Jim Swan, a long-time resident of Sonoma County (51 years
to be exact), mentioned the other day that his car was the
third one to cross the Golden Gate Bridge when it officially
opened. He was living in Sebastopol at the time and working
on various ranches in the area (he had recently moved from
his home state of Missouri to seek a job here). Jim de­cided
it would be fun to see the Bridge and perhaps cross
it, so, on his only day off for the week, persuaded a couple
of friends to go with him. They left Sebastopol before the
crows were up and proceeded to Marin, where they took the
ferry across the Bay. The other side was already teeming
with excitment as people gathered to see the VIPs and cross
the Bridge by foot or car. By late morning, the caravan got
underway. First, came the motorcycle police, followed by car, another official's vehicle, and
then Jim, as calm as he always is, just pulled in back of
that car, becoming the third vehicle to ever cross the Golden
Gate Bridge! I asked him how he felt, and he said, "The
Bridge was so high up and so long. I thought, with all the
cars on it at one time, it would surely fall in!"
FYI: Jim Swan has worked on farms in the Sebastopol area
(where he still lives), as well as dairies in Bodega Bay,
Valley Ford and last, in Tomales, where we now reside. In
fact, he milked cows right in the very room which is now my
living room (in a recently-converted 1950 dairy barn)!!!
He is a wonderful person, filled with interested stories of
his 76 years, still works six days a week doing gardening
and can run circles around all of us! Hope you can find
room to get some of it in your column. And, thanks for
running the item on Kazemini. We all appreciated it.