November 21 we jumped on the cable car at the turntable on California St. heading down to Union Square. We switched to another one on Powell St. to take us back to Fisherman’s Wharf and this one was packed with people. I squeezed into the middle of it and had to remain standing up. The car cranked and started to move. We were now moving up the hill and were soon over the top going down towards Fisherman’s.
In front of me on the bench was a three year old girl and her dad. She was talking a lot and her dad very patiently answered all her questions that came up from time to time. A few blocks down the car suddenly stopped in the middle of an intersection and all traffic around also seemed to stop. Nobody knew what was happening, a traffic accident maybe? I saw the flashing lights from police and firetrucks passing us with their sirens on. They disappeared over the hill behind us and then nothing happened for a while, except for the little girl who kept talking. Now she said that she was thirsty, that she wanted some water, but her dad said that he didn’t have any. “We can buy some when we get to the end station, in the store”.
“What’s more in the store!” she asked and started to interrogate him one item at a time. “Do they have chocolate in the store?” “I don’t know…” “Is there … ” “I don’t know…” and so on for a long while and a lot of items. We were still not moving. There was a car standing in front of the cable car, but I couldn’t see much from where I was standing.
“There are too many people in here” the girl said, “they doesn’t fit”.
I guess she was right…
Then she started to sing. She didn’t care who listened, she just sang. It was the Beatles song “Help”. She knew it well, but at certain words her dad tried to correct her pronunciation. She wasn’t going to take that, she just said; “That’s not the right version!” and kept singing her version. (Obviously the right version)
Now the cable car was starting to move again. When we left the cable car I thanked her for the singing and she blushed as she suddenly became aware of having an audience…:)
The day after I heard on the news that a window washer had fallen 11 stories from a banking building on the California St – Montgomery St, intersection. He fell into a moving car and survived, even the driver survived. I guess this was the reason for the standstill.
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Talking about the cable cars a friend of mine made a comment of my last post. “Did you happen to take a look at their brakes”. I had to admit I hadn’t. “It’s two slabs of wood against the tracks, one on each side… that’s it.” Really? Good thing I didn’t look then…
