大象传媒

I formed the impression that life in San Francisco had a wild New-Year's-Eve atmosphere all-year-round, and that on the Eve itself it broke all bounds. People paraded in masks, funny hats and garish outfits, crowding onto the trams without paying, riding precariously on the running-boards, throwing streamers and confetti everywhere, (I got covered with it, and the sidewalks were carpeted thick with it), with the fire-brigade patrolling to keep the gutters clear of all the paper in case of fire and flood.
On the 2nd six of us went ice-skating at Sutro Baths and Rink. This was the largest building in the world for area, and housed the largest swimming tank in the world, though now it no longer exists. It was my first attempt to skate on ice. We had a drink there with an elderly Glasgwegian. The great tank was divided into five separate 'baths', a long one across the end with artificial waves, a deep one for diving, and three parallel baths each 100'x30', one cool fresh water about 65O, one salt at 85O, and one salt at 95O.
We went sometimes to the Union Jack Club, where Lesley, the daughter of the British Consul, asked me why I wasn't dancing, and insisted on giving me a lesson. I discovered a good swimming-bath at the Y.M.C.A., - no costumes allowed - and had four early-morning swims there, sometimes entirely alone, usually swimming a mile. I also went to a roller-skating rink.
Ice-skating on the 6th, Paddy, Harry, Jan and myself met Mr.J.H.Handlon, from Cheshire, who took us home to 64 Arguello Boulevard in a nice car after a scenic drive. He shewed us his valuable collection of Chinese ivories and screens, and his small picture-gallery, and gave us large glasses of Californian sherry. He shewed us how to appraise the quality of a painting by viewing it through a small squint-hole made by curling the forefinger gripped by the thumb. As one explores the painting in this way, a good painting will exhibit a pronounced three-dimensional effect. Whenever I view paintings now I always do this, and remember Mr.Handlon. I visited the Steinhart Aquarium in Golden Gate Park, where a young couple, Mr.& Mrs Fossoul, of 1323 7th Street, Berkeley, approached me. He was from Belgium. They said that they both worked long hours at a munitions factory, and their relaxation was to dine out, and they invited me to dine with them at a French restaurant in Chinatown. We had Burgundy, hors d'艙uvres, soup, artichokes & lettuce, chicken & wine, and finished the evening at the Downtown Bowl.
I met Helen Anne Mulcahy at the U.J.Club, took her to the cinema, and afterwards home to 1831 Fruit Vale Avenue, Oakland, on the famous "A" Train across the Oakland Bay Bridge. The next evening we went to the 'first night' of Coward's Blithe Spirit at the Curran Theatre. Having seen the London production I found the differences interesting. In the London, one scene opened with a great laugh when the curtain rose on Charles wearing two black arm-bands on a scarlet dinner-jacket, but no such custom obtains in the U.S.A., so it was not possible to portray. He did not even dress for dinner. I had to explain some of the more English jokes to Helen, particularly the exchange, 'Anything interesting in The Times, Dear?' - 'Don't be silly, Charles.' [Double-meaning; she means trivial]. On the following evening I went to Helen鈥檚 house and listened to classical records. When I was leaving, she indicated the mistletoe in the hall, and said, Oh no, you're not getting away this time!, so I was constrained to oblige the lady.
On the 8th Mr.Handlon treated us five to lunch at the Olympic Club, at 524 Post Street. This is the most famous men's club in the world, and resembles a huge super-hotel. There was a room with thirty billiard- and pool-tables, six fives' courts, basketball courts, and a mammoth gymnasium with every conceivable apparatus, - horse-riding and cycling-machines, and a banked running-track. There were steam-baths, resident masseurs, chiropodists & barbers, and year-round sunbathing on the roof. The indoor swimming-bath had three galleries. It was beautifully tiled, with statues and mouldings and marble columns, and was filled with warm salt-water through a private pipe-line from the coast. In the Trophy-Room we were shewn many of the world-famous trophies won by members, including the Sopwith Cup and a Gold Cup given by King George V. We were introduced to some of the coaches, most of whom had been world-champions in their sports. Membership is exclusive, and usually by registration at birth, and the intention was to select likely youngsters and train them specifically to bring a certain trophy to that room in due course.
We often finished our evenings at The Orange Bowl, where we had milk-shakes and fed nickels into the nickelodeon. Our favourite record was Don't Fence Me In, which we learned by heart and sang as we strolled back down Market Street to the Harbor Club.
The streets of the town are laid out in a rectangular grid-pattern, but Market Street runs diagonally across this grid, so each of its intersections is a six-road crossing. When the traffic-signals changed, the light turned from green to red or vice-versa, one signal-arm bearing the word STOP or GO clanked into the horizontal whilst the other fell to the vertical, and a loud bell rang, and it was rather comical in the small hours to pass all these crossings, with no traffic in sight, and see this grand triple-performance in full swing. We would turn in at about 0200, and the staple course at breakfast (late) at the Club was waffles and maple syrup.
There were one-dollar and two-dollar bills in circulation, and they were of similar size, and on one occasion I was cheated by a taxi-driver over this. Silver dollars also circulated in some States, and California was a Silver-Dollar-State. I compiled a collection+ of all the coins in circulation, the dollar, half-dollar, quarter, dime, nickel, and copper and 'lead' cents, both of which were current.
On Thursday 11th, ourselves and our baggage duly weighed, we took off from Oakland Airport in a 4-engined C54 Skymaster of the Naval Air Transport Service. Whilst waiting we had bought The San Francisco Times, and, having become accustomed to the very thin wartime editions of British newspapers we were amazed at its bulk, and suitably amused, since for all of us it was to be our first flight, to find on the front page a picture of a crashed aircraft. We took off at 1630. Air-travel is now very common, but in those days it was only for the rich, the professionals, and servicemen. I was the first member of the Hill family in history to fly, and I found that to be above the clouds, to peep through a hole and see a ship far below, and later to wave to our friends in another Dakota, were remarkable experiences. Our cruising-altitude was 7,800' - considerably less than that maintained by aircraft now, and we were subject always to meeting air-pockets, - patches of air of greater or less density, or upward or downward eddies, in which the aircraft would be suddenly carried up, or down, as if it had traversed several stories of a building in a very fast elevator, and one wondered whether we would eventually encounter so great a fall that the wings would break off. Our time of twelve hours at 200 m.p.h. was also three times longer than would be necessary today. We had two meals on board, and landed at Hickham Field, Pearl Harbor, near Honolulu, Hawaii, on the Island of Oahu, at 0430 Frisco time, 0200 Oahu Time. There were then only 48 States in the Union, and Hawaii did not become the 50th State until 1959. We had all day Friday 12th ashore. The sun was very hot, and we were sweating in our blue suits. I thumbed a lift aboard a lorry to Honolulu, and swam off Waikiki beach. I hired a surf-board for $1 an hour, but had no success with it, though I did discover eventually that to navigate sharp-end first is the opposite of correct. I fell off several times, but I suppose this is normal. I think the tide was very low, and probably the surf-board hirer was less than honest in taking my money. I had to return to the barracks by 1700. There was a civilian curfew at 2200, and we took off at 0200 in a Douglas DC3 Dakota.

(A copy of this chapter was deposited amongst the archives of the Department of Documents in the Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ, in 1995.)

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