Photo by Laurie Higa

Photo by Laurie Higa

(L to R) Marian Estebez, Elyssa Reyes, Sharon Watson, Linda Tiffault, Diane Cowart.

November 2008

Potrero Hill Baby Boomers Gather for Second Reunion

By Lori Higa

“Are you a Potrero Hill baby boomer?” read the headline on a flyer posted on a Potrero Hill telephone pole.  According to the poster, qualifying adults lived on the Hill between 1950 and 1980; habituated Jackson Park, the Mayflower Saloon, or Joe’s Place; or remember the “Green Raft” swimming hole near Mission Rock, among other attributes.  On the last Saturday in September several hundred Hill boomers gathered at Jelly’s, the historic waterfront tavern a stone’s throw from AT&T Park.

About four years ago, insurance quality assurance assistant Marian Estebez, with seven of her closest friends and family members, came up with the idea for a Potrero Hill baby boomers reunion.  It took two years, but the group staged their first gathering at the Mariposa-Hunters Point Yacht Club last year.  It was a huge success, attended by roughly 450 Potrero Hill baby boomers and those who love them.

This year’s gathering attracted 350 souls, less than the first, which Estebez attributed to the Giants game clogging traffic.   According to Estebez, at the first reunion “we had lots of food, not enough bartenders, or should I say we didn’t have real bartenders, they were old farts who couldn’t keep up, but they did their best.”   Downtown Rhythm performed both years. “The band is a friend of the family, said Estebez.  In fact, most of the reunion’s organizers and attendees are related by blood or marriage, with Estebez knowing virtually everyone.

“The Estebez family and the Taft family started dating each other and then marrying, resulting in lots of nieces and nephews,” chuckled Estebez, as she reminisced about the gang of Hill kids who grew up, played and stuck together.  “The reason a lot of people know my family is that my dad worked at the local 76 gas station as a mechanic and he taught all the neighborhood boys and young men about fixing cars,” she said.

Estebez’s “grandfather had goats, made whisky and wine, and sold it to longshoremen during prohibition,” she recalled. While her grandparents were from Spain, Estebez’s father, Juan, was born and raised on Pennsylvania Street. “Our family had nine kids.  We lived in the projects but were able to get out, thanks to our grandparents,” Estebez explained. “My grandmother owned two properties on 22nd and Pennysylvania, so we moved there.”

One of the fondest memories shared by the boomers was the swimming hole, dubbed “Green Raft,” located at the convergence of the pier, railroad track terminus, banana boat docks and the Bayview Yacht Club. “We used to dive right off the raft into the water.  That was how we made our fun, since none of us could afford to go away for summer vacation,” Estebez recalled. Estebez attended Irvin M. Scott Elementary School in Dogpatch, and middle school at Everett Jr. High School in the Mission because “Potrero Jr. High School hadn’t been built yet.”

“We used to hang upside down from the wood pilings and perform daredevil feats,” added Hal Taft, one of the “gang who lived around Pennsylvania near 20th Street” and who now resides in Stockton. “That was long before 280 was built,”  Taft remarked, remembering a time before freeways, condominium complexes, live-work lofts and the University of California, San Francisco had obliterated childhood haunts.  Taft’s aunt, Mary Horton, lived at 18th and Connecticut streets.  Estebez’s sister, Diana (DeDe) married the brother of Vickie VanWinkle, nee Sons, whose family lived next door to the library on 20th Street. Her other sister, Ruby, married Bob Taft, Hal’s brother.  VanWinkle, now the boomers’ webmistress, grew up in Hunters Point, before moving to Mississippi Street and later Pennsylvania Street.  She now lives and works in South San Francisco, where she’s a school teacher.

“Kids used to jump off and slide down the big sand mountain at Pennsylvania,” Estebez recalled. “Our gang ran around all the places on Mission Rock road. There was fishing boats, a bake shop, a pool table and restaurant.  We also used to hang out at the Ramp. There was the teen club at St. Teresa’s that helped keep us off the streets.   Those were the days when Army [now Cesar Chavez Street] was a dirt road, and 500 and 600 Pennsylvania were on the same block!”

Estebez estimates that less than one-third of the boomers still live on the Hill.  Instead, they reside in Stockton, Redding, Sacramento, Pittsburgh, Vacaville, El Sobrante, Hercules, and out of state, victims of a pricey real estate market and the concomitant loss of blue collar, industrial jobs in San Francisco.  Estebez lives near Civic Center, after nine years on Rhode Island and 19th streets, and before that, Arkansas Street by Jackson Park.   Even her 80-year-old father, now retired, lives on Geneva and Mission streets.

For the first reunion, Potrero Hill merchants and businesses Goat Hill Pizza, Farley’s Cafe, Safeway and a “boomer named Isaac who owns 10 restaurants,” and whom Estebez remembers as “being a paper boy on Pennsylvania Street,” donated gift certificates and prizes.

Planning has already started for next year’s reunion, which will be held at the Mariposa-Hunters Point Yacht Club.

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