Dear Sirs: (Nat Harwell's March 20 column) on San Francisco touched my heart as I spent almost a year there when attending an electronics school the U.S. Navy during my 19th year of life. I have so many wonderful memories of this enchanting place, the weird people, the sophisticated women and the daily vistas I saw of Frisco from Treasure Island. Back then, Alcatraz was an operating prison and there was an attempted escape while I was there. Treasure Island was manmade and had once been the site of a world's fair and was only a Par Five from the notorious prison. I have been back many times over the years since leaving the Navy.

I had a friend from Stinson Beach who would on the weekends invite several of us out for nights on the beach, drinking Olympia beer and always hoping to meet some of the ladies of SFO.

That is the normal duty of sailors. That is what God made sailors for.

I often told my son Spencer about the wonders of San Francisco and it prompted him to live there.

He is a maverick and fitted in perfectly in the land of the kooks that dominate the denizens of this most beautiful place on earth. This same friend from Stinson Beach wound up working for the SFO Chronicle for over 30 years and now is an unabashed liberal. I really don't understand him To get to work he had to transit the Golden Gate Bridge every day. He once told me that the approach to the bridge gave him San Francisco spread out before him and looked differently every day.

Thanks for stirring my memory bank. The Covington News is indeed lucky to have a writer like Nat Harwell. His magic with words is enviable and cannot be bought for any price.

Felton Hudson
Covington