Driving Out of San Francisco, California - Easter Sunday - 1957

DRIVING OUT OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - EASTER SUNDAY - 1957
Friends and family-
In 1957 our parents Larry and Catherine “Peg” (Whitman) Haas visited our Aunt Margaret “Markie” (Whitman) Beauchamp in San Francisco. This home movie was filmed during an Easter Sunday drive from San Francisco south to Monterrey California in our Uncle Don Beauchamp’s Buick. This home movie was filmed by my father, Lawrence W. Haas, and the music is by my daughter, Anna Haas.
I hope you enjoy, and please share widely.
David
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[@KB-jz5rk]

Thanks for posting this film. Vintage San Francisco with a beautiful song. For anyone who watches this and is wondering what the locations are, read my notes below. San Francisco April 21, 1957 0:20 This film starts on the 1100 block of Bush between Hyde and Leavenworth. The two women are coming from the Worthington Apt building, which is still there today. They are crossing to the car parked on the North side of the street. The camera is pointed west towards Van Ness Ave. 1:20 The camera person is in a car heading south on Leavenworth Street and is approaching the intersection with Ellis. Today Leavenworth is one way northbound. Most of the buildings in this shot are still there today. The car makes a right onto Ellis street. 1:31 The car heading west on Ellis and is approaching the intersection with Octavia. This area has changed dramatically. The intersection with Octavia no longer exists. All the charming San Francisco houses seen here were bulldozed in the 1960’s by urban redevelopment. They were replaced with buildings so lacking in style, so lacking in charm, and just so plain ugly that you’d think you were in Daly City. Even the beautiful view across the Fillmore to Anza Vista Hill is now wiped out by San Francisco’s perennial urban forest. 1:44 The car is heading west on the last block of O’Farrell Street towards the intersection with Masonic. Smitty’s Signal station can be seen at the intersection. The street continues on past the intersection as Anza Street. The large green hill to the left is the north side of Lone Mountain. Today it is largely covered with buildings 1:54 The car has made a left onto Masonic and is now crossing the intersection with Ewing. 2:05 The car has stopped on the corner of Masonic and Turk and the camera is looking at the homes on Turk street. Today this is pretty much unchanged. 2:22 to end. The rest of the films shows familiar locations in Golden Gate Park and the Ocean Beach. Mostly the same as today, but how about that nearly empty parking lot at Ocean Beach!

[@dondressel452]

We had Buffalo living in golden gate park Now we have homeless druggies It’s sad to see what once was a beautiful city has become today Thank you for bringing back wonderful memories

[@robertvillarreal4525]

What a beautiful world-city swallowed to a mean chaotic unanticipated drastic change of everything true and good.

[@ConfectionaryArts]

no parking meters.. again.. no parking meters, no stop signs or sign pollution .. that is how I remember San Francisco from when I was small.. it was lovely.. more freedom and more responsibility on the part of people.. I remember when the lawsuits kicked in in the 70's that shut things down like public swimming pools.. those were the first to go.. too much fun..

[@AA-kj4ic]

totally true, always nervous to drive in the city, in a second or 2 while I drive by slowly, I have to read like 10 signs to figure out if I'm driving on the correct lane and if I can part there.

[@timacoata7456]

Going back in time beautiful and yet sad! Dad was a Nike Base officer from 1962 to 1965 ( Fort Cronkite) headlands. Lived in beautiful military housing presidio. SF was amazing ; parents are gone now and so is the once beautiful city by the bay! 💔

[@2040wagon]

Scenic and emotional at the same time. San Francisco will always be me my grandparents driving to the commissary in the presidio through the sunset district and baker beach to get there. We get food at the cafeteria and listen to the fog horns as the ships passed through. Very few people flew back then and the drugs were less toxic. The worst people did was uppers and downers. Marijuana and being saucy or being in the bag was bad living.. Hard to imagine that now with cannibus shops in every neighborhood....

[@darrellross1]

Love those 50's cars! Your dads car was a 1955 Buick. Four years later, I went car shopping with my dad, and he traded in our 1948 Chevrolet for a brand new 1959 Dodge Custom Royal, also green and white!

[@1940limited]

My parents traded in a 51 Chevy 4-door sedan for a 55 Bel-Air wagon as the family grew and we needed more space. We kept the 55 for 9 years then traded it on a new 64 Pontiac wagon. That one lasted 14 years.

[@johnmello6837]

Boy, does this bring back memories. My grandparent's lived in SF in the 1950's, my Dad's parents on 23rd Avenue between Fulton and Cabrillo and my Mom's mother in the outer Sunset near the Lucky between Ocean and Sloat. Spent countless Sundays visiting them along with cousins, aunts and uncles. Great memories.

[@AA-kj4ic]

you can totally retire now if they pass down their houses in SF to you, haha.....would worth multiples of millions now.

[@trainsupporter9088]

Enjoyed this so much! I missed this kind of life...looks wonderful!

[@josepenate7367]

thanks for the peaceful minutes.

[@bkjnannielee2032]

Beautiful video. Residential area look more less the same execpt for the cars and look ...plenty of parking!!! And wow the old Cliff House and Buffalo in the park!!! It was a lovely city....

[@1940limited]

Great video. I'm glad this event was recorded.

[@davidw.haasm.d.7502]

g bridgman I’m glad you liked it

[@hamasuma]

Simply great.

[@davidw.haasm.d.7502]

+Hilmar Thor Bjarnason I could not agree more. Thanks! David

[@autobug2]

(SIGH) Makes me wish I was born about 15 years earlier than I was (1960). The world was so different then. People cared how they dressed. People were polite. Cars came in beautiful colors. Graffiti wasn't widespread yet. People took pride in their properties.

