It was twenty years ago that Jeff Yuan immigrated to San Francisco from Guang Zhou in the southern part of China near Hong Kong. At that time, he had a great deal of interest in computers but there were some obstacles.

“Before I left, computers were not that popular in China. We had old IBM computers.”

Shortly after Jeff’s arrival in San Francisco, he began a computer training program at Heald College, just as the high tech industry was beginning its boom. This piqued Jeff’s curiosity and intellect and he quickly became proficient in programming, computer repairs and implementing network systems.

Fourteen years ago, Jeff and his silent business partner launched NEWDIGIT Computer Shop on Irving Street. Jeff enjoys his work, the friendliness of the neighborhood and a challenge.

“If I can fix something, I can help people. I keep learning from different computer problems. I like to play with computers and I use my knowledge to serve people.”

This past January, I upgraded from a clunky antiquated desktop to a slim and sleek lap top. But I was scared. Jeff transferred three years of my short stories and gave me the disc. I looked at the disc, amazed that all my stories were there and put the disc aside. I figured, I’d save the transfer process for an idle Saturday afternoon but I was still scared.

Two months later, I inserted the disc and it was blank. I returned to NEWDIGIT with my blank disc. I flailed my arms in panic and hysteria. This was my Memoir. Jeff has the ability to remain exceedingly calm. Jeff placed the disc in several different computers and still the disc was blank.

My heartbeat could be heard and I began to sweat.

“Leave it here and I’ll see what I can do.”

I became more fearful.

An hour later, Jeff knocked on my door and said,

“All your documents are here.”

He handed me another disc. Apparently the disc was extremely sensitive. All the new computers were unable to read the disc. Jeff put the disc into one of his oldest computers. The disc could be read and he burned another copy.

“It was a compatibility issue. The hardware was different.”

He seems to truly enjoy tinkering and exploration.

I was profoundly grateful and exuberant. My decibel could match a lottery winner or at least a Publisher’s Clearing House winner.

Jeff is a quiet and modest man.

“I do my best.”

Other business owners have offered him advice.

“People have said I could charge more than I do. Other computer repair shops charge $150 to clean up a virus. I charge less than $100. I like our neighborhood and want to keep my prices reasonable. I want people to be comfortable and solve their problems.”

I have been comforted.

NEXT WEEK: I’LL INTRODUCE YOU TO ALYSON FROM ARCHANGEL BOOKS.

 

As a little girl in San Francisco, Jane Anne Sullivan would dance in her living room with her four sisters while listening to the Victrola.

“We always pretended we were on a stage.”

She fondly remembers George Cohan’s movie, YANKEE DOODLE DANDY, while she breaks into spontaneous song on this crisp October afternoon in her garden just off Funston Avenue. We can hear the birds chirping, a few butterflies flitter and a squirrel darts into the next yard.

Jane Anne is the mother of eight children and being the oldest of eight, I know that family dynamic can lend itself to in-house theatre without the curtain. Jane Anne had her first child at twenty-one and her eighth child at forty-eight. She became a mother and a grandmother simultaneously. In fact, her youngest daughter, Rose Magdalene, was an Aunt eight times before she was born. The number eight figures prominently in the Sullivan household.

When Jane Anne’s first four children were small, she and her husband Terry opened up their backyard to all neighborhood children for a production of the song, The Fox. The admission requirement was a penny or a button. Again Jane Anne sings melodiously,

“The fox went out on a windy night-prayed for the moon to give him light.”

It was many years later when Jane Anne was working part-time for Amway and making presentations in people’s homes.

“I went to this house and this mother said to her four year old daughter,

“Do you want to sing for the nice lady?”

“This little girl got onto the fireplace step and sang and sang. I asked her, where she learned to sing like that and she said,’ I’m in the Sunshine Band.’

Jane Anne approached the Monsignor at St. Anne’s with her sunshine idea and on Wednesday afternoon’s was given a room so that her children, grandchildren and neighborhood children could sing, and their Sunshine Band began.

