San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf

 In the Summer of 1950 when I was fifteen the family drove from Ohio to California to visit close relatives in Pasadena.  We were treated to a weekend in San Francisco, a city this adolescent immediately fell in love with and declared to all who would listen that this was the place he wanted to live as an adult.  Contributing significantly to this euphoria was finding Fisherman’s Wharf, shown below, and the seafood served there.

The story of Fisherman’s Wharf began in 1900 when the State of California set aside that area of the San Francisco waterfront for commercial fishing boats.  That led to fishermen selling part of their catch to retail customers from wharf side stalls.  Then one enterprising fisherman had the idea of selling clam chowder across his counter to hungry patrons, according to historians.  A neighboring stall added table and chairs.  Soon others got the memo and dropped angling in the deep to angle for diners.  Among them was Mike Geraldi, who abandoned his boat after 26 years and built a restaurant — Fisherman’s Grotto.  About 1930 he served the first complete seafood meals on the Wharf.

It was to Fisherman’s Grotto that the family hied that weekend.  The dinner was delicious.  I became thoroughly hooked on Grotto seafood and recall insisting on going back a second night.  Same result.  I never realized my dream of living in Frisco, going East instead, but as an adult transited through the city on several occasions on trips abroad, staying a night or two downtown or near the airport, never venturing anywhere near the wharf.  In the meantime I heard tales that Fisherman’s Wharf had become a tourist “trap,” somewhat seedy and the food mediocre.

All that changed in 2003 when I came to San Francisco for a weeklong conference, staying in a hotel not far from the wharf area.  Arriving in the city in the early morning, my cab took us up Jefferson Street right past Fisherman’s Wharf.  More than a half century had passed since I had last been there and a wave of nostalgia washed over me.  I had to go back.

Lucky some of my fellow conferees were of the same mind.  Better yet, they knew of one of the Wharf restaurants that still had a solid reputation:  Scoma’s.  Shown on a map here, this eatery was opened in 1965 by Al Scoma in a small coffee shop on Pier 47 that served local fishermen breakfast and burgers.  From that small beginning Scoma and his brother expanded the place into what has been called “one of the nation's highest grossing independent restaurants.”

Because it is both highly successful and relatively small, with no reservations taken, it is also difficult to get into.  Often with long lines of perspective patrons stretch down Pier 47.  By judicious timing of a visit, however, it is possible to endure only a relatively short wait — one well worth the trouble.  That week and subsequently, whenever in San Francisco, I found my way to one of Scoma’s restaurant tables and enjoyed.

The experience also invariably casts me back those many years I first cast eyes on Fisherman’s Wharf and San Francisco, deciding then and there to make the city my future home. Instead, I will settle for looking at a few souvenirs and remember boyish dreams. 

On the “Weighty” Track of John Deere

The very first motorized vehicle I ever drove was a farm tractor — a John Deere  similar to the one shown below — round the barnyard of my Grandfather’s farm when I was about eight years old.  My young uncle was at my side to prevent mishaps.  Since that time I have been fascinated by tractors.  Fortunately Deere & Company has recorded its history on a long line of paperweights that help tell its story.

Company history began when Vermont-born John Deere, a master blacksmith, moved to the village of Grand Detour, Illinois, and began to craft pitchforks and shovels, along with a self-scouring steel plow in 1837.  Prior to Deere's invention, most farmers used iron or wooden plows to which the rich Midwestern soil stuck, so they had to be cleaned frequently.  In those early days, my grandfather plowed his Ohio 100 acres with a Deere plow, reins over his shoulder walking behind a horse.  The company issued a weight to memorialize of that pre-tractor period.

In 1918 Deere made a giant leap from plow and implement maker by buying the Waterloo (Iowa) Gas Engine Company and began to manufacture tractors.  At the time a crowded field of some 100 American companies were making and selling tractors. In that competitive environment Deere gained a reputation for vehicles that were relatively lightweight, reliable and less expensive.  Just as a winnowing process was going on in the automotive world, so with tractors.  By the end of the 1920s Deere & Company were prospering and soon to become one of the top three American tractor manufacturers.  Its models became known for yellow wheels, green body and a red seat.

Fast forward to the 1930s.  Deere was going strong with its Model B, shown here in a marble weight, when the Great Depression caused many farmers to default on their implement loans.  According to company lore, no tractors or other Deere equipment were ever repossessed, a policy that likely benefitted the firm’s reputation with farmers.  Deere became synonymous with tractor.

With the outbreak of World War II, Deere & Company expanded.  In addition to a strong Government-backed demand for farm tractors, John Deere manufactured military tractors and transmissions for the M3 tank. It also made aircraft parts, ammunition, and mobile laundry units to support the war effort. During this period the Model H — the one I was “driving” — was dominant, introduced in 1939 and replaced post-war in 1947.  Shown below are two Model H weights.

Fast forward again to 1980 and a weight that shows the kind of tractor required for the giant industrial farms of the present day.  While much of the body of the vehicle have remained unchanged since the past, the plain tractor seat has become an enclosed cab likely with a CD player and other comforts of home.

The same enclosed “cockpits” are in evidence on a 1992 paperweight, one that presents the Gen. II model and the 7000 series.  Note that the latter breaks from the traditional look of large wheels in the rear and smaller ones up front.  In recent years Deere, with headquarters in Moline, Illinois, has been the largest farm machinery company in the world, employing some 87,000 workers, half of them in the US and Canada.  The Waterloo Works, noted on the weights, provides power systems and engines.

I end this post with a photo of the first tractor ever used on my Grandfather’s farm, taken around 1922. Given the precarious nature of the family finances, it likely was a used vehicle.  Possibly a Deere;  probably not.  At the wheel is my mother at about 15 years old and the family’s “designated driver.”  Having graduated to the tractor from driving a team of horses pulling a plow, no wonder she is smiling.