Interviewee: Tina Pastori (TP) Interviewer: Brian Williams (BW) Date of Interview: January 16, 1988 In the first excerpt, Tina Pastori (of Pastori’s Restaurant & Resort in Fairfax) tells how the fires in San Francisco illuminated Marin County. In the second excerpt, Tina recounts how her family welcomed eighty refugees from San Francisco to Pastori’s Restaurant & Resort in Fairfax. Audio Clip from the Interview: Transcript 1 (59 seconds) Audio Clip from the Interview: Transcript 2 (2 minutes 10 seconds)

Transcript of Audio Clips

Transcript 1

TP: Well, the day drew on and we keep going. The quakes had stopped but once in a while, there was just a little tremor. And towards the evening, which was -- well, in April, it wasn’t a late evening -- around five thirty or six, the sky became very light. The later it became, the lighter the sky became. At ten o’clock at night -- I always remember this -- Mother and Dad read the newspaper out in the middle of the yard. And it was from the fire, not the quake, but the fire from San Francisco. It made a glow over that whole county, which I imagine is about thirty miles from San Francisco, over the mountains and hills. It was like a very late sunset, all night long.

Transcript 2

TP: So Dad -- in thinking it over and talking it over -- he made arrangements to get to San Francisco by tug boat, from Sausalito to San Francisco. Of course Dad must have been stunned; I don’t know. Dad said, “Well, how many are you in the family? How many do you want to come over?” They said, “Just a few of us, my children and my mother and father.” And you know, they were all Neapolitan, the lower classes, hard working people. And the next day, they came. How many do you think there were? Eighty!

BW: Eighty? 8-0?

TP: Eighty! 8-0! Children, an army of children, mothers ready to bear children, fathers, grandfathers, very old, old weeping people, scared to death. Well we had no room for accommodations, but they were smart, they brought tents. To me, it was like a circus. When I look back, I can see these white, big tents on the lawn and they put an awning over it. And of course it was in April. The weather was getting better. We didn’t have to worry about rain and all. And they thought they -- Dad had asked Torentino, and he said, “Well maybe in a week or so we can go back.” They didn’t know either. Know how long they were there? Three months!

BW: That’s wonderful.

TP: Babies were born. Mother got the family doctor to come in. He took care of the whole swab of them. They cried from the day they got there to the day they left. First was sorrow, nothing left. The end, with joy of knowing what Mother did for them. And they cooked with these big pots on the lawn -- looked like Oliver Twist -- and they’d ladle all the soup and stuff. That’s about what they ate: bread and soup, but they kept alive.


CONTACT: Laurie Thompson at ljthompson@co.marin.ca.us
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