“Back in 1944 you only needed 25 cents to go to Schwartz’s Ballroom, where we danced to live music all evening. I got my money’s worth because I never did sit out even one dance!” - Joyce Wilson-Neil

5. SHIFT CHANGE

   The daily adventure began at 5 a.m. for shipfitter Thelma Jensen and her daughter Norma, when they’d wake to catch a cable car to San Francisco’s ferry terminal. In overalls, they looked like men, so they rode hanging outside the car, which women weren’t allowed to do.

   “The next leg of their commute was even more exciting, riding the ferry boat over to Richmond,” recalled Norma’s daughter Donna Jones—until the day the ferry was caught in a frightening electrical storm.

   Three shifts a day, crowds from Richmond and surrounding cities made the journey to the shipyards, walking miles on foot, organizing carpools, hopping the shipyard train and hanging onto bus straps. “Downtown was suddenly just a mass of moving people of all kinds,” recalled Phyllis Gould.

   At shift’s end, the human tide changed direction. Shoppers jostled in the streets. Fingers snapped to blues bands at Tapper’s Inn; jitterbugged to “Jersey Bounce.”

    Folks went to church, had dinner and a game of whist. Mexican movies played at Rio Theater and the Moose Club held a Friday night fish fry.

    The city danced with lights, music and Saturday night joy.