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The
scene was a crowded street car in San Francisco. Edin Shaw, the ten
year old daughter of the Chief Stewart at San Quentin, and her older
sister, Laverne, and her mother were passengers on this street car.
Suddenly Edin blurted out; Mama, how long has Daddy been at San
Quentin? All of the passengers immediately turned their head and
listened. Mrs. Shaw, obviously embarrassed, managed to respond, Oh,
he has been a guard there about a year.
To
avoid embarrassment such as this, when the San Quentin village
people met a stranger they rarely mentioned that they were from San
Quentin. If the Where you from? came up the
response might start at the vaguest, and most appropriate, location
such as this.
|
"Where
you from?" |
|
"California" |
|
|
"Which
Part?" |
|
"Northern" |
|
|
"Whereabouts?" |
|
"San
Francisco Bay Area" |
|
|
"Which
Part?" |
|
"North
Bay" |
|
|
"Where?" |
|
"North
of the Golden Gate Bridge" |
|
|
"Where?" |
|
"Marin
County" |
|
|
"Where
in Marin?" |
|
"Near
San Rafael."or lying "San Rafael." |
|
|
"Whereabouts?" |
|
Exasperated!
"San Quentin." |
|
If,
perchance, it got to the Exasperated
San Quentin line, the stranger would usually get an
odd look on his or her face forming an immediate misconceived idea of
disbelief or perhaps, what it’s like to live there. If the
conversation could not be diverted the next response, usually, was,
“Oh, that’s on the Island in San Francisco Bay.” Our
response, “No, that’s Alcatraz. San Quentin is on a
peninsula in Marin County.” That line stopped many but not all.
Most realized just how little they really knew about the place. If
their curiosity continued it may go on to explaining that San Quentin
is a state prison not a federal one. And on it might go until the
subject could be changed. Rarely did a stranger know the right
answers or that there was a village. So to avoid the situation
completely San Quentin was not mentioned. The village people were not
ashamed to be from San Quentin, far from it. They knew that they were
unique but did not want to explain their uniqueness, and correct the
misconceptions, with everyone they meet.
Excerpts
from:: William J. Duffy, Jr.
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Last Revision March 2001 |