A Brief Overview

Confessions . . . Of a Ninety Two
Year-Old San Francisco Landlady

Before women entered the workplace in force, before they earned equal pay for equal work, before they were guaranteed their shot at college sports through title 9, and before they became Supreme Court justices, they were largely confined to cleaning and maintaining their homes, raising their children, and caring for their husbands. But not all women. Some moved outside the mold.

Charlotte Birsinger was a woman who moved outside the mold. She was the daughter of a woman who moved outside the mold. Throughout her life, she displayed strength, determination, and independence. And by the strength of her will, she transformed herself from an individual ensnared in the web of the Great Depression to a successful entrepreneur respected in the San Francisco business community. .

This charming book chronicles the life of a remarkable woman and the colorful characters she encountered along the way.

Warm, fast-paced, funny, endearing . . . certain to entertain even if the reader is not a San Franciscan.

An Introduction To The Book

In 1957 the mafia was killing off their hierarchy at a fascinating pace. Albert Anastasia got rubbed out in a barber shop by hit men from the Gambino family. A myriad of lower echelon bosses met the same fate. In 1957, people talked more about the mafia then they did about sex. All the while J. Edgar Hoover was saying, “There ain’t no mafia.” Then some industrious constabulary types got wind of a crime syndicate meeting in Appalachin, New York. The next thing you know all these non-existent gangsters are running through the woods in silk suits trying to escape from some real life cops.

In the arts, Eugene O’Neill published Long Days Journey into Night, and the Bridge on the River Kwai won the academy award for best picture. In literature, JFK won a Pulitzer for Profiles in Courage.

In Science and politics, Russia launches a Spudnik, Anthony Eden resigns as Prime Minister of England, and Dwight D. Eisenhower is the President of the United States.

All this important stuff is going on all around us and the only thing on our minds was to figure out how to buy a 14-unit apartment house on Fulton Street in San Francisco.