In October 1991, I moved to Canyon, an exempt community of ramshackle structures that had been grandfathered into the East Bay / San Leandro water shed.
While in San Diego, I had accumulated a lot of junk not the least of which was a Baldwin 5A church organ (with full pedal board). In addition I had two trucks (Bucky and Ranger) and good ol’ Dotty which still ran believe it or not. Moving all this stuff back to the Bay Area required a 27 foot moving truck a car dolly for Dotty and the help of two drivers, Rick Walker and a friend of his.
Rick and I had discussed sharing a place. One place we considered was a 1960’s moderne, 1,300 square foot two storey, two bedroom, shoe box on Twin Peaks (Burnette Ave) with a spectacular view of the city. The other place was a rickety cabin, perilously anchored to the side of a hill in the Dogpatch of Canyon.
Canyon was too out-of-the-way for what Rick wanted to be doing and the Twin Peaks place was too non-descript for my tastes, although the view was tempting. I was ambivalent about resuming San Francisco city life and was allured the call of the wild. In the end, even though I gave Bucky to Rick, the lack of a place to park Dotty probably tipped the scales.
So I returned to the place where I had first landed in California 21 years before.
Other than pictures of the cabin, there are virtually no fotos of the year and a half I spent in Canyon. This is apt given that most of what I did during my stay consisted in fixing up the place.
While in San Diego, I had accumulated a lot of junk not the least of which was a Baldwin 5A church organ (with full pedal board). In addition I had two trucks (Bucky and Ranger) and good ol’ Dotty which still ran believe it or not. Moving all this stuff back to the Bay Area required a 27 foot moving truck a car dolly for Dotty and the help of two drivers, Rick Walker and a friend of his.
Rick and I had discussed sharing a place. One place we considered was a 1960’s moderne, 1,300 square foot two storey, two bedroom, shoe box on Twin Peaks (Burnette Ave) with a spectacular view of the city. The other place was a rickety cabin, perilously anchored to the side of a hill in the Dogpatch of Canyon.
Canyon was too out-of-the-way for what Rick wanted to be doing and the Twin Peaks place was too non-descript for my tastes, although the view was tempting. I was ambivalent about resuming San Francisco city life and was allured the call of the wild. In the end, even though I gave Bucky to Rick, the lack of a place to park Dotty probably tipped the scales.
So I returned to the place where I had first landed in California 21 years before.
Other than pictures of the cabin, there are virtually no fotos of the year and a half I spent in Canyon. This is apt given that most of what I did during my stay consisted in fixing up the place.
There were visits from Marguerite at Christmas (90), from Tom Geyer (Feb. 91), Donald & Ellin (pork roast), Charles & Regina (twice), my sister and Mark (once), Gerry Bratcher, Howard Baker and of course from Mikey I think four times: by himself, with his adoptive dog (Bronte), with his biker friend Gary and with his friend Lothar Franke & Chilean boyfriend. I’m not sure if Rick Silva visited before he died.
As usual, I was more interested in the moment than in memorializing it and so there is nothing to more show.
