D is for Down, Downtown, County Down and Downpatrick

Working down the A-Z list of words and pictures

My sister Joan , my brother Jim and our 1950 Studebaker in front of our house on a hill. Photo by the author’s father.

Down

We lived on a hill in southwest San Francisco back in the day. We never walked up from where we lived. Nor did we walk across. We always walked down. Because at the bottom of the hill was the main thoroughfare (Ocean Avenue) and that’s where all the stores were. The grocery stores. The bakeries. The pharmacies. Kids hung out at the record store and the soda shops. We also had to go down the hill to get to church and school and to watch a movie.

My sister Pat stands outside our house on a hill. Photo by the author’s father.

Downtown

It was also a big deal to go Downtown. We would grab the K streetcar on Ocean Avenue which would turn right on Junipero Serra Boulevard, ramble down West Portal and then zoom through Twin Peaks tunnel. At the end of the tunnel we would hit Market Street, San Francisco’s main street at the Castro. But we weren’t downtown yet. Close but not yet. About a dozen blocks down Market and we would pass Van Ness Avenue and be at Civic Center — the City Hall and all that. We were downtown.

A couple more blocks and we would be at the Golden Gate theater. You had to go downtown in those days to see a first-run movie. Other Market Street theaters we frequented: the Fox, the Paramount, the Warfield.

Next stop would be Powell Street and the cable cars that would go “halfway to the stars.”

One more block down Market Street would take us to Roos Bros which became Roos-Atkins. That’s where my dad, my brother and I would get our clothes. My mom would go elsewhere for clothes for herself and her daughters.

Soon we would reach the Financial District which in those days was confined to Montgomery Street. We didn’t have much of a skyline then. The tallest buildings in town were the Russ Building on Montgomery and the Telephone Building on New Montgomery.

Sometimes we would go all the way to the Ferry building at the foot of Market. That’s as far as you could go downtown. Any farther and you would get wet.

Down Cathedral on the Hill of Down in Downpatrick, County Down

Down Cathedral (Church of Ireland) in Downpatrick. Photo by Jerry Dwyer.

My mom’s Muckle ancestors came from County Down in Northern Ireland. On our first trip to Ireland in 2002 my cousin took us down to Downpatrick to see where St Patrick lies.

Site of St Patrick’s burial. Photo by Jerry Dwyer.

My son-in-law Brian and I went on a Game of Thrones bus tour all over Down one day during our 2019 Ireland trip. We went though Downpatrick that day, too.

Down Cathedral from Inch Abbey, a Game of Thrones filming location. Photo by Jerry Dwyer.

The Game of Thrones tour bus going through downtown Downpatrick. Photo by Jerry Dwyer.

So those were my down days. I lived on Westwood Drive for thirteen years. Then we moved to Upland Drive with a much steeper hill. I still walked down the hill to visit, shop and catch the bus to high school. But then climbing back that steep hill to get home was tough. You might say it was a downer!

Our house on Upland Drive. That’s me with my siblings Jim and Joan. And the Studebaker we called “Oski.” Photo by the author’s father.

OK, that’s four down and 22 to go!