I still remember my jaw dropping at the sight of the Golden Gate Bridge. I was maybe 5 or 6 years old and my dad had taken us (us being me and my brother and sisters) to Fort Point, which offers a unique, underside vantage of the immense, gold-red structure. With the waves crashing, the ominous Fort looming, and the Golden Gate spanning the great body of water between San Francisco and the Marin Headlands above me, I was overcome by awe.
This feeling was magnified by the story my father related: He was born in 1925, the Bridge was completed in 1937. Age 7 when construction on the bridge commenced, he’d spent much of his youth riding his bike from his home in the Sunset District to Fort Point to watch the actual construction of the bridge. He knew how ambitious and dangerous a job its building was in real time. Those men were heroes to him like he was to me. Looking up at the great expanse today, I can’t say I feel that differently. The Bridge is so San Francisco, it’s a symbol of the possibility of the West and it’s a part of my family history. Today is its 75th Anniversary. Happy Birthday Golden Gate!
Deborah Crooks (www.DeborahCrooks.com) is a writer, performing songwriter and recording artist based in San Francisco whose lyric driven and soul-wise music has drawn comparison to Lucinda Williams, Chrissie Hynde and Natalie Merchant.
Singing about faith, love and loss, her lyrics are honed by a lifetime of writing and world travel while her music draws on folk, rock, Americana and the blues. She released her first EP “5 Acres” in 2003 produced by Roberta Donnay, which caught the attention of Rocker Girl Magazine, selecting it for the RockerGirl Discoveries Cd. In 2007, she teamed up with local producer Ben Bernstein to complete “Turn It All Red” Ep, followed by 2008’s “Adding Water to the Ashes” CD, and a second full-length CD “2010. She’s currently working on a third CD to be released in 2013.
Deborah’s many performance credits include an appearance at the 2006 Millennium Music Conference, the RockerGirl Magazine Music Convention, IndieGrrl, at several of the Annual Invasion of the GoGirls at SXSW in Austin, TX, the Harmony Festival and 2009’s California Music Fest, MacWorld 2010, Far West Fest and many other venues and events. She toured the Northwest as part “Indie Abundance Music, Money & Mindfulness” (2009) with two other Bay Area artists, and followed up with “The Great Idea Tour of the Southwest in March 2010 with Jean Mazzei.
