For a number of years I wasted hundreds of man hours in the chess room at the Mechanics Institute. Those were the salad days when I had a sense of humor. A very eclectic bunch of folks frequented that room, and too many of them have since died. There were Elderly Russian gentlemen who had actually fled the revolution with their parents to Shanghai. And the Russians were SO funny. There were tugboat crewmen, 10 & 12 year olds who’d skip school to be there, along with high toned professional people. Caspar Weinberger would hang out there, and great chess masters passed through the place like migrating birds. The air in the room was blue with cigarette, pipe and cigar smoke. The room would close at 10 PM, whereupon many of us would walk to North Beach or Clown Alley where those with money would pitch in to feed those without. Happy memories from a bygone age.