Reads: “The best located tract in the Montara-Farallone District. Every lot in tract is within three blocks of the Montara or Farallone Depots, with a perfect view of the Ocean and Montara Mountains. Surrounded on all sides by well developed property. Main sewers already laid. Sidewalks, water mains and street grading free of cost to purchaser. Splendid location for Home or Investment. Sold on reasonable terms.”
Reef & Wagner
Owners
Phone Douglas 4291 324 Phelan Building, SAN FRANCISCO
Note: For a recap on this story, please reads Parts I-III below.
We don’t know precisely when Inez Burns began her career as an abortionist but by 1922 during Prohibiton, she was “practicing” on her own–and earning a lot of money. She soon purchased a three-story flat on Fillmore Street in San Francisco, installing surgical equipment in immaculately clean rooms simulating a hospital with ether and other modern techniques.
Attired in a crisp, white nurse’s uniform, Inez was often addressed as “Doctor.” She was clearly in her stride, giving orders to a staff of six competent women–including a receptionist and one male, Joe Hoff, “the blood man.”
She also had her spies.
To this day, Inez Burns’ granddaughter, Caroline Carlisle retains the image of gray haired Joe Hoff, holding up a glass beaker in one of the sanitized rooms.
When entering the clinic, female patients encountered a professional environment where the staff spoke in hushed voices, reinforced by the bold “NO TALKING” signs posted on the waiting room walls.
In the waiting room itself, patients could reach into a shallow copper bowl for one of Inez L. Burns’ business cards, describing her as a “designer.”
Larry, It seems that I am meant to be here, right where I have been for more than 30 years. At one point there were opportunities (in the entertainment industry) in NY & LA and my parents were even going to move with me–but in the end neither came to be.
I do like where I am.
———————————————
I, too, have Hollywood stories. I’ll save those for another time….
Wanna see one of my horses F L Y I N G?
Larry
—————————————-
Yes, I want to see the horse flying…..
—————————————-
June,
Here’s VEGAS.
VEGAS is his call name.
His registered Jockey Club name is: Shrewd Partner
He will be seven Feb. 2… actually.
As far as the Jockey Club is concerned, all horse’s birthdays are Jan 1.
VEGAS loves to jump. The green thing in the photo is five- feet- high. The wooden poles in the photo are nine- feet- long…each!
Vegas has his Winter really bitchen’ haircut…kind of looks like a paint job.
He is chestnut… the darker color you see. The lighter color is the haircut area.
The reason for the haircut in the Winter is so that he can cool off after training and wear one of two blankets to keep warm and still cool down. He is everybody’s favorite horse at Applecreek out of ninety horses, and he will be shown in the Spring.
He knows his name and is just like a big dog…except for the poop.
He is 16.1 hands tall.
He is a sweetheart, and, VERY happy.
Larry
———————————
Hi June,
It’s 12:58 p.m. Sunday [February 4, 2007]
This just in: Our Trainer just called. VEGAS is coming home with ribbons. He wowed them, and took a first in the hunter-jumper class. He’s also bringing home ribbons in other classes, and that is all very far out. You do remember, “Far out”?
——————————————-
Definition of “Far Out” from the Merriam-Webster onliine dictionary: “Marked by a considerable departure from the conventional or traditional…”
Larry, I LIVED at 555-South 8th Street. Did we live in the same building? Two-story? Next door to the cop fraternity?
My original roommates were Gay Viguie & Sue Samuels. When I arrived they were about to graduate and I inherited the apt.
Yes, Bruce Orchid’s name is familiar..tell me more about him.
I’m curious: What do you want to do next? Do you have anything to do with Mavericks?
————————-
June!
Gay and Sue were my GREAT friends!
Sue had a WHITE Plymouth Barracuda. I would sometimes ride my ten-speed bike to S.F. to see my folks on (some) holiday weekends. Sue was from the City…so, if she happened to be driving to the City the same weekend as I would be biking, she’d stop by my folk’s house on Sunday afternoon. I’d put my bike in her Barracuda, and she’d drive back to the apartment in San Jose.
What a trip!
[Ed. note: HE RODE HIS TEN SPEED FROM SAN JOSE TO SF! DID YOU GET THAT?]
Yup, the apartment was RIGHT next door to the cop frat house.
I had the apt on the ground floor in the very front…a three bedroom. There were four of us. I had my own bedroom and two guys shared another one. The room opposite mine was occupied by a guy named Tom Cameron, who left after a semester–then by a guy named Ed Coda.
This is a bit TOO weird!
I don’t have a thing to do with Mavericks…As far as surfing is concerned, we surfed all over, from Kelly’s Cove and Pedro Point to Steamer Lane….including El Granada, Half Moon Bay…all of it.
One of the most stupid things I did when I was 18 was to take a surfboard with me to Hawaii. What a hassle and for what? They had plenty of them there! Since then, I’ve had a board with me on all my sailboat and powerboat deliveries– where I knew I could expect waves.
