Another 1906 earthquake survivor unearthed
By: Ken Garcia
Examiner Staff Writer
April 17, 2009
As a journalist who has done scores of stories related to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, I can attest that every time you talk about one of the last survivors, another one emerges from the rubble.
And that would be the case with one William Del Monte, who was born a few months before the mighty shake, and was here in person, if not in memory, for the big event. For those at home counting, that would make Del Monte 103, and he’ll always have a reason to remember the year of his birth.
After I did a column this week about the remarkable Rose Cliver, who is two years older than Del Monte and was thought to be the last city native still around from that fateful April 18th day, reader Laura Basaloco-Lapo told me about Del Monte’s presence.
More important, she was quick to point out Del Monte has some strong historic ties to San Francisco, since it was his father who opened the Fior D’Italia restaurant in North Beach where Del Monte celebrated his 100th birthday a few years back.
Del Monte told me that until last year, he had a girlfriend and that he was an avid world traveler and active player in the stock market.
As it turns out, he’s still playing — though he was smart enough to pull most of his investments out before last year’s nose dive.
“I went mostly into bonds,” Del Monte told me, “but even they went haywire. Now it’s just cash.”
Del Monte lives in a retirement home in Greenbrae — a far cry from the days when he lived right behind the family restaurant on Broadway and Kearny Street.
He says he still remembers the days when the street lights consisted of gas lamps, switched on every night and then off every morning.
“When my dad rebuilt our home after the earthquake, we didn’t have any electricity,” he said. “Everything was either gas or candles.”
Del Monte is also something of an Internet junkie, which no doubt separates him from most centenarians (and those of us who depend on online readers salute him).
And he still gets around pretty well — he’ll be at the commemoration ceremonies tomorrow morning with his niece, Jeanette Baroco, at Lotta’s Fountain shortly after 5 a.m.
“I’ve been to some of the events before, but never the 5 a.m. deal,” Del Monte said. “That’s too early.”
Bay Area fans say goodbye to favorite NFL announcer
Football fans in these parts are certainly going to miss announcer John Madden, who was the last link to the days when Sundays in the Bay Area were actually worth giving up three hours to watch a game.
Madden announced his retirement on the radio Thursday and he was his rambling, rumbling self. I kept waiting for a “thwack” or a “bam” but there was none forthcoming, just the constant reminder that he was a sort of everyman broadcaster, a regular guy who couldn’t contain his enthusiasm for a sport he was involved with almost all of his life.
One of the reasons Madden retired from coaching is that he hated to fly, which is why his specially-outfitted bus was part of his traveling road show. It would have been nice for Madden to take a formal bow, especially here in his Bay Area home, but that was just not his style.
I read one suggestion that maybe Madden would go back to the Raiders in some type of consultant position, but as Al Davis proves more each year, that particular bus left the station long ago.
Madden made football fun, a festival of sausages, fat linemen and merry malapropisms.
School board should just heed voters’ wishes
Now that the San Francisco school board has taken the symbolic step of opposing state legislation that would force it to restore the JROTC leadership program in schools, perhaps now it could take the hint that it won’t have to deal with the state at all if it does what the voters have asked it to do.
As the whole JROTC flap has proven during the past three years, the school board needs to go back to basic training. The ideological missteps that have characterized the panel in recent years have shown that the board should stick to providing students what they need — and leave anti-war rhetoric and grandiose philosophical stands to those not entrusted with the curriculum.
It should be noted that the bill introduced by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma is not going to evaporate just because the school board doesn’t like it — and there are dozens of legislators in the state capitol who cherish every opportunity they get to stick it to snobby, self-righteous San Francisco.
Ma said her bill will be heard in the Appropriations Committee next week and could go to the full Assembly floor for a vote in the last week of April.
She said she’s pushing the legislation because of the board’s “fiscal irresponsibility by rejecting $600,000 in federal funds for a program that has a 90-year proven track record of keeping kids off the streets.”
And there’s also that little will-of-the-voters thing.
San Francisco in the pot business?
It’s kind of a funny thought that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors wants The City to get in the pot business, because most people around here already thought we were.
But technicalities aside, I’m glad Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi wants to roll out legislation to allow San Francisco to sell medical marijuana because it’s the first suggestion to come out of City Hall that could actually make money without it coming directly from our wallets.
Mirkarimi said that the proposal was “cost-neutral,” but I think he’s selling it short. San Francisco could make millions from selling pot — who else has such a bleary-eyed, captive audience?
The plan may not jibe with federal law, but when has that ever stopped city officials before?
Mirkarimi said he doesn’t know where San Francisco will get its dope, but trust me, this is one deal where that won’t be a problem.
Follow The Examiner
