The Overlook
(Jody Stecher/Vegetiboy Music BMI)
In the year 1900 the city of San Francisco decided to evict all dead bodies in order to use cemetery land for other purposes. The dead were shipped south to Colma and reburied. But the US Army refused to budge those buried in its Presidio cemetery, now the San Francisco National Cemetery. I recently discovered a serene spot that overlooks the cemetery and provides spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge, and the bay, and the hills beyond. Although the sound of traffic can be heard, the place is somehow silent anyway. Standing there one is suspended between earth, sky, and water and between life and death with thousands of bodies below and thousands of unseen beings above, as well as birds and the occasional fellow living human who has walked one of the several uphill trails to arrive there. The first time I found this spot I spied a FedEx truck on one of the roads within the cemetery itself. I had a good laugh about that as I wondered what was about to be delivered to which gravestone. I wondered if it would be a pizza. But— the driver had taken a wrong turn and soon worked out how to turn around and get to where he meant to be going to.
Jody Stecher: mandolin
Tashina Clarridge: fiddle
Tristan Clarridge: tenor guitar, cello.