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| Doris Osenda was born at home in 1924 in a house near 16th and Castro
Streets. “In those days if you went to the hospital, it was because you
were dying,” Doris told us referring to her birth. The house “was
in the middle of the city but...we were like in the country because right
on top of 16th the pavement ended and…we had big Rocky Hill in the back
of us.” Rocky Hill is better known today as Corona Heights.
The house still exists, but houses built around it have blocked the view Doris saw from the back porch. “We could see the whole city from the downtown, down the Mission, and in the back was Twin Peaks. And it was all clear. The only thing you couldn’t see was the Golden Gate because Rocky Hill was in the way. So I actually saw the Bay Bridge being built daily because we had this gorgeous view of the whole city.” A movie fan from an early age, Doris was a regular visitor to the Castro Theatre, her neighborhood movie house. “Oh, that movie Over the Hill to the Poorhouse [1931]. Oh! To this day I still see that poor woman in the dark. And of course the one that really made me cry was Sonny Boy [1929], when Al Jolson sang “Climb upon my knee, Sonny Boy,” and the little boy runs across the street and he gets killed. That’s when my mother had to take me out of the show, I was sobbing so much.” Doris also loved the Saturday serials, especially those with her favorite, the western star Buck Jones. “I didn’t care for too many of the women—it was just all mushy stuff.” Classical music was also part of her life and we have seen Doris flutter her eyelids when she mentions Placido Domingo or Ezio Pinza. “We always had a phonograph with operatic records—big old 78s,” reported Doris. “I grew up with opera…so I started going to the opera with my mother and sister when I was in my teens, I guess. And ballet, I love ballet. I like football, baseball, so I have a wide variety of things that I like.” “San Francisco was always a city, naturally, but it was like a big town,” remarked Doris as she spoke of the changes she has seen. “Then the [Second World] War began and all the changes—with other people coming in to work in the area, and then a lot of our people, young men, leaving and not coming back, a lot of them. Then, of course, there were a lot of men…from other parts of the United States, but they liked it so much they all came out here. So after the war, that’s when we became a big city.” “But life was very simple then. And kids were kids. That’s another thing, a lot of time now, these young people...get so stressed out. And I think it’s just the times and the media making them more aware of what the problems are. But see, when I grew up we stayed kids, children, small…and I don’t think [today’s] children are any smarter than we were, it’s just that they’re more aware of things. But we grew up letting the adults worry about the problems of the world; then by the time we became adults we were able to take things more than some of these young kids, you know what I mean? Some of these young kids...get stressed out because I don’t think they’re old enough to cope whereas we just grew up and, by the time we were older, we were able to cope better. But of course, like I said, life was real simple then. It’s not like now.” Doris worked in management at Pacific Bell for 41 years. After she retired, being an avid reader, she began volunteering at the Library, shelving books, handing out surveys and finally brightening Project Read’s office on a weekly basis helping with clerical tasks. She believes it’s important for older people to be around young people. “I think your mind stays kind of fresh,” she went on to say. “You have to have young people around. So I’m enjoying it and I’m very flattered that you’re thinking of me, to make a profile on me. So I hope I’ll be around for a long time.” We hope so too. |