A very dear friend of mine passed away a couple of months ago and he was building a schooner that was designed in 1929 by John Alden…a very famous naval architect. The boat is 65′ on deck and 80′ overall. The boat’s in steel and really gorgeous. I have hopes of completing her. I’m waiting for copies of the plans and other papers, etc. from his widow, also a dear friend. It will cost about $1.5 million to complete and I may have already raised the money. That’s what I’d like to dive into soon.
Beyond that I am anxious for Spring and Summer because I have always disliked Winter.
Just thought of something: If you’d like to see what I’m talking about regarding the boat, visit: click here.
She is one of the few Aldens of the same size built in steel. Most were in wood…and built in 1929 or 1930. The one I want to complete is NEW!
Larry
———————————
Larry, I am not in touch with Gay or Sue. After SJS, I moved to the Coastside. I love it. I love the ocean. That’s why I’m here.
———————————————–
June,
I read all about you, your books and your being the Historian Emeritus of the Coast. I THINK we knew each other at Lincoln.
I don’t recall your being a twin. You lived in the Sunset, didn’t you?
Your life sounds wonderful–and I’m happy that you’re doing exactly what you set out to do.
I went to San Jose State, too–but I think you used to surf El Granada Beach occasionally–and so did I–and I knew you at Lincoln. You told me you wanted to design surfboards and doodled in the notebook I was carrying (I’m a writer, you know, and that’s what writers used to do, carry paper. Now they carry laptops).
June
——————————————
Good morning, June
Remember Bruce Orchid at Lincoln? He and [my sister] Barbara dated. He was Pres and she was Vice Pres of the “Student Body.” I was “Director of Athletics” (which served to get me three lunch periods). I think we were a class ahead of you.
I consider most of what I do as “Art Projects”, and I am extremely visual in orientation.
Everything I do for my clients gets seen over and over again and it’s really important to me that it the work is appreciated. The artist in me values that appreciation more than the money received for the project. That’s true whether it’s a yacht I’ve just repaired or a piece of artwork I’ve just delivered.
Your site is fun for me to peruse, and it’s obvious that your passion for writing is abundant. I’m in contact with a few friends from Lincoln and i’ve mentioned your site.
When we went to Lincoln, we lived on 39th Avenue between Rivera and Santiago. Bruce Orchid and I would meet every morning at 39th and Rivera and walk up the hills to Lincoln…when we didn’t drive to school…I had a ’50 Ford Woody. It was blue and I usually parked it in front of school by the stop sign because the Woody didn’t have a reverse gear that worked very well and by parking at the stop sign, I was able to simply pull away in first gear, etc.
I paid $35 (thirty-five) for that Woody and sold it later for $250. Today, that car would be worth $45,000.00. I know because I look at them all the time. I want another one.
At Sanazay State, I lived at 555- South Eighth Street (a block from campus) and I was a ‘hasher” at a sorority. Pretty fun. Really fun. One of my roommates on Eighth Street was the head Ref at last year’s Super Bowl–Bill Leavy–great guy.
Well, that empties my brain.
Larry
———————————————
…Conversation to be continued….
And one day I received a big surprise in the email box:
June,
I just happened upon the “What happened to Kaplan Surfboards” gizmo, and it blew my mind. Where, oh where, did you acquire my sketches for logos?
I graduated from San Jose State Univ. in 1969. You probably know I went to Lincoln H.S. I am three hundred years old now, and have played with the water my entire professional career…for money!
———————————–
Larry!
You sketched the logos in my notebook…probably at El Granada Beach (near where I still live with my husband). What are you doing now? Tell me what you mean about playing with the water professionally.
Do you remember me?
________________________
June!!!
First things first:
YES. I do remember you. Only an idiot would not. Please feel free to read that to your husband…at least twice. Four times would be better…
Two:
Water and Professional. There’s the long story and there’s the short story. The short story is that I owned a yacht restoration company in San Diego for twenty years…yachts are just big surfboards, and I love the water.
I REALLY love the water. I pioneered some really important stuff on yachts in those days. I’ve delivered yachts all over the Pacific Coast and from Hawaii to California, etc., etc.
I am a silly and humorous person. If you re-read this e mail, you will hear laughter in the background. Listen with care…
I designed a very silly, and funny line of artwork and it sells all over the world. It’s made of fiberglass. It’s about Ducks. It’s called, “Art Ducko”, the height of ceiling art.
I continue to do custom fiberglass work and repair on boats and yachts…Yachts are boats that are for purposes of pleasure only and boats can be used for work etc., etc., etc.
I know yachts the way some people know cars.
Do you remember my twin sister, Barbara? She’s a big deal at Stanford.
I have two English Cocker Spaniels and two Thoroughbred horses. One of the horses is Seattle Slew’s grandson.
How nice to know you are there…
___________________________
…Conversation To Be Continued….
This book must have arrived in my post office box by mistake….I don’t remember ordering it, the subject matter is all wrong….but it’s a wonderfully funny (even laugh out loud) page turning short read… a novel about the queasy inner & rigid outer lives of young mothers (like the first awkward moments when they realize how much time they will be spending with their children inside the fenced playground)… and the ephiphany of one who begins to insist to herself that men (as in husbands) slowly “murder” their wives.
Courtesy Bill Claudino
