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May's Coffee Shop

	After For Heaven's Cake gave way to Balazo Tacqueria, I needed a new place to light. Located at 1419 Haight Street (at Masonic Avenue) in San Francisco, the People's Café is right around the corner from my house on Waller Street.
It's here that Matt, the short-order cook (pictured here in full regalia), used to preside over the morning ritual of a caffé latte, toasted poppyseed bagel with cream cheese, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Matt no longer works at the café having begun (in February 1995) a trek back to the woods of New Hampshire, the scene of his up-bringing. We miss Matt.
The café is a cross-roads of sorts: we meet people who are on their way to somewhere else, stopping only for a cup of coffee (or several years). The tales of distant lands that we hear about from travellers are mostly responsible for our own purchase of plane tickets. Many an address is exchanged, with the caveat "if you're ever in ... be sure and look me up. You've got a place to stay."
	Another traveller that we remember fondly is Harvey Parsons, a contractor who's returned (in February 1995) to the ancestral home in Columbus, Texas. Harvey spent many years in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, and has entertained us for hours with stories of the flower children, music, and drugs of the Summer of Love.
Who is this "we" I'm constantly referring to? Well, an ever-changing collection of 49ers fans, lawyers for the people, computer geeks, aging hippie activists, café hangers-on, and more. As I dig the video camera out I'll add more photos and stories.
Ahkbar, one of the co-owners. Combees, the other co-owner, is also a computer industry manager and a practicing equestrian veteranarian.
	From the outside, on Haight Street, looking in. This is a view you'll see again if you check out an interview of me that appeared in ECIFFO magazine in Japan.
	Many, many times I stood on this side of the counter, waiting to order a caffèe latte or a salad or a toasted bagel with cream cheese.