THE MOST THANKFUL MISS JO HAS EVER BEEN WAS IN 2005 AND HER first Thanksgiving in the City by the Bay.
The holiday marked six months since she, Jeff, and her mom, June, moved into their first San Francisco rental, a house on Turk Street with an exterior that actually looked like a castle, across from the University of San Francisco’s Lone Mountain campus. After so much hard work getting to San Francisco, and all the worries that come with a transcontinental move, it was a beautiful place to make a home and refuge.
Found on Craigslist, the attached three-bedroom built in 1938, left, had an interior atrium. Importantly, there was a locked gate leading to the sidewalk and a fenced-in back yard with no access.
Then 85, June suffered from Alzheimer’s, which gave her a garrulous personality that made her want to go places. Even inside, she carried her black Coach purse under her right arm and black leather gloves in hand, like she was still a Pan Am flight attendant in 1940s SF ready for her next trip across the Pacific.
Previously in Washington, D.C., where she lived in the condo next door to Miss Jo and Jeff, she brought home a street person, whom Jeff had to throw out and for weeks kept calling.
In SF, June could move about the house in her weird world without much supervision and the chance of walking out the front door and hopping on the Balboa 31 for downtown. Moreover, the city and Bay Area offered extensive, publicly available and affordable elder care services like full-time Alzheimer’s day care for people in June’s condition who benefit from social interaction. Nothing of that extent had been available in the nation’s capital.
For that first Thanksgiving in SF, Jeff whupped up a tasty Haitian turkey with a spicy adobo rub, and Miss Jo got out June’s decades-old pie plates.
Her mom had been the queen of pies, always looking to perfect her already perfect flaky crust. To Miss Jo, her mom’s pies were Thanksgiving and Christmas, never mind what else was served.
Ever since that first San Francisco TG, Miss Jo has gone pie crazy.
Today, for their fifth in SF, she made four pies— two pecan and two ginger-chile sweet potato.
Although she’s not ready to start competing like the city’s cupcake chefs, she’s close.
Photos by Miss Jo
3 Comments
“Queen of pies.” That’s so nice! It’s wonderful that you’ve picked up on the tradition. Jo’s Mail Order Pies. I can see it now.
Wow! Are y’all gonna eat all those P-I-Es, or did you have a whole gaggle of folks over? We served cherry and pecan…and I walked 5 miles today to atone!
I will only bring one pie plate to SF. I usually buy ready made crusts at Whole Foods so don’t need too many pans even though I am quite the pie maker. There are a pile of Meyer lemons, brought by the kids from their backyard tree in San Mateo, calling out to me to put them in a pie.