Nice photos of an area I knew well. The first place my first wife and I lived in was a studio apartment in a basement flat my uncle owned at 3033 Market St, just south of the Eureka St. station. That was from Dec 1966 to about May 1967. Back then the area was kinda run down, but a couple of years after we moved to Daly City a lot of money was poured in from the gay community in purchasing and fixing up properties.

At the corner of Market & Castro was (and I think still is) the K-L-M barber shop; named after the streetcar lines that use the tunnel. I used to get my haircuts there from the owner, whose name I can't remember. His family was interesting. He had four sons.. and they all became barbers. Two brothers (Tony and Bill) opened there own shop near 39th & Noriega. When my wife and I moved to within a half block of their shop, that's where I got my haircuts.

Jump ahead a couple of years when we moved to Half Moon Bay, CA. After my divorce I stopped at their shop and it was some other kind of business. The proprietor informed me that the brothers moved to a new and bigger location between 19th & 20th on Noriega. I went there and saw Tony. I asked him where Bill was and he said he opened his own store in San Mateo.

In 1980 I moved to San Mateo (actually about 100 yards from Espee's Hayward Park station). Just down the block was Bill's barber shop. Actually it was Bill that told me this apartment was available and that's how I got it.

After getting remarried in 1983 I lost contact as we were living in Santa Cruz; eventually retiring in 1994 and moving to Oregon. When my mom was dying in 2003 I stayed with them at their house near 31st & Noriega. After my mom passed away my dad and I went to Tony's barber shop and he still remembered me after all these years. Last time I heard Bill moved his shop back closer to San Francisco. All this started with the K-L-M barber shop.