Vertigo - Melody

When I was a kid, I’d swing for hours, back and forth, back and forth, at Children’s Playground in Golden Gate Park. I’d swing to the beat of the ever-present bongo and conga drums that forever set the rhythm – drifting over from Hippie Hill which was just past Children’s Playground. I’d swing in rhythm to the drums which never stopped playing. Never once did I feel dizzy.

Then I’d skateboard down the hill that led to Children’s Playground. The paved road there was especially good for skateboarding because it was curvy and not straight like all the streets in San Francisco where I lived were – the avenues were like neat little squares and some streets had hills and some didn’t, but the streets weren’t curvy, they were dependable, and the avenues were organized beginning with Arguello (instead of first avenue) and going all the way up to 48th Avenue and no further because that’s where Ocean Beach is.

Even though the years have gone by and it’s been close to 40 years since I’ve careened down hills on a skateboard and the last time I attempted to swing at a playground, I felt dizzy – that old vertigo thing has set in. Now I can’t even handle a ride that spins in any way. Children’s Playground has been completely dismantled and rebuilt – yet some things still remain the same. The beating of the drums still set the rhythm for that section of Golden Gate Park, and the avenues are still just as dependable as they ever have been – I can count on the streets being there, and I can still drive down the street where I grew up, Second Avenue, between Lincoln Way and Hugo Street right across the street from Golden Gate Park – a patch of meadow that we kids always called the Greens, a meadow with trees to climb surrounded by traffic – are spot of the world to find what every kid loves, surrounded by whizzing cars.