Tin How Temple (joss house)

Tin How Temple is "the oldest Taoist temple in the United States.... It was built in 1852 and is dedicated to Mazu."  Not surprisingly, it is located in San Francisco.

Mazu "is the indigenous goddess of the sea who is said to protect fishermen and sailors, and is invoked as the patron saint of all Southern Chinese and East Asian persons. Worship of Mazu began around the Ming Dynasty, when many temples dedicated to her were erected all across Mainland China, later spreading to other countries with Southern Chinese inhabitants".

The temple is also referred to as  "Joss House".  Per the wiki, "'Joss' is a corrupted version of the Portuguese word for 'god', deus. 'Joss house' was in common use in English in western North America during frontier times, when joss houses were a common feature of Chinatowns. The name 'joss house' describes the environment of worship. Joss sticks, a kind of incense, are burned inside and outside of the house."   I  have no idea if "Joss House" is a derogatory term, or an accepted alternative for "temple".

While this postcard was received this year (probably sent by the Mystery Sender, although it is not signed "peace" on the back), it is a linen postcard.  From the wiki, "The "linen card" era lasted from about 1931 to the early 1950s, when cards were primarily printed on papers with a textured surface similar to linen cloth."

La Boulange, Bay Area

La Boulange is a San Francisco Bay Area mini-chain, with about 10+ locations in San Francisco and Marin. (Until I posted these cards, I always thought it was called La Boulangerie.) In any case, while the locations are part of a chain, each one feels like a neighborhood bakery.

This is underlined by the free postcards available in any of their locations. Each bakery is represented in its own oil painting, in its distinctive location, some with the name of the street featured on the bakery awning.

I also like the back of the cards (all the same), where the stamp amount is shown in Euros and the motto of France is printed on the stamp: Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite.

The coffee and breads aren't bad, either!

Finocchio's

For today's Postcard Friendship Friday may I present the fabulous Finocchio's, another in the series of long time, but now defunct San Francisco institutions.

Finnochio's was in North Beach, opening in the 1930s and lasting until November 1999. It became a famous tourist spot, and you would see crowds of people (clearly tourists and not San Franciscans) disembark from buses and wait patiently in line for the show. I went to the show a couple of times, at least once with my parents (I think), as my Dad always remembered going there in the 50s and wanted to go again.

As cross dressing became more common, the crowds dwindled, and the club finally had to close down. According to one website, Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti's comment upon hearing of the club's closure was "What a drag."

The City by the Bay, Post Loma Prieta Earthquake

This is a funny card, but the Loma Prieta Earthquake wasn't a funny event. Anybody living in San Francisco at the time can tell you exactly where they were, what they were doing, and what they did for the next 24 hours when the quake hit. Parts of the Bay Bridge fell down, a two level freeway collapsed on itself, and the Marina buckled and then went down in flames.

I was eight months pregnant, and on the 20+ something floor of a high rise (does the word "skyscraper" every get used any more?). I had driven across aforementioned Bay Bridge not an hour before.

The city by the bay may be subject to unanticipatable earthquakes, but I'm still happy to be going home today after ten days in Washington, DC.

Another Defunct San Francisco Institution

Anybody remember Hamburger Mary's at 12th & Folsom?

The very first week I moved to San Francisco circa 1982, a group of us from the ad agency went here for lunch one day. It was my initial immersion in classic pre-AIDs San Francisco - a place filled with the entire gamut of the then (and I suppose now, to a certain extent, but not so dot com) SOMA scene - leather boys, pierced and tattooed women and men, hippie-types, business people, tourists, gays and straights, all elbow to elbow in a place jammed with a cacophony of random paraphernalia. From the people watching to the paraphernalia, it was never ever a boring place. Even the creamers on the tables were baby bottles rather than metal pitchers.

Bloody Mary was across the street from The Stud, which, apart from the roving underground clubs, was a dancing haunt for me, pre-kids. I ate hamburgers here late at night, after dancing. I had a Bloody Mary here one afternoon when I was trying to get up the nerve to go into a leather store with two lesbian friends for a discrete purchase. (One had a crush on me and wanted me to try stuff on.) A really fun place, a San Francisco institution at the time, and one I hadn't thought of for a while.

Amazingly, there are reviews on Yelp for this place, even though it has been closed for years.

San Francisco Institutions, No Longer In Existence

Nothing lasts forever. I suppose Carol Doda is still alive, but she's no longer performing. And Ciao restaurant has long been out of business. However, both live on in the form of postcard advertising.

Ciao restaurant was on Jackson, in San Francisco. It was an advertising and media lunch spot, and they had really good Italian ices served in the rinds of the fruits they were made of.

Carol Doda was one of the first topless dancers in San Francisco, I think. I went to her show once, when I was in college. My college roommate's dad had taken us to dinner, and we were joking around about going to see her show. He pulled a fast one on us and took us there! We tried to act cool, but I do admit to feeling a bit uncomfortable. As I recall, we saw the whole thing, complete with piano descending from the ceiling.