(From Top Left, Ben Elkus, Charles Elkus, Jr., Ruth Elkus, Bob Elkus, Cordelia de Young Elkus.)
(From Top Left, Ben Elkus, Charles Elkus, Jr., Ruth Elkus, Bob Elkus, Cordelia de Young Elkus.)
Perhaps a small background of my family would be in order. My grandfather, Louis Elkus, came to the United States and went to San Francisco, where he met and married Cordelia de Young. She was born in the eastern United States and was brought West with a considerable number of sisters and brothers.
My father was born in 1881. He was the youngest of eight children, six boys and a girl, all born and raised in Sacramento, California. After surviving the many vissisitudes of existence in such an environment, he went to Stanford and then to Harvard.
At Harvard he met Tadini Bacigalupi. When these two graduated, they established the law firm of Bacigalupi & Elkus.
My maternal grandmother, Adeline Levy, was born and raised in San Francisco with two sisters. Her husband, Albert M. Salinger, was born to German parents on an American ship on the North Sea during his parents' journey to the New World. As far as I can recall, he had four brothers.
My mother was born in Oakland, the oldest of five children, three boys and two girls. She went to the University of California at Berkeley, where she became very proficient with a Smith and Wesson 5-shot .38 caliber revolver. She graduated with a degree in English.
She was at Cal when Tadini Bacigalupi was. Bach's girlfriend at Cal was Ruby Manassa of Modesto. Ruby's girlfriend was Ruth Salinger. Double dates were arranged and Ruby married Bach and Ruth married Charlie. And that's how it happened.
My parents spent their honeymoon at Tahoe in the Sierra Nevadas. On the last night of the honeymoon, there was a full moon. Pop suggested that they climb Mt. Tallac, a most romantic idea. Then he invited six or seven of his new-found friends along and they all climbed the mountain.
Our home was always in San Francisco, first an apartment at Cherry and California Streets, then a flat at 71 Sixth Avenue, then a house at 154 21st Avenue and finally a house at 1010 Francisco. During the time at the first two locations, three children were born, Charlie first, then Ruth, and then Ben. At 154 21st Avenue, Bob was born, and that completed the family.
My father was a calm, aware, and forward-looking man. He
planned all parts of his life meticulously and was careful not to want
more than he could get or do, and at the same time, to want enough so that
he was always working very nearly at capacity. As a consequence of this
ability, he was always able to be gracious, and to fit things in when the
occasion arose. One thing that bothered his children, and once in a while
his wife, was that he assumed everyone else in the world with whom he associated,
including his wife and his children, could do as much and as well as he.
It was wonderful to argue with him, to fight with him, to ask him questions
and to listen to him discuss things with his friends. It was a privilege
to have been so close to such a man.
Pop's interests were myriad. He was something of an expert on Shakespeare; he knew most of the names and positions of the Forty-Niner football team. He was very interested in politics and in social work, with particular interest in youth. In his later years he became an excellent horseback rider.
Mom
played the violin, took care of four children, the house, and her husband. She,
too, was interested in all things. She was active in civic affairs both in Sacramento
and San Francisco, was on the board of directors of the San Francisco League
of Women Voters, and was president of the Philomath Club, a group of politically
active and very influential women. She would try anything. She learned to ride
a horse, although she was never comfortable on one.