People do some strange things on the public bus

When I was little and living in S.F., the cable cars and the public buses were the usual modes of  transportation for longer distances. Fairs were virtually non-existent back then - they were very low and affordable by us poor kids. We walked a lot too. Those steep hills were nothing for energetic, little legs. Can't say the same for the effects those streets had on my mother's legs (and heart and lungs) though. 

I remember moving about small sections of the city, usually around where I lived, quite freely and often alone. My parents did not impress upon me the potential dangers of walking alone (other than traffic) on the streets during the day. Could they not bother? It was more like they didn't know what us kids were up to.

I'm not sure I'd be comfortable having a young daughter traipsing around S.F. in this day and age the way I did when I was very young.

A cousin and I used to move about S.F. on our own very often. She was one year older than I. We two would walk around Fisherman's Wharf, Russian Hill, Chinatown, Nob Hill, North Beach, downtown or visit parks where there were swings, such as Helen Wells park on Broadway and Larkin Street. If one of her older brothers were around, we might take the bus to locales a little further or less-visited, such as the park on Funston (Funston Park?).

Cousin and I often took the Geary bus to the home of our Aunt in the Richmond. Sometimes we'd stay overnight at the spur of the moment. The only interesting things at the house were  the wide open spaces of the small house, the garage and backyard. Aunt used to enlist us to mow the lawn in the backyard, which consisted mostly of weeds, using a manual lawn mower which was an animal we never could tame. I think the tediousness of life at home wasn't enough to keep me from spending hours with the Aunt who always called me "dumb." Not very nice.

On one of these trips when I was 7 or 8, cousin and I were returning from Aunt's house to downtown on the Geary line. We sat near the rear of the bus. A couple of young men (probably in their 20s) got up to get ready to disembark. I noticed they had their arms around each other's waists. That was certainly a curious thing to me. Then one guy reached his hand down and pinched the other guy's butt cheek and then they performed a quick kiss on the lips. That really made me go "Huh?"

I recall asking turning to my cousin and asking her in taishan (I was clever enough to not speak English) why these guys were doing what they were doing. She just told me to be quiet as she kept her glance diverted. I think I was thinking, "Um, gwei los (Caucasians) do some strange things."