First of all, I can’t believe the Kwik Way by the Grand Lake is in danger of becoming a McDonald’s. Yikes. Things change. I left the Bay Area in 1993, and have been living in New York City since then. Writing, living, teaching, editing—the stuff I do. I miss Oakland in a big way, though. I’m moving home next year.
I was raised in Oakland (though I went to high school in Los Angeles). Born right at Providence Hospital (it's no longer called that, right?), which is also where my great-grandfather died. More Like Wrestling is about Paige and Pinch—two sisters growing up in Oakland during the 1980s. Places like the Grand Lake figure prominently in my book. The city of Oakland is as much a character in MLW as Paige and Pinch and Maynard and Oscar and Jess and all the people who fill out my first novel. I think the SF Bay Guardian (where I used to work) said MLW is a “love letter” to my hometown, and I hope it is. I made every effort, though, to include the good, the bad, and the ugly. Like every long-distance love affair, mine with Oakland is intense. There are short, spirited, melancholy visits, and I’ve got high hopes for coming back to my love and watching the sun set over the Bay Bridge during my wise and wrinkled winter years. The longing is deep because I’m Oakland old school. Not Black Panther-era, but I remember when BART didn’t exist. I remember Swan’s Market, and I remember Rhode’s department store. I’ll be thirty-nine in June. All this said, I’m not a complete romantic. I see my town for what it was and what it is:
From Pinch's prologue to More Like Wrestling:
"But we’re from Oakland. And Oakland builds quality. Folks who creep but don’t crawl. Melt down, but don’t vaporize. I move around — Oakland, anyway. So I know the Bay Area creates righteous people who deal with splendor and sting, sham and certainty, gray velvet fog and lemon–glass sunshine — all while just getting from Point A to Point B.
I know this because I can see. I watch. And this place — with its indigo–green jewel of a lake and its underdog nature and dead downtown and Southern Negro mores and shiny liberal whiteness and slow–motion port and fifty–cent tacos and fern–cloaked hills and baby tunnels and beckoning bridges and Victorian crack–houses and modern manors from which you can see San Francisco twinkling and Marin sleeping and after that straight to God’s cool pacific pond — it had to be Oakland that pasted Paige and I together. It would be Oakland that pulled us apart.
Life, though, had a lot to do with it. And death, too."
***
The Kwik Way/Mickey D’s drama makes me think of my days around the Lake. I went to Lakeview Elementary, right there across the street from the theater. Is that closet-sized cigar shop still next door? It was when I was kid, and we’d go there to stock up on candy before the movie started. My sister and I saw a bunch of stuff at the Grand Lake: Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Apple Dumpling Gang, Pippi Longstocking, Sinbad and the Seven Seas. This was back when my sis and I would take the AC Transit No. 57—same bus, whether we were going to school, or to the movies. I also went to Luther Burbank Elementary (or it was called Luther Burbank back then) in East Oakland, where we lived. I spent a lot of time at Eastmont Mall (when it was new!)—going to Kress (I think it was Kress) and JC Penny with my great-grandmother. Going to Otis Spunkmeyer’s for hot chocolate chip cookies, going to H. Salt Fish & Chips (more vinegar, please) or Pizza Hut. There was a mini-branch of the public library in the mall back then, so I spent lots of time there. I read a thick, thick book about the Jim Jones cult/massacre/mass suicide from that branch when I was about twelve. My mom thought I was crazy, but she let me read it, and liked my verbal summaries and odd facts about the cult. I got my first library card from the Fruitvale Branch when I was about eight. When I was home just this past January, I noticed that the Fruitvale Branch (or was it called the Diamond Branch?) is no longer there, or is no longer where it was when I was a kid. I took bowling lessons at Diamond Bowl, which I guess is gone, too. I can still keep score by hand, which is a neat trick these days when bowling scores are done automatically and electronically. I had a K/Casper’s dog when I was home last, too. My mom got her hotdogs there when she was in high school (Fremont class of ’62). No tomatoes for me, just pickles and kraut and mustard. I like stuff sour, just like the Pixie Stix I used to get at the cigar shop by the Grand Lake.
Man, I miss Oakland. New York pizza is fine, but I could have a quarter chicken and fries from Kwik Way right now. Or at least a sloppy handful of meat and bread with grilled onions from Giant Burger.
I’m moving home next year. I know I’ve been saying that since 1993, but this time, I mean it.
I swear.
More later.
Posted by danyel at April 18, 2004 09:34 PM | TrackBackYes, the cigar shop is still there. Yes, the 57 still runs up Lakeshore. Walked past them both this morning.
I've been in Oakland for 22 years and am trying to break my grip and move somewhere else. Your columns are making it very difficult.
Not sure of the verdict about McD's and Kwik Way, although I remember when I brought a Friscan there, he said, "Ray Kroc would be rolling in his grave if he saw this place". Would tend to agree.
nc
Posted by: Nick Cawthon at April 26, 2004 09:51 AMEnjoyed your rememberances... I grew up in Oakland, attending Crocker Highlands Grammer 56-63 and then McChesney and Oakland High . I remember the old radio stations KEWB in the Bermuda Building (just torn down) on Franklin St. and KDIA on Grand Ave. Iremember Duo REcords on Franklin where they still sold 45s, as did Marcel Music on Grand Ave near Mandana...the original Hickry Pit on Telegraph, late great Hofbrau on W Grand and Broadway (closed a year ago (somebody should reopen it!)...but it would be a tragedy if the KWIK WAY closes... There's nothing like it... the burgers, fried chicken (even if its been sitting there awhile) the greasy fries... (REmember when they had foot long hot dogs, corn dogs, pies...
but whats left of the menu hasnt changed...
