There used to be an excellent German restaurant on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. This was "The Shadows," which supposedly referred to the shadows of artists' models on the window shades of the studios on the Hill. I don't know if there ever have been many artists working on Telegraph Hill in my lifetime, but the restaurant dated back to 1932. Internet sources say that in the 1920's it was a "Bohemian" area that local artists wanted to turn into a San Francisco version of Montmarte. Today it is very upscale houses.

I was introduced to the restaurant as a child in the 1950's. My parents began eating there when they visited San Francisco. I never learned how they heard about the place. It always struck me as strange and magical. Strange because I didn't know anything about German food. I did like the Sauerbraten and really liked the potato pancakes. But the place was magical because, plastered on the mountainside and decorated like a Swiss chalet, it was just a very fun building and location.

At the time, dining out well in San Francisco meant dressing up. So I was always in my little pre-teen suit and tie. One of the few times I can even remember wearing such things as a child. But I might add my own touches. In the '50's people didn't worry much about toy guns, even very realistic ones. One of my favorates was a snub-nose .38, such as used to be commonly carried by police. This toy gun was not only realistic, but it what it actually carried were little plastic bullets snapped into spring loaded cartridges. With a round cap on the end, the gun could thus shoot the plastic bullets with a cap pistol bang. I could carry it in a shoulder holster under my suit. This toy now strikes me as rather dangerous. Indeed, at the time I was reluctant to shoot it, especially at playmates, since I was concerned about the damage that flying plastic bullets might do ("You could put out an eye," was a common caution from parents in the old days) -- or just that the bullets might get lost. Now, of course, even a child carrying anything looking like a realistic gun would immediate throw everyone into a panic. The police would be called. It is certainly a shame that such fears and reactions reflect the experience with real shootings. There was nothing like that to worry about in my childhood.

After I grew up and ceased visiting San Francisco with my parents, I began, of course, visiting on my own. The Shadows was still there, and I began going back, with different friends or dates. I ate there several times during the 1970's. Parking had always been a problem at its location, 1349 Montgomery Street. I remember my father trying to get there on what must have been our first visit. Streets that on the maps looked like they might go through, like Montgomery itself, actually dead-ended at steep cliffs on the hillside. The only way to get there was by way of Union Street. But I do remember my parents actually parking in the neighborhood. In 1970, I could still park in the neighborhood. Later in the '70's, however, the neighbors were objecting to this. On one occasion, we were directed to park in a parking structure down the hill, with a shuttle going up to the restaurant. Later, there were simply valets who took the cars, as valets usually do, at the front of the restaurant.

As an adult, I discovered a particularly appealing feature of The Shadows. On the third floor, there was a bar set under the large east window. This meant that you could sit at the bar and look out the window onto San Francisco Bay, with the Bay Bridge prominent to the right. This made the place like a particularly intimate Top of the Mark. I just loved it. Also, although I knew that there were steps going up the Hill next to the restaurant, I don't think I had ever actually gone up them until I was there with a woman I had meet in Beirut (and who turned out to be from South San Francisco). So on this occasion we walked up to Coit Tower and looked out over the City lights. On a current map, I now see that the steps next to The Shadows are apparently called the "Filbert Steps," since they continue the route of Filbert Street. Towards the end of Montgomery are the Greenwich Steps, which also go up to the summit.

The last time I ate at the old Shadows might have been about 1982. Then some years went by before I had occasion to return to the restaurant. The occasion came, happily, on my honeymoon in 1991. The Shadows was still in business, but when I eagerly made a reservation for my wife and myself, I was in for a rude surprise. The building was outwardly the same, but when we entered, the decor was radically different. Pink. Not very German. Indeed, the Swiss Chalet, and the German cuisine, was gone. So was the third floor bar. We did eat on the third floor, but it had simply been converted into extra dining. On some kind of Nouvelle Cuisine. I asked the waiter what had happened. He said that the old owners (internet sources say Carl and Mariza Rebmann) had died and that their son had a "dream" about how to update the restaurant. Not a dream, a nightmare.

