There’s an alley in San Francisco that I love to visit. It’s the Leidesdorff. It runs from Pine to Clay, from the Pacific Stock Exchange to the Transamerica Pyramid. It’s mostly pedestrian, with seats for sidewalk cafés blocking off traffic for a couple different places. There used to be a Boudin’s on the Leidesdorff where I’d go when it was cool out and I wanted clam chowder for lunch. Next to the PSE is Specialty’s, which has incredible deli sandwiches and tasty pastry. Over near California Street is this place called Bistro Burger, which is probably about the only burger place I’d choose over Ray’s.
But for me, the Leidesdorff is about memory. It’s about being 20 and working in the Financial District. It’s about being paid to think about how to promote cool software, and how to do media tracking back when the clippings service was still sending bundles of newsprint that I got to scan. Well before Facebook and Twitter and all the rest of Web 2.0.
I have to brush memories away from my face like so many heavy branches when I walk down that alley. To do it is to feel young again, and then older and wiser after. It’s not a bad way to go through life, to be honest. You remember silly crushes, work projects that were good but could’ve been better, work projects that were bad but could’ve been worse, parties and walks home and starry nights on the walk home from BART.
