One of my mother's favorite memories is a trip which she took with Virginia to San Franscisco, CA. She had agreed to accompany my aunt to San Francscisco to visit her husband, uncle Art in the VA Hospital. He had to travel there in order to have surgery since he was merchant marine and that was the closest hospital. My mother thought that it would be a fun trip since my oldest sister, Juanita lived across the Bay in Richmond with her second husband and 3 children and my father had cousins in San Francisco.
They took a long train ride which must have be reminicist of their trip to Columbus, OH after the death of their mother. In those days, the Pullman Porters were still predominately African American, so it was one of the few places where African Americans were treated royally. Also there were not many safe places for women travelingl alone without much money to stay, so they stayed in a small room in the YWCA.
My mother remembers how fasinated they were the city and the big buildings and rapid pace of life. They wanted to venture to "Chinatown" since their uncle and father had travelled and spent time there in the 1920s and 1930s, but they were warned of the dangers. They did however get to see the cable cars and Golden Gate Bridge.
My sister, Juanita's home was in a very low income distressed area of Richmond, CA which was 360 degrees different from the sparkling city that they had left. My sister ran with was referred to as a "fast" crowd in those days that loved to have card parties, smoke and drink into long hours of the night. This was not at all my mom's style, but Aunt Virginia fit right in. Although she was probably 2 decades older than my sister's friends, my mother remembers her becoming the life of the party. She could drink with the best of them and she was a great story telling. She had the rare talent that many of today's comedians have, where she could tell a real life story, but embellished it just enough to have everyone rolling on the floor in laughter. She could hand all night with the best of them. She had my sister's friends in tears and entertained them the whole trip.
