After our breakfast of coffee and waffles we set out on our second day in Frisco. My first stop was at the Southern Pacific Railway offices where I filed a complaint for my lost kit bag, I had to estimate the cost of each article and altogether it came to about 90 dollars. They said they would put a tracer on the bag and if it didn't turn up they would forward the money to me, in the meantime however I was left in practically all I was stood in, apart from a small case with socks and underclothes.
One of our friends from the previous night out- a Mr Gilbert Ball - had given us a card introducing us to the Olympic Club, we went along there and we were told we were honorary members while we were in San Francisco and could use all their facilities for free, these included a swimming pool, tennis courts, a golf course and of course licences bars and a restaurant - it came in very handy for the rest of our stay.
We then went along to the G.I job bureau where we were offered several jobs but we plumped for one in a tobacco warehouse, we stacked cartons of cigarettes with fork lift trucks and earned a dollar an hour, the hours were flexible and we decided to work from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. so that we could report to the navy office (and collect our four and a half dollars a day subsistence money) before we went to work. Also that day we also got roped in to play football on the Saturday for a naval team against a local eleven.
We only lasted a couple of days at the tobacco warehouse as the work was pretty hard and the weather was hot, we also had quite a bit of money now so we decided to enjoy ourselves for a while. We had a couple of good days sightseeing and attended a dance at the Embassy where we met a lot of locals and the rest of our football team. We discovered another club which made us welcome- this was the 365 club on Market Street, we used that and The Pub and the Olympic Club the rest of our time in Frisco.
The football match on the Saturday went down well with a surprisingly large crowd turning up, we won easily as the local team hadn't much idea but were very enthusiastic, after the match it was another party which we all enjoyed, in fact life was great in San Francisco.
After about a week of enjoyment we decided to have another go at working. We were not hard up, we were collecting our four and a half dollars a day and really we were spending very little but a job would give us a bit of interest. On one occasion we decided to give blood at a local hospital, this turned out to be an afternoon out, after giving the blood we were taken into the hospital dining room and given a good meal which was followed by drinks- whisky, rum etc, and a couple of hours talking. On our way back to our lodge that evening we were on the trolley down Market Street to Fishermans Wharf, when a lady passenger asked me if I came from Newcastle, when I told her I was from Middlesbrough she was over the moon and asked about various places in the Boro. As she got off the train she handed me an envelope saying it contained her address and asked us to visit her. When we got off the tram I opened the envelope and there was an address in Oakland and a ten dollar bill saying she hoped we would enjoy a treat on her while we where in Frisco.
We got another job from the G.I Job Bureau the next day, this was more in my line, it was in a bomb factory and the boss asked us (there were three of us) if any of us could spot weld, I said yes as I had seen it done and I knew there was nothing to it. Anyway I finished up spot welding bomb fins together and my two mates were fetching the plates to me on flat-carts and taking away the finished bomb fins. We were all paid the same rate - a dollar an hour - and we again worked ten till six calling in at the Navy office every morning. The working conditions were very good compared to what I was used to in England, there were wall machines where you could get a cup of coffee or a drink of Pepsi for a nickel, also a handful of nuts for a cent, you had to keep production moving of course, but the atmosphere was very relaxed. We got paid at the end of every shift when we went for a slap up meal and a drink before going back to the lodge.
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