... ... ... ... Viv and Marion Brown ... ... ... ...

It feels like a forever ago that I remember seeing Viv and Marion Brown walking around Union Square or Market Street on somewhat of a daily basis. In this beginning, I was a bicycle messenger ... ( a very long time ago, when we were given a pocketful of dimes and designated telephone booth co-ordinates ... Anyone remember Speedy's Delivery on Pier # ...  ? ) . Then, with my first serious job ... and the one following that one ... I would see the twins everywhere that I would go ... or so it seemed. They were always happy and smiling ... and they were always together talking with anyone that would talk with them. And when I did happen to see just one of them alone, I remember that Viv told me how "Marion had a cold" ... and that "she was heading for their home ... sick, also". At first, I was perplexed and antagonized over their obvious closeness and their life-time committment to the each other ... ( what with my never really having anything near to what they were experiencing with each other) ... but as I began to mature,  I realized that such closeness means 'everything in this world' ... and that it is either fleeting or rare, if one is lucky at all to find closeness ... ( whether in twins or not ). That is exactly when I saw them as they really were ... as in this photograph that I have lifted somewhere from the Internet. I saw them as exceptional and beautiful and I would chat them up whenever I could find the time. They floored me ... each and every time. For me, they are a 'forever' memory for me, having lived in San Francisco since early 1969. 

 As I closely ... very closely .... advance their age, I remember seeing them as beautiful ... I still do.