Some of the older generations cried, "them dam hippies!" - and then strangers ones came; The Castro grew new life, different kinds of people, ones like the home-grown city people never saw.  Did the world end? Did the city crumble? No. Baghdad-by-the Bay stories flew far and wide. The beat went on. And will.

Memories continue to be made, changes never cease. Like it or not. Like San Francisco, my stories, my books about the city will be around for a long, long time, long after I pass on to the big party in the sky. Readers will know what life was like back in the day - they will will know a bit more about my city - my Baghad-by-the-Bay.

Read about my novels that take place mostly in SF The Skye in June and City of Redemption at june ahern dot com

Watch my ghostly San Francisco historical walks with The Haunted Bay Part One and Two on Youtube -