Page One

Early Rain on Telegraph Stroll

By Ted Friedman
Monday September 26, 2011 - 07:47:00 AM
We're so outta here. We're going to Beaverton, Oregon; notice the glistening walk
Ted Friedman
We're so outta here. We're going to Beaverton, Oregon; notice the glistening walk
Real live D.J. at Annapurna during Cafe Stroll on Telegraph Avenue Sunday
Ted Friedman
Real live D.J. at Annapurna during Cafe Stroll on Telegraph Avenue Sunday

A little unexpected September rain sprinkled a stroll on Telegraph avenue Sunday.

It wasn't a stroll--the way Solano stroll is--and it wasn't a music festival, but as event organizer Al Geyer, 63, put it, "there'll be a little strolling and a little music, and a little strolling into businesses; the street will not be closed." 

Even in the face of a Cal Performances free concert, and the Folsom Street fair in San Francisco, Geyer was hoping to promote a crowd of vendors and strollers and performing musicians. But the rain transformed his dreams into wet towels. 

Maybe it won't matter to Geyer whether this rainfall set any records (it didn't), but that street vendors didn't show up and neither did the crowds. It rained steadily for the morning and well into the afternoon, but only slicked the streets (see accompanying photo). 

I spoke Saturday with a street family bound for Beaverton, Oregon, who wanted to know when we had our first rain. "At least by November," I said, "but you never know." 

You never know happened Sunday, and I met up again with the kids Sunday, and we joked about my forecast. 

There is usually a bad weather plan B and this time the fix was simple. Just move indoors. Caffe Mediterraneum accommodated at least two musical acts. The vendor not-scene had no fix. By late afternoon the sun emerged and at least one street act performed outside Berkeley Hats. 

The "world" may not have come to Telegraph Sunday as the cafe music stroll publicity blared it would, but Telegraph showed the whole world that when its boulevard is slicked by rain it's a first-class street