Lost and Found in San Francisco

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My first view of San Francisco was from an Oakland ferry. Literally and figuratively, I was a babe in the woods and the City became a finishing school for the young man fresh from the weeds of East Texas where, unfortunately, he was born. In San Francisco, I began to shake the husk from my ears and the sand from my feet and to recognize that the only Texans one should know are those who escape. Firstly, I rejected all that I had been taught and commenced to recreate my self into the myth of my liking. I reveled in the arts, I learned to love opera, I learned to eat and to cook haute cuisine of many cultures. I learned, also, to luxuriate in the arms of many lovers. I was another version of Pygmalion and Baghdad by the Bay became my mentor. This book is not just my story, it is a take on all the lonely young men who came to the City in search of their nirvana. In this book, I have tried to give a taste of what it was like to live in San Francisco before the plague...better known as AIDS. Emmett Shields