MainLine - San Francisco Firefighters Local 798

Memories from the AlleyAmanda and LatrinaBy: Jim LyonsIn the city of San Francisco, especially inthe rundown areas, every company andambulance rig have people called “frequentfliers”., people taken to SF Generalor Detox some weekly, most daily. In myexperience they show up one day andyou see them for a year or two, and thenthey disappear. These people usually fallinto a set pattern, many suffer from asthmaor emphysema, or seizures from theoveruse of alcohol or their seizure medshave been lost or stolen.A couple that come to mind in my daysat Rescue One are Amanda Meyers andLatrina Gomez.Amanda was a large lady who wore amuumuu all the time and had a very badcase of emphysema. She liked to phone911 around 3 or 4 in the morning to reporther shortness of breath.What was really amazing about her wasthat she would be in a different SRO hotelevery couple of weeks. We saw her in theRose, the Pontiac, the Ambassador, Deltaand Baldwin. Her rooms all had a welllived look and they all included her oxygentank, several empty inhalers and anold Chevy hub cap that was loaded withcigarette butts.When we walked in the door she wouldtell us she needed her alupent as she tookanother drag on her Pall Mall. We wouldexplain that we didn’t carry inhalers butthe ambulance guys would be here soonand give her an alupent treatment.The funny thing is, when the paramedicsarrived, they would put out her everpresentcigarette and she would get angry.On the day after the Loma Prieta earthequakein 1989, we got a call to MosconeCenter for shortness of breath. Mosconewas loaded with displaced people fromthe earthquake and it is probably 4 or 5acres in size. It was tough enough to findanyone or anything during regular times,nevermind as an earthquake shelter. Ifyou ask anyone who worked those daysafter the earthquake, it was pretty stressful.We happened on someone who knewwhere the victim was and he directed usto a room somewhere in the bowels ofthis place We walked in and met a doctorwho was trying to get her a lift to SF General.I took one look at Amanda and said“you have to be s**ting me.”The doc looked at me and said “Do youknow her?”“Yeah, From the Delta, Rose and 10 otherhotels.”He said, “OK, you guys get out of here.”We said thanks and left.We never saw Amanda again and rumoraround the street was that she wound upat Laguna Honda. I think 20 Engine or 39Engine or whoever is first due at LagunaHonda Hospital doubled their calls.The first time I met Latrina Gomez was infront of the Alcoholics Anonymous Officeon the 200 block of Eddy Street acrossfrom Boedecker Park. We got the call asa possible childbirth but when we got onthe scene we found out that it wasn’t achildbirth, but that Latrina who was obviouslypregnant had been kicked in thestomach by one of her boyfriends. Theambulance guys assured Latrina she wasfine and took her out to SF General just tobe sure. The one thing that was differentabout Latrina was she was only 3 feet tall.Yes, a pregnant midget.Responding to or returning from alarms,I would see her in a doorway drinking herCisco or Wild Irish Rose, wearing a verysmall Raider’s varsity jacket, yucking it upwith her friends- all men who looked likethey just got out of Pelican Bay prison.Sometimes she looked pregnant andother times not. We had her as a seizurevictim at Original Joe’s on Taylor, at BoedeckerPark and also at county jail at 850Bryant. We would see her almost dailyaround the Eddy Street corridor.One night we got a call to one of the liquorstores that fronts as a grocery storeon Ellis Street. There was a tall black manin the rear of the store who was bleedingaround his knee area. I asked him whathad happened and he said his girlfriendwas very short and that was as far as shecould reach. We asked if it was Latrina.He said, “Yeah, but I don’t want to pressno charges.” The ambulance guys hadtaken charge by then and as we wereleaving this guy says, “If you see Shorty,tell her that Oakwood loves her.”After work one morning I was headingout to the Richmond District to see myparents. Going up the 200 block of Turk Isaw Latrina in a doorway with her roughlooking friends and a bottle of Cisco, alsovery pregnant. I thought God, this galsure gets around.When I got to Park Presidio and Balboa,I saw a very small person hitch-hikingtowards Marin. I copped a right and itwas another Latrina- not pregnant. Thatsolved the mystery, there were twinmidget winos, Latrina and her identicaltwin sister Toiletta.Only in the Tenderloin, kids. Only in theTenderloin.34 Main Line www.sffdlocal798.org