Back in June, I told you about 7×7 magazine’s contest that invited SF locals to write love letters to their neighborhood. The inner and outer Richmond received some great entries.
This week, 7×7’s first-ever neighborhoods issue hit the newstands. Below is the winning love letter for the Richmond District. Congratulations to author and Richmond romantic, Carol Weinstein.
I can’t believe I’m actually writing this to you—I mean, we’ve been together so long, and we never say it to each other. My family has been with you for more than 80 years, and you and me, we’ve got our own long-term relationship: 46 years so far. What is that? You say I was gone for 17 of those years? True, but I never really left you behind. The strings you had attached to my heart just became taut with the distance. When I came home, I was still trying to avoid looking into your salty, foggy face. I tried to move to the Mission. I see you getting overcast on me. Look, the Mission is hot and spicy, and you know I love hot and spicy. Of course, everyone wanted the hot and spicy Mission. I got lost in the sunny streets and crowds of hipster transplants, and stumbled back into your windy avenues like a sleepwalker. When we were kids, bodysurfing off China Beach, we swam out into the waves and then gave in, letting them pull us back to the sand. We climbed out onto the beach, breathless and blue-lipped from the cold, only to turn around and run back into the water. We only ran back in because we had unquestioning faith that we would once again be returned to shore. Just like I know that you will always pull me back to your hills and wind and 5 p.m. fog. I know that you’ll never let me go, because you love me and I love you. There. I said it.
Sarah B.
