A friend once sent a postcard from his trip to San Francisco. Its message read, “I’ve never had better Rice-a-Roni.”

One person’s San Francisco treat is another person’s sodium-packed side dish. My own San Francisco memories are different.

The city can change from pleasant sunshine to chilly gloom in a moment. A former prison serves as one of its most frequented attractions. The area around Ghirardelli Square is the closest one will ever feel to Willy Wonka.

In Chinatown, my wife and I had to walk through a restaurant’s kitchen to get to its dining area.

Like San Antonio and New Orleans, it is like no other American city in physical features and civic temperament. But San Francisco allows for its share of letdowns.

Public transportation carried me to the corner of Haight and Ashbury, which 41 years ago served as the epicenter of hippie counterculture and the Summer of Love.

Lore from that time said tourists would ride by on buses, interested in seeing the long hairs. Residents of “the Haight” saw the tour buses coming and held up mirrors. The message: Look who the freaks really are.

No mirrors greeted my bus, which I thought would dump me in a frozen-in-time scene where Grateful Dead music played and Grace Slick would feel at home.

Wake up, idiot! Grace Slick is now 68 and probably no longer fancies head shops. And at the corner of Haight and Ashbury stands a Gap, the same sort you’ll see at any shopping mall in any American suburb.

Bummer.

Folks in these parts have been asked lately to consider San Francisco. Two television ads for the re-election campaign of Congressman Sam Graves have accused his opponent, Democrat Kay Barnes, of having “San Francisco values.”

In a 30-second television spot, no time exists for an explanation of “San Francisco values,” but visuals offer us a guide.

The first commercial has a dancing threesome at a bar, two women with curious coiffures and a guy in a cowboy hat not meant for the range. The second has a woman (who sort of looks like Phoebe from the old “Friends” show) in evening attire dancing while holding a champagne flute.

Apparently, values of San Francisco have something to do with dancing and drinking.

Those who market political candidates certainly know their craft better than I do. It takes talent to squeeze a big message into a fleeting half-minute.

But I see a fundamental flaw in these ads.

The people in them, the ones with the “San Francisco values,” seem happy.

They’re dancing and smiling. In our part of the world, we don’t see that a lot these days.

At the gas pumps, people are mostly frowning and swearing. In the grocery store aisles, people are mostly frowning and in shock.

People wanting to get a home loan or pay a reasonable tuition or take a vacation find it hard to muster a smile.

No one looks ready to dance and wave around fancy stemware.

Instead, they look ready to choke someone.

Contrary to the intent of the ads, the message seems to be that San Franciscans know how to have a good time.

If those are the values, where do we sign up?

Ken Newton’s column runs on Sunday and Tuesday.