Walking daily from our house to downtown Sausalito is different now. Before the pandemic, ice cream scoopers, souvenir store clerks, and coffee barristers would get ready for the next Hop On, Hop Off bus load of tourists to enjoy this little sightseers’ destination just north of the Golden Gate. But today the little town is empty.
I read that many stores in San Francisco Union Square have boarded up their store fronts with plywood as if a hurricane was coming. Perhaps the fear of a hurricane of desperate people. But in Sausalito, while every store front still has its glass displays ready to welcome the next busload of tourists, there’s a “We Are Closed” sign on the door.
When I keep my head down on my walk, I would often find loose coins on the sidewalk like raining “Pennies from Heaven” as sung by James Taylor in his new album American Standard. I would pick up coins including pennies because when I pick up 100 of them, I would have a dollar. Today, with no tourists, I haven’t picked up a penny in weeks.
Before the pandemic one morning, I saw an African American man wearing a Temple University sweatshirt. I should have intruded to welcome him to Sausalito since I attended the school in the 1980s but I didn’t. I wished I did since that morning. I second-guessed what I would have come across to him. Now I wish I had the courage to offer hospitality. I wonder how much more enjoyable his visit would have been if I had shared a friendly welcome.
Tourists will eventually return to our little town. The businesses will be ready to sell hamburgers, ice cream and foods from around the world. I’ll be ready to pick up pennies from heaven. And I swear I will welcome everyone to our town and especially the man with the Temple sweatshirt.