Turk Murphy
Bob Scobey....to tour old San Franciscy? We'll take a trip, to hear those men lip....
Ahhhh, 1955 and the jazz scene in old San Francisco was something to see back then...or so I hear in my mother's tales.
The year was 1955, late December. On the 18th, a +handsome young airman named Hugh wed a beautiful young nurse named Bubbles. They tied the knot and spent the night in the Houston area, then the next day started their trip west to California.
They stopped in Phoenix and spent the Christmas holidays with relatives. Somewhere between the 18th and New Years Day, Bubbles and Hugh conceived the first of many children.
After the holidays, they arrived in Sacramento, where the young airman was stationed to serve as a navigator in the USAF during the Korean Conflict. On weekends, the young couple would cruise down to San Francisco and catch the latest music shows and see the sites around the Bay. They would go to The Purple Onion or The Buena Vista. They would dance and drink and see musical phenoms like Turk Murphy or Bob Scobey.
When my mom started telling me these stories, I was pretty amazed. Not that they did it, but that my dad was so hep! I knew the guy could kick back or kick up his heels, but to take my mom to all the rad/mod/cool/phat hot spots was neat to hear about. Then my mom asked me to see if I could look some of it up on-line. Oh crap, I thought. This was going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack!
Wrong!
Within the first two tries, I had found info on all of it. Not only was it there, but these websites are done up nice (follow the links!). The Irish coffee that they used to drink there in the Northside Fishermen's district is still being touted as "THE original Irish Coffee" in America.
We are trying to find my mom's old records (what the heck is vinyl??), so she can listen to Bob and Turk again. I'll try to get some up here later for all of you to hear for yourselves.
All in all, a nice stroll down memory lane for me and my mom!
Cheers!
4 comments:
This is SWEET! I bet they were awesome...
Don't you love it when you realize your parents existed before you were born and they might just have been interesting?! ;)
I love that she still has such vivid memories of those times (and all those kids later! ha)......and that sites still exist that did back then. Lucky you to get to take that "trip" with her!
Very cool that your mother could share those memories with you.
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