Smoke in the sky from the refineries across the Bay was a familiar sight from Marin County at least through the 1950s, as seen in the large black smudge hovering in the beyond past San Quentin Point in my brother's slide from 1955 looking east from the hills over our home town Idyllic Larkspur™. At least we didn't have to smell it, usually, as ElViejo did.

It was doing a pretty good job of spewing smoke and smell in the 1950s when I was growing up two towns to the south. On some days, driving by it on the way to the Richmond-San Rafael ferry (and then on to Stinson Beach -- good times) it would bring tears to your eyes.

But hopefully not spewing all that smoke and particulates into the air!