[@davidw.haasm.d.7502]

W Fox true dat

[@cariboux2]

Born in '69. My dad told me in the '90s that he felt bad for me having to live in the modern world. He said if he had known just how bad things were going to get, he wouldn't have had a child. He actually apologized to me. I didn't fully grasp what he meant, and said, "Ah dad, it's fine!" He said he was glad I was okay but that was because I had not known how people used to be. If he could see our country now. He would be in tears. We are without a doubt a decaying nation... because we didn't take care of what we were given. We are witnessing what happens periodically throughout history... the decline of civilization. We are still benefitting from all that has been achieved, but our trajectory has inalterably changed.

[@gryhze]

At 2:10 - fire hydrant with a hitching ball to tie up a horse drawn fire wagon. We had a '57 Chevy Bel Air in North Beach.

[@sharman814]

Charming

[@1940limited]

Sickening when you realize how much we've lost.

[@davidw.haasm.d.7502]

Agreed. David

[@marjoryrainey7039]

The year I was born in the city I was born in. Thank You! Oh wow.

[@mwj5368]

Wow your daughter singing? Holy cow! She's fantastic and should have a million hits. What's the name of her band and her song? Thanks for sharing this, a great escape for me into another time!

[@sally5842]

Lost it on facebook! Finally find it again! great and thanks!!!

[@davidw.haasm.d.7502]

+Sally Pendergast Glad you could fine. FYI you can find all our home movies indexed at haashomemovies.com

[@gpholtz]

Fantastic historical footage!!!

[@wandajames6234]

Singing and music was fantastic-- I hope Anna got a recording deal she should be heard with a voice and talent like that!

[@1940limited]

I can't understand a word she' saying.

[@davidw.haasm.d.7502]

It used to be that nobody went into the city Without their gloves on Without their gloves on It used to be you’d wait all week To walk the boardwalk To walk the boardwalk And the world moved real slow Just moment to moment Of holding tight to all of those you loved This world isn’t made for me anymore But I don’t need much more Just to hear you say You’ll go and find your home Go and find your home It used to be there was no hurry to tell your story to tell your story It used to be you didn’t have to prove You’d been there You’d been there And the world was like that You had what you had And not just sepia or black and white It was bright This world isn’t made for me anymore But I don’t need much more Just to hear you say You’ll go and find your home Go and find your home

[@jadenephrite]

@ 2:12 is the Conservatory of Flowers which is a large exhibition greenhouse in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco since 1878.. @ 2:42 is the Bison Paddock in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco since 1899.

[@robertsmith1860]

I enjoyed your nostalgic video, immensely. By the 1990s, the Bison Paddock in GG Park was thick with weed patches. I joined a volunteer group (Bison Watch) at that time, led by Phil Carlton (Buffalo Phil). Monthly, on a Saturday, we were allowed entry with the Bison removed to a smaller Paddock, for the purpose of pulling as many weeds as we could...supplied with gardening tools/wheelbarrows from Park & Recreation Department.

[@vfrexup]

Is it my imagination ............ or was life better back then ?

[@realtv4474]

It certainly was but hey......diversity is our strength right?

[@1940limited]

@@realtv4474 Yes, that includes homeless encampments!

[@RobertGSwan]

MUCH ... better.

[@williammize8270]

Thought I saw some buffalo in San Francisco?

[@joeroberts2481]

They're still there! Well, not those exact buffalo of course, but the buffalo paddock is still in Golden Gate Park.

[@alanmorris7669]

In the description, you say your parent's names are _"Larry and Catherine Haas."_ Then later in the description, you say your father's name is _"Lawrence W. Haas."_ What did I miss?

[@AA-kj4ic]

Back then, one can at least safely street park a car without having to worry about windows been smashed.

[@williammize8270]

Conception time march 26 1957

[@michaelkeith2207]

What's the music?

[@davidw.haasm.d.7502]

Find Your Home by Anna Haas

[@michaelmichelz3349]

I'LL TAKE THAT 56 BUICK....NICE !!!

[@Itslavishbitch]

Now the cars became robots and the economy was forever revolutionized year 2040

[@sandwichtube]

No need to lock the car doors.

[@2040wagon]

Love the song...Find your home Anna Haas.🌉

[@davidw.haasm.d.7502]

So do I. David

[@1940limited]

I don't know what it is about modern music, but I can't understand a word in that song. Play a pop tune for 1957 and I'll understand everything. Anyway, the movie scenes were great. I'm sure Easter Sunday 2022 in San Francisco won't be anything like this is we have it at all.

[@davidw.haasm.d.7502]

It used to be that nobody went into the city Without their gloves on Without their gloves on It used to be you’d wait all week To walk the boardwalk To walk the boardwalk And the world moved real slow Just moment to moment Of holding tight to all of those you loved This world isn’t made for me anymore But I don’t need much more Just to hear you say You’ll go and find your home Go and find your home It used to be there was no hurry to tell your story to tell your story It used to be you didn’t have to prove You’d been there You’d been there And the world was like that You had what you had And not just sepia or black and white It was bright This world isn’t made for me anymore But I don’t need much more Just to hear you say You’ll go and find your home Go and find your home

[@therose8521]

Thanks for the video, by the way it's called Day of First fruits or Resurrection Day. And it's celebrated by eating bread, not boiled eggs or chocolate candy or bunny rabbits. Easter is a pagan practice used by the Babylonians and the Roman Catholic Church.

[@doriemckay6935]

As a kid of the 50s I froze. skirts and dresses only then. cold wet damp fog, uniforms for school. steep hills and blowing fog and wind. not a fan.