SUNSET PARK

A TRIP TO SUNSET PARK

So, I pull up and park my truck in front of my friend’s house in the Sunset.  We load up his kids along with bats, balls, and gloves, etc to get some practice in at Sunset playground in the avenues.  We see its pretty empty upon arrival…stoked! We’ll get in some batting practice and fielding work…well really, we’re just having fun!!!...he’s kids are pretty young.  After an hour or so another group of kids from the Sunset come along and we yield the field to them.

You see we out here were taught to share our parks with each other, and even outsiders if they show the proper respect; to foster good relations with neighbors and to be tolerant and kind to outsiders even if their way of life is foreign to us.   I guess you call them working class values but really, it’s just doing the next right thing.

We load up the equipment and head east…there’s a new ice cream shop in the inner sunset that the kids are roaring to try!  Has we head east up Kirkham Street we get to 9th Avenue, cross the street and in the middle of the street they put up barriers to reduce both   lanes to one and there is a yield sign facing us.  My friend swears under his breath For God’s sakes man…what the hell!!

As were waiting the kids peek over the back seat and say Daddy why is the street only one lane?  Livid he says I think I’ll let your Uncle Marty answer that.  Thinking quickly and not wanting to degrade The City I love, I says to the kids: “This is why your Dad tells you to stay away from drugs…you lose perspective and common sense and after a while you make bad decisions and then you start smoking crack and your health goes…someone was smoking crack…and well you make crazy decisions.

Satisfied, the kids sit back in the seats, my friend and I roll our eyes at each other, we get our turn to go through the SFMTA bottleneck, traffic calming or some other such nonsense these bike coalition proponents espouse.  I order cholate chip, my friend rocky road and kids a variety of flavors.  The ice cream is good, the proprietor friendly.  We ask him how business is.  He says he’s barely holding on with the parking being taken away, car lanes being shut down, and the taxes, permits etc.

We all nod our heads knowingly, somewhat shamefully for my friend and me as we are natives.  We load up the kids and head west careful at the intersections for bike riders blowing stop signs and red lights.  The kids had ball and so did we.  What a wonderful neighborhood we have, lots of parks and playgrounds!!  We’re living large here in the Sunset.

Sincerely,

Marty Murphy