C A S T R O    S C E N E    # 7 " E X H I B I T I O N I S T S " On any warm sunny afternoon of the week back in the 70's, the sidewalks of Castro Street always had a near capacity crowd. It sometimes appeared that nobody in the Castro held a 9 to 5 job! There were so many reasons to be on Castro in the afternoon; having lunch, doing laundry, banking, shopping for hardware or clothes or dinner, catching a bus, having a cocktail with friends, or just plain cruising! The people who lived in the 2nd and 3rd floor apartments above the stores on Castro had a ringside seat for watching the constant parade below. They also had a stage, if desired, to perform for the captive audience. Sometimes the amateur performers would drag their stereo speakers to the windows to entertain the crowd below. Sometimes a crowd would gather in the street and encourage the overhead watchers to put on a performance. Sometimes the crowd would start dancing in the street. This would attract more of a crowd , completely blocking traffic and a spontaneous block party would begin. There was nothing in particular happening on this sunny afternoon. If it had been a street fair or other festive event, the private seating areas would have looked much more like in the next picture. PREVIOUS    NEXT INDEX This page created October 27, 2000 and modified October 27, 2000 • Text and Graphics © 1979 - 2000 • UD Graphics • San Francisco • Permission to copy images is granted only for non-commercial, non-profit use.