“They were all little, three and four year olds and couldn’t read. So I’d teach the children sing-along songs, Let Me Call you Sweetheart, When You Wore A Tulip, A Big Yellow Tulip and I Wore A Big Red Rose, It’s A Grand Old Flag and the classic Christmas Carols, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, 12 days of Christmas, Silent Night.”

After washing the dinner dishes Jane learned these songs as a child around the piano with her parents and siblings. She was one of seven children.

“You know there was no T.V. in those days and we sang. That’s what I loved about my childhood. It was simple that way. We had more pretend time.”

Pretend time is precisely what Jane Anne wants to give to children today.

Jane Anne explains how her endeavor blossomed.

“In the early days, the Sunshine Band performed at the Christmas show and fashion shows at St. Anne’s church. I was approached from a representative from C.Y.O. (Catholic Youth Organization) asking if I’d like to take my program across the city like Sports programs.”

It was then that Jane Anne and her daughter Noel designed a day camp for kids, to sing, to dance to act. Kid. Stock Inc. was born and has broadened.

Initially, my daughter taught singing, I taught dancing and my daughter’s friend taught drama. We got other people to help with costumes and art.”

Today, they have nine theatre day camps in the Bay area.

“It’s a full program with five adults teaching to every fifty kids and five teenage assistants.”

The summer camp gave way to an in-school and after school programs with a small team. Jane Anne spends much of the year searching for funding and arranges neighborhood garage sales to benefit the nonprofit- Kid Stock, Inc.

How has she seen her program transform a child?

“Often, you see a shy child and when they learn their lines or the words to a song, they become ten feet tall. They glow. I see children new to this country, just learning English. I watch as they become confident.”

Jane Anne likes the neighborhood.

“Our house is on a corner, its quiet, across from a Public School and a few blocks from church.”

Now, that her children are grown, Jane Anne and her husband Terry open their home and host foreign exchange students that come and go throughout the year.

Tell me about motherhood.

“I wasn’t the kind of mother that was dusting. I was on the floor with the kids.”

And a Grandmother to nineteen?

“That’s even more fun.”

Her grandchildren range in age from five to twenty-seven.

Who inspires Jane Anne Sullivan?

“My family. I’m a staunch believer and my husband Terry believes in me. He’s always there for me.”

And I can hear those lyrics from, FOR ME AND MY GAL,

“When you wore a tulip, a big yellow tulip and I wore a big red rose. When you caressed me, ‘twas then Heaven blessed me, what a blessing no one knows.”

NEXT WEEK : MEET COMPUTER GENIUS: JEFF FROM NEW DIGIT COMPUTERS.

It was back in February when Barbara Oleksiw was inspired by Barak Obama’s message and slogan. And she painted her garage door with those very words.

“It was a spontaneous thing and I went and got some red paint.”

I’ve walked by this garage door many times these past nine months, and these three positive words have given birth to something much larger. There were cloudy days and sunny days both on the street and on the streetcar, when those affirmative words reminded me, as they now have shown our country, that, “Yes We Can.”

I tell Barbara on this night before the election, what her sign has meant to me. That people do care. People do take a stand. Change is possible, and now one day later, it is a reality.

There is so much emotion and passion. Barbara reveals some of the neighborhood response to her garage door.

“People have been highly supportive. It’s been a tremendous catalyst for conversation. The man across the street has told me he has seen people propose and get married in front of the sign.”

Barbara and her partner, Paul purchased their home on 6^th and Irving Street just eighteen months ago.

This past summer I saw the sign welcoming neighbors into their yard to convene for the Summer Solstice. I would be out of town that evening and was unable to attend.

“This backyard has been blocked for thirty years by the previous owner. We bought the house and opened up the gates. We’re lucky enough to have a big backyard. It’s our way of bringing life; in essence it’s our way of sharing our backyard. There’s no reason to keep it private. It’s much more fun to make it public.”

