1952.…Gayle and I fly home from San Francisco

As I mentioned in an earlier post my friend Gayle and I spent the summer of 1952 working as waitresses at the Pierpont Inn in Ventura, California. We saved our tips and were able to afford a flight home to Boston. This was a big thrill since we had made the trip out there by bus and we didn’t relish going home that way!

A friend of my family’s lived in San Francisco and she had invited us to come visit, so we decided to make our flight reservations from there. We were to drive up with my sister and husband, spend a day and night with our hostess, Lois, and then leave for Boston on an early flight.

A special treat, on the ride up, was a stop at the town of Solvang (“Little Denmark”), established in 1911 by Danish immigrants. This picturesque city is set against gently sloping hills and is dedicated to the architecture, crafts and values of their ancestors. My sister’s husband, Troels, was from Denmark and he enjoyed speaking his native language and introducing us to special treats, such as Aebleskivers, a waffle-like delicacy.

By evening we arrived in San Francisco and it was pouring rain. We had a visit to the Muir Woods on the docket for the next day and we prayed that it would abate. Morning arrived and it was still drizzly but as we approached the Golden Gate Bridge the sun came out and the whole area was bathed in a magical glow...a sight I will never forget. Nor will I forget the star attraction of the Muir Woods…the enormous coast redwoods. The oldest one is said to be at least 1,100 years old!

The rest of the day was spent hopping on and off the cable cars and just plain ogling at all that San Francisco had to offer. Our hostess provided a fun dinner in Chinatown and then it was off to the airport. Our flight was to leave at midnight. We had chosen TWA because that airline had just introduced a tourist fare (unusual for that time) and it was within our budget.

We finally arrived in Boston at about 9:30 pm and it was back to the lives that we’d left behind just a few weeks earlier…but we were changed forever and had memories to last a lifetime.