Page 195 - People & Places In Time

On the days when there was little to do, I had found an abandoned dock on the west side of the island nearly underneath the Bay Bridge. There was an old wood sided building at the end of the dock, a perfect place to sit with my back resting against its wall, which also provided shelter from medaling visitors. This became my secret spot to while away the days watching the activity on and around the bay. The hours spent here were both wistful and melancholy. The City lay just across the water and on a clear day I watched as cars sped along the Embarcadero, looking up I could watch as they came and went across the bridge. Sail boats, freighters and barges passed closely enough that I could watch people about their business on the decks. Spread out, over and beyond the city’s hills was offered all the excitement and opportunity my imagination could conger; yet out of reach for my foreseeable future.
Unknown to me at the time, Otis Redding was also sitting on the Sau- salito deck of Bill Graham’s home; he’s there waiting to perform at the Fillmore auditorium. While I was sitting on my own “dock of the bay watching the ships roll in, only to watch them roll away again”, so to was Otis watching, while com- posing “Sitti’n on The Dock of The Bay”.
The Best & The Worst
For a time in the mid 1970’s my relationship with San Francisco became both the chance of a lifetime during the most exciting period in my life. Then tragically it would also become the launch pad to a most disastrous time of my life.
In 1974 I was building Interior Dimensions, my design and furniture store in Fresno. Meeting with suppliers and dealers in the design centers and furniture wholesale markets necessitated many trips to the city. I recall walk-
ing along Jackson avenue one day in the heart of the design world then. I had stopped into the Knoll showroom to speak with them about carrying their furniture line, only to find that John Cummings had just been there ahead of me. Unknown to me at the time, John was building at the same time, a design and gift store in Fig Garden Village called DW2. I didn’t know John then, though later we would become familiar as to just how much we shared in common. I’ve sometimes wondered what might have happened had we had the oppor- tunity to work together; perhaps we were too much alike for that to have been successful. Further unknown to me was that one of Johns partners would soon enough become my downfall, when Mary Delk-Andrews left her partnership in DW2 and was hired by me.
I was in my perfect world, I felt on top of the world. So, the question becomes; why jeopardize the greatest opportunity anyone could want? A ques- tion that will haunt me until the end of my life. How could I allow one
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