Video from Mission Loc@l | Linda and Joe Litehiser | Chuck Farrugia to McLaren Park | Carol and Todd High to Golden Gate Park | Samantha Tabak to Buena Vista Park
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Video from Mission Loc@l
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Dear San Francisco Parks,
My husband Joe and I are in love with you. Let me tell you why….
We both arrived in San Francisco 40 years ago and spent that time raising our respective families. Our families were linked by friendship through schools and neighborhoods. Joe’s family attended as many weeks as possible at Camp Mather, our City’s family park in the Sierras. Later along with his late wife Socorro, they became advocates for Camp Mather and regular volunteers. Joe now sits on the Board of Directors of Friends of Camp Mather, where he is helping with many tasks but among them a Memory Garden to commemorate loved ones at the camp.
My love affair with parks began in Golden Gate Park when my son was an infant and my home didn’t have a back yard. I discovered that I really had the biggest back yard of all, with the parks all around me in the Haight. In 1998 I moved to Crocker Amazon with my late husband Jack, where together with our dog, we discovered Crocker Amazon Playground and the unbelievably beautiful John McLaren Park. I helped start FACE – Friends and Advocates of Crocker Amazon and the Excelsior – a booster club whose mission is to promote the fun and beauty of our neighborhood resources; parks are at the top of that list.
So after being widowed for a number of years, Joe and I began our own love affair. When we started to plan our wedding, we thought parks had to be part of it. In November, we were married in beauty of Yosemite Valley with our children and grandchildren around us. But to celebrate our marriage with all our extended family and many friends, we wanted to do something special in San Francisco. So we will have our “reception” this coming June at the Jerry Garcia Amphitheater in McLaren Park. The theme will be a celebration of parks and advocacy. We will be inviting our fellow park volunteers, family and friends to experience the joy we have found in our City’s green spaces.
And if that was not enough, we recently moved into a house directly across the street from Balboa Park. We live and breathe parks and would not have it any other way.
Love,
Linda and Joe Litehiser
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Dear McLaren Park,
Where do I begin to start when trying to explain how much my park means to me? Almost every fond memory of my life originated in McLaren Park. My oldest memories as a child are playing in the old sand pit on Oxford and Burrows (which no longer exists today), digging in the sand and listening to music my sister was playing on her transistor radio. Tree houses, forts, bicycle trails, animal discoveries, kite flying, rope swings, baseball games, football in the rain, concerts at the old amphitheater, motorcycle rides on trails that were all named by previous riders before me (back when we thought it was legal), Making out with my first girlfriend on a park bench, BBQ’s with all my friends while watching the clouds drift over my head, Soap box racing down Shelly Drive when being naked was normal, I guess, Walking my dog on the trails everyday until I could basically draw a map of the parks every feature in my head, Checking out the amazing views at night from the top of Blue Tower hill, Going to Tiny Tots as a 4 year old at the old Roundhouse (which hasn’t change one iota in 40 years!) Chasing rabbits and catching pollywogs and frogs from McNab lake (which every kid in the neighborhood referred to as Tadpole Pond), Being chased by the police on horseback because I was breaking tree branches in order to build a tree house, Eating cherries from the only cherry tree in the park, Having picnics with my mom and sister under the giant Willow tree on Shelly near Cambridge St. (gone now – but a baby is Willow is growing in its place), Drinking my first bottle of alcohol as a young teen that I stole from my parents liquor cabinet and being busted by the cops after while pushing my bicycle home, Being scared to death when my friend had an epileptic seizure while we were checking out an old abandoned van someone dumped in a thicket of trees, Falling from the giant Eucalyptus tree on Oxford flat on my back so hard I couldn’t breathe for what seemed like an eternity, Climbing the old bathrooms and sitting on the roof while I gazed at the myriad of cars and people go by, Building a dam under the bridge near Oxford street using sand from the sand pit nearby and seeing it finally give was such a big thrill for a 5 or 6 year old, Getting my dad’s car stuck in the mud near the big parking lot on Shelly Drive because I listened to my stupid friend who is now a cop, Parking my truck in the valley between the two hills on Mansell Ave. after the bar closed and drinking beer with my friends till sunrise…
I could go on and on forever but I guess the point has been made. As a child, teen, young adult and now a father, McLaren Park meant/means
everything to me. Without her I wouldn’t be who I am today, and I love her more than any man can know. I thank God that I had such an amazing resource so close to my house and was able to enjoy her without fear my whole life and I hope my son can live through the same experiences I lived (well, almost all of them) while he grows up here in a big city of concrete, wood and glass. Without McLaren Park, children of San Francisco who live in the Portola and Visitation Valley would have little chance ever to know how beautiful Mother Nature can truly be.
– Chuck Farrugia
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Todd & Carol High to Golden Gate Park 
Dear Golden Gate Park,
I met my husband, Todd, in the spring of 1988 when we each joined a singles tennis group called Tuesday Night Tennis. We met each week at the courts in Golden Gate Park. The format was mixed doubles play after work, followed by a dinner at a member’s home on a rotating basis. At the end of the summer, the Tuesday Night players participated in a friendly tennis tournament (“The Dabblers Cup”) against the After Work Tennis Club (aka Wednesday Night Tennis). This is when things got interesting.
Todd and I were paired up to play together in the Dabblers Cup by our Ladder Chair, Dave Blasquez. The outcome of the tennis tournament was not important, as we agreed to go out on a first date at the after-tournament party hosted in Sea Cliff. We were married in 1990, honeymooned in France, and now have a 16-year-old daughter! Golden Gate Park tennis brought us together, and we have lived across the street from McLaren Park since 1990. The three of us enjoy hiking and exploring the park as often as possible.
Maybe for our 20th anniversary this April, we’ll go back to the original “scene of the crime” for a tennis match!
Here’s to all those who love our parks,
Carol and Todd High
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Samantha Tabak to Buena Vista Park
The first time I visited in San Francisco, the very first place my boyfriend took me was Buena Vista Park. I’ll never forget how beautiful it was; the pink cherry blossoms were in bloom, the sky was crystal clear – you could see the Golden Gate Bridge, the bay and the ocean all at once. But even more memorable was watching my boyfriend throw the ball for his dog up and down the Park’s trails. It was then and there I realized I was in love with this man.
I was so happy I wanted to pitch a tent and live right in the Park. Luckily, my boyfriend and I found an apartment directly across the street. Everyday, I sat in front of our living room window, drank my morning coffee and looked out at the Park’s large and looming trees. Ah, bliss.
About a year later – on one of our many hikes in the Park, my boyfriend and I were sitting on the same exact bench we had sat a year earlier when he nervously brought out a beautiful diamond ring and proposed. Tears in my eyes, I said yes.
Several months later, on a thankfully not too cold September day, as I walked up to the Park’s summit I was again struck by the amazing view,
but this time the view was of my husband to be, as he waited with a small group of friends and a rabbi under a chuppah. I may have walked too fast but I remember each step. I was getting married to the man I loved. In the middle of the ceremony a dog ran up. Both my Husband
and I cracked up, it was perfect moment. It was as if the whole park was invited too, and it’s always the unexpected things you remember the most.
Now whenever I catch a glimpse of the tall trees of Buena Vista Park, I smile -remembering the sweetest day of my life–my wedding day.
I love you Buena Vista Park, And my husband too 
– Samantha Tabak