LET'SSAVE THE KWIK WAY and GREAT LUCK ON THE BOOK!
Hey Nick! I went to MCChesney for summer school one year. And we and my great grandmother used to go to the Hof Brau out by the airport. Long live Kwik Way!
Posted by: Danyel at August 23, 2004 07:39 AMWow Danyel, I’m an old acquaintance from Oakland, don’t know if you remember me (Tracy) it’s been years ago. The last time I saw you, you were living over off High street, talking about Digital Underground and engaged to Carl. That seems like; no actually it was, a decade ago. Now I see you on television. Life is amazing, as well as a journey. It’s good to see an Oaktown girl make good! Just sending a shout and love out from Oakland.
Posted by: Tracy at October 10, 2004 02:31 AMIn response to the description and inner foundation of Oaktown's vertibre, (referring to the colorful refferences used above) now, I did not grow up in Oaktown; a few cities east, a few in other directions, (unfortunatly, I never bothered to take-in direction other than EAST-bay...the seventeen years I l...i..v..e.d. there, and I'm only twenty-five) but yeah, hearing those, or I mean reading them, flooded back super old school visions of "sugar plums dancing in my head" and shit. You know champaign wishes and caviar dreams, and all of that..feeling. Which made me think that...that being my upbringing is most likley the reason my current mind state is so far from those that....that wasn't their up-bringing. Like it was a natural mindstate as a child, provided by the society of The BAy area, and other fools are just like...uh what..hella bland...something's beautiful....something's fresh...uh I don't get it, and things like that. BUt it also made me think that I should stop blaming them, cuz it ain't their fault. But too, it makes me fell like i'm possessed with some other bullshit force, or something, cuz reading and feeling those descriptions, I guess made me snap out of my "semi-sellout staganent indifference" Any way, I felt the need to share that shit, cuz if I don't do it for y'all or whatever, I guess I naturally do it for the bAY/
Posted by: AgiftedMisfit at October 18, 2004 07:05 PMI came to Oakland in '92 and boy has it changed in the past twelve years! I remember when downtown as a Ghostown and Old Oakland was basically the jail and various decrepit buildings. Now Old Oakland can boast of Starbucks, trendy new developments and a pretty cool place, Jessos Restaurant and Caberet, as its main attractions. Oh I forgot, the Marriott Hotel, The Rex and also Swans Market (forget about Swans and just check out Jessos!)Old Oakland also gets a Farmer's Market every Friday.
Posted by: bsouth at October 21, 2004 12:13 PMHey great pictures you paint of Oakland. I spent my entire life in Oakland. Still here... did a 5 year stint in the burbs, Lafayette, to see what that was about, but always came back home, a true Oakland-phile. I'm about the same age as you, 38 yesterday, and my memories are almost the same. I remember the opening of BART...and even the little girl that disappeared that day, Monica Rios. We lived by the Lake by the Parkway (the area is called EastLake now I guess), but almost every weekend my family would hop in the car and we would roll out to Eastmont, yeah... back when it was a real mall. I remember getting new school clothes at Swans (we couldn't afford Capwells or Liberty House)... gonna go pick up a copy of your book... Good luck
Posted by: Sharon at October 30, 2004 06:58 PMI, too, remember Swan's! My mother took me there as a child, and ZI visited old memories as an adult there. Yes, bad district... BUT wonderful memories. Also remember Kasper's Hot Dogs on Fruitvale? When it was across from the skating rink (which was destroyed for the new freeway)? And the library was the Diamond Library. Remember the pet shop? It was originally one store-front wide, then when Nora sold her luncheonette, the pet store took over that area, and the pet shop became twice as big! Remember the craft store? And the meat market? And the old, OLD building at Sequoia? Great memories!
Posted by: Jan at December 22, 2004 07:19 AMI, too, remember Swan's! My mother took me there as a child, and ZI visited old memories as an adult there. Yes, bad district... BUT wonderful memories. Also remember Kasper's Hot Dogs on Fruitvale? When it was across from the skating rink (which was destroyed for the new freeway)? And the library was the Diamond Library. Remember the pet shop? It was originally one store-front wide, then when Nora sold her luncheonette, the pet store took over that area, and the pet shop became twice as big! Remember the craft store? And the meat market? And the old, OLD building at Sequoia? Great memories!
Posted by: Jan at December 22, 2004 07:19 AMMesothelioma cancer
Posted by: Do you have mesothelioma cancer? at December 27, 2004 09:50 AMYes, I grew up on Wala Vista Ave. (1950-1960)and have very fond memories of the Lake Shore shopping district. Does anyone remember the dime store and Borden's fountain. How about Edy's. I remember the trains that ran up Trestle Glen, in fact almost got ran over by one. Attended Crocker Highlands School and will always remember Miss's Hattrup and Turner, fine. teachers. The Christmas assembly at that time was a real big deal. Months spent preparing. Certainly left an impression. Best part was growing up in an intregrated neighborhood. Blacks, Japanese, Chinese, Italian etc. The best preparation for the real world. Oh, by the way, the Quick Way was known then as the Club 19. The big 19 cent hamburger sign cemented that one.
Posted by: tom at January 19, 2005 07:24 PMFor me, the most precious thing about Oakland is its multicultural atmosphere. I graduated Oakland Tech in 99, went on to college in NY, and then on to the Army where I've served around the world (recently back from Iraq). The generally copacetic race relations in Oakland, and the amazing resilience of the city through turmoil and disaster is truly a global urban model. Unfortunately, in my opinion, suburban ignorance and metropolitan snobbery gives the 'town' a bad rep, ignoring Oakland's finer aspects.
I love my city, am proud to be from there, and eagerly await my next visit home.
-Justin
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