OT*****Re: Hello, it's me..

[Bob Hemus]

On Sun, 2006-09-10 at 11:31 -0400, Ric Moore wrote:
> On Sat, 2006-09-09 at 19:52 -0700, Tony Alfrey wrote:
> > Ric Moore wrote:
> 
> > > You don't have a pickup truck? How do you survive? 
> > 
> > Well, in California (at least in the cities) a pickup truck is not 
> > required.  We let 'other people' carry stuff around for us!  Besides, 
> > there are no elk or cows that we might be required to haul around (for 
> > making barbecue, for example).  Now, if you were living in Manhattan 
> > (that's in New York City, not to be confused with Manhattan Beach, in 
> > CA) you wouldn't need a car of *any* sort; you would ride the subway, or 
> > take a taxi, and for dinner, you order take-out!  Most 'real' 
> > Californians never get east of, say, Santa Fe.  Sometimes they'll go to 
> > New York City, but they'll skip all that stuff in between.  Where the 
> > barbecue is.
> 
> Ha! Real Texans, and other students of history, know California's story.
> It's made up mostly of displaced redneck Okies and Cornhuskers from the
> Depression Era Dustbowl who are firmly in denial, acting like they are
> all that and a bag of chips. A pickup truck is what brung the Jeeters
> and Joads to the Land of Milk and Honey. Now it's the Land of Bilk and
> Money, by their descendants. :) 
> 
> When I lived in Helena Montana, most of the inhabitants lived in fear of
> the invasion of Californians. They demanded bike trails, public
> transport, disco's, coffee bars, bistros, pesticide-free veggies and the
> freedom to build out where the bears and cougars lived, without
> consequences. Like the family dog becoming a meal for a bear. Call 911!
> Call 911! Right. Nature has a way of being up close and personal. 
> 
> Interesting story, Missoula, which is the western Montana State
> University town where "A River Runs Through It" was filmed, became a
> liberal haven for displaced Californians. They wanted (demanded) a bike
> trail be built up the little 2 lane state road 83 that went through 100
> miles of National Forest up past the eastern side of Flathead Lake to
> Kalispell and made a huge fuss about it. It was paved with snow and ice
> for 10 months of the year, but you couldn't tell them that. So, to prove
> a point, they had to actually bike the route in some numbers, complete
> with flags and fanny packs waving in the breeze, directly in the way of
> proper motorists who were trying to get somewhere. Two of them got
> literally greased by a log truck, which was never caught (fancy that!),
> the rest scattered like chickens and that put an end to the bike trails.
> <evil grins> Montana had no sales tax as they didn't have stupid things
> like speed limits and bike trails. 
> 
> Got a great story about a family of New Yorkers visiting Montana too,
> but I'll save that one for another day! Montana'ns are just Texans at
> heart, used to the extreme cold. We had three seasons there, July,
> August and Winter. Ric

Ah, yes, that's what the old text books say.  There were Okies & Arkies 
here when I was a little kid during WWII.  After the the war for the next 
few (10 or 15) all of the Sailors & Marines who did boot camp in San Diego 
or Camp Pendleton came west with their families.  The year I started high 
school in Laguna Beach, Garden Grove high school was about the same size, 
250 + students in grades 9-12.  By the time I graduated in 1954 there were 
3 high schools in G.G. with about 1500 kids in each one.  We still had about
250 + kids in the four grades.  Property values in L.B. were just too
steep
for young people from the east to afford.  
Bob