I've been back to San Francisco a number of times since 1991. For years I didn't even bother checking on what had happened to The Shadows. Then my wife and I were in town for a day on April 27th this year (2008). We drove up to Coit Tower. While there, I thought about walking down the Hill to see what had happened to the restaurant. Evidently not a happy story. It was closed. Its final incarnation had not even been as The Shadows, since the name on the building was the D'Alla Torre, an Italian restaurant. That does sound a little more like San Francisco, but it was not a success anyway. There seemed to be some work going on to the building, so there is no telling what will happen next. The place could easily be turned into a residence, like most of the rest of the neighborhood. We shall see. But The old Shadows is long gone.

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On several visits to Manhattan the last few years, my wife and I began to come across a Bolivian band playing on the street. We liked the music a lot, and they were selling CD's of their albums. The group called itself Ch'uwa Yacu Bolivia and this is a clip from a song, "Muchacha de Ojos Tristes", from the first CD we bought, Clear Water, Volume IV.

The second time we saw them it was on a Sunday, and they were on 6th Avenue right by 49th Steet. There weren't many people around, and they looked a little forlorn. Last year however, August 2003, we found them on a busier day on 7th Avenue, just above 49th Street again. They had a larger and flashier operation, drawing large crowds. Although they had made (and were selling) a number of CD's beyond their Volume IV, they were actually, when we were there, playing the music from that album.

This year [2004], we found them on Saturday, August 21, playing right in Times Square. They seemed to be moving up in the world and were selling Volume VIII. They seem to have adopted an environmentalist theme -- Vol. VIII is called "Save Our Planet," and I do hope that they are not sending money to something like the Sendaro Luminoso; but it is marvelous music.

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0	New Otani Hotel, Los Angeles, Morro Bay, Big Sur, San Francisco, California	1991
1	Denver, Boulder, Colorado	1992
2	Reiganji, Toyotashi, Tokyo, Japan	1993
3	Big Bear, California	1994
4	Niagara Falls, New York, Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania	1995
5	Las Vegas, Nevada	1996
6	Nantucket, Massachusetts, Newport, Rhode Island	1997
7	Lake Placid, New York, Burlington, Vermont	1998
8	Pocanos, Pennsylvania	1999
9	Lake Tahoe, Bishop, California	2000
10	Santa Barbara, California	2001
11	New York City, New York	2002
12	Grand Canyon, Phoenix, Arizona	2003
13	Cape May, Atlantic City, New Jersey	2004
14	London, Dover, Oxford, England	2005
15	Montauk, New York	2006
16	Honolulu, Kailua-Kona, Hilo, Hawaii	2007

Every year we have taken a special trip for our June 22nd wedding anniversary. These trips have ranged from the modest to the ambitious, including sojourns in Japan and England but also destinations convenient in California and New Jersey, like Big Bear, Santa Barbara, and Cape May.

The photo is after a hot air balloon trip on June 22, 1988 (three years before our wedding), which was already the anniversary for my cousin Cheryl and her hot air balloon flying husband, Dave.

Our history here has a heavenly component. At the time of our actual wedding, there was a triple conjunction of Venus, Mars, and Jupiter. Venus () and Mars () were, appropriately, very close to transiting. In the field at right we see nearby some interesting asteriods (minor planets). There is Parthenope, which means "virgin face." This may be a reference to Athena Parthenos, Athena the Virgin. Terpsichore is the Muse of Dance.
Hekate is a goddess we can associate with Artemis and Selene in the three stages of female life. Since both Artemis and Selene are moon goddesses (selênê actually means "moon"), we see the goddesses at left associated with the phases of the moon.

Although the minor planets were invisible, this conjunction of Venus, Mars, and Jupiter was extraordinarily bright and conspicuous in the sky on our wedding day.

I did not notice another conspicuous alignment until 2007. When we arrived in Hawaii on June 20th, there was a row of bright objects in the sky. One of these was simply the star Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo. The others were the planets Venus and Saturn. Regulus, Venus, and Saturn made a bright line in the sky. By the 21st (the date of the diagram), the moon had moved past them. Mercury was also in the area, but I think it was too close to the horizon for me to notice it.

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Copyright (c) 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008 Kelley L. Ross, Ph.D., Postumus Friesianorum, All Rights Reserved