Barbara and Paul have done exactly that, but I think rather than a public invitation their neighborhood gatherings are intimate. Barbara tells me about their events.

“We’ve had two Halloween’s, with a haunted house, a Summer Solstice, with dessert and dancing. People brought dessert and we had a simple band. We had a Happy Now Year, (between Christmas and New Year’s,) and a Flea Market with fifteen families. We gave out ice-cream.”

Do they advertise?

“We put a sign on the garage door.”

Paul gives further explanation,

“The N Judah stops in front of the house and every twenty minutes there’s lots of people walking by.”

The first time they brought their neighbors together, Barbara and Paul rented thirty chairs. After a few events Barbara did some searching.

“Now, we have fifty folding chairs that we bought from Craig’s list for $2.00 each.”

These simple gatherings strengthen the bonds of this community. Barbara is a bit more modest.

“In all fairness, the neighborhood exists. This is just a very simple technique to bring people together. What happens after that is up to the people who spark off each other.”

And people have come together. There were thirty volunteers for Halloween. For the various events, neighbors have come to their door with brownies, wine, cookies. One neighbor couldn’t attend one of the gatherings, but she wanted to support Barbara and Paul and dropped off two huge homemade pies. Another neighbor showed up with a piece of carpet as a make shift dance floor for Summer Solstice.

“The backyard has a built in barbecue. We can use it as a barbecue or a staging to put all the desserts. One time another neighbor made the barbecue pretty with fabric, candles and stacked up the desserts. It was charming.”

This is a unique invitation.

They are both a little uncomfortable with this attention. Barbara reminds me,

“It’s not hard to open up your gate.”

And thru their gates, they have welcomed city officials as well as some homeless park dwellers.

“Some smell of cologne and some smell of life.”

I am happy on this day to have neighbors like Barbara and Paul, and to have President Barak Obama as our 44^th President of the United States of America. In quoting our next leader,

“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible…”

 

NEXT WEEK: AS PROMISED A FEW WEEKS AGO, YOU WILL BE INTRODUCED TO JANE ANNE, DIRECTOR KID’S STOCK, INC

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This week I am not in my neighborhood.

I made a decision to visit my sister and nephew in St. Croix, and three days after I bought my ticket, the tropical storm Omar had upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane and St. Croix took a hit, with torrential rains, howling winds and uncertainity. Phone lines were down, and initially I couldn't contact them and was scared. Many trees and utility poles were destroyed and they were without power and water. My sister described the sound of the storm. 

"It sounded like a hundred people were outside whistling."

Long before dawn the winds escalated to 128 mph.

I thought I should cancel my trip, as I lived in St. Croix from 1995-1998 and remembered both Hurricane Luis and Marilyn and living without power for a couple of months.  And the mosquitoes.

Fortunately, my friend Ann reminded me the importance of family and I heard her. 

This was exactly the time I was supposed to visit. We could be together and weather the aftermath of Omar.

Although we were without power, another power presented itself; kindness and humanity.

The generator was not functioning, and it looked like we might be in the dark heat of the night.

Butch from Green Cay Marina, brought over his generator, and those two nights we had two fans, a lamp, scrabble and laughter. 

Late into the night when the generator needed re-fueling, my sister nor I could turn the choke and pull the chord to activate the generator, but my fourteen year old nephew, Bill could pull it just the right way. On Monday the sight of the cobalt blue WAPA(Water and Power Authority) truck on our road was cause for celebration and in a few hours the beep, the smile, the wave.

"Yes, we have power!"

Later that afternoon Butch wanted us to have access to the cistern as it had a cement cover. He sawed a square area, and we were now able to  get water to flush the toilet and hose our bodies.

 Yesterday, Norm the Plumber, repaired the water pump and we could now shower.

He also told a story of his grandparents in Maine who hauled water everyday of their lives all year long. Often,we take so much for granted.

I am grateful for the people that show up in my life and walk with integrity and that circle continues to expand.

NEXT WEEK: IT'S A MYSTERY AT THIS POINT.