Growing up in California….? (San Francisco, Oakland: condo, house, buying)

[Christopher777]

I grew up in Modesto, CA. When I was a youngster I could run all over the neighborhood and play. We could play hide and seek hiding in neighbor's yards and they didn't think we were prowlers. We went all over the place without fear of being abducted or attacked. Summer in California was hot but if you had access to a pool it was fun. You could go down to the creek and catch crawdads and fish. (It is so polluted now everything is dead) We did not have a lot of fancy toys and you had to be creative with what you had. I actually think it was better than it is now. The world is rough now. A lot of fear. It is like we are on the edge of something happening that will not be very peasant. Was California unique? I guess that depends on how you look at it. Yosemite is unique. Backpacking in the Ansel Adams wilderness area is pretty cool. You have the ocean that a lot of states don't have.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by Christopher777

I grew up in Modesto, CA. When I was a youngster I could run all over the neighborhood and play. We could play hide and seek hiding in neighbor's yards and they didn't think we were prowlers. We went all over the place without fear of being abducted or attacked. Summer in California was hot but if you had access to a pool it was fun. You could go down to the creek and catch crawdads and fish. (It is so polluted now everything is dead) We did not have a lot of fancy toys and you had to be creative with what you had. I actually think it was better than it is now. The world is rough now. A lot of fear. It is like we are on the edge of something happening that will not be very peasant. Was California unique? I guess that depends on how you look at it. Yosemite is unique. Backpacking in the Ansel Adams wilderness area is pretty cool. You have the ocean that a lot of states don't have.

Always plenty of fear. Back then, it was the Cold War. Lots of end of days stuff, much like today.

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by Christopher777

I grew up in Modesto, CA. When I was a youngster I could run all over the neighborhood and play. We could play hide and seek hiding in neighbor's yards and they didn't think we were prowlers. We went all over the place without fear of being abducted or attacked. Summer in California was hot but if you had access to a pool it was fun. You could go down to the creek and catch crawdads and fish. (It is so polluted now everything is dead) We did not have a lot of fancy toys and you had to be creative with what you had. I actually think it was better than it is now. The world is rough now. A lot of fear. It is like we are on the edge of something happening that will not be very peasant. Was California unique? I guess that depends on how you look at it. Yosemite is unique. Backpacking in the Ansel Adams wilderness area is pretty cool. You have the ocean that a lot of states don't have.

Yep,

I grew up in So Cal and could walk to town alone at 10 with no fear and walk back after a movie at night. About a 5 mile walk (Fullerton). Like you we played hide a seek all over the neighborhood. House was never locked and the car wasn't either. Try leaving your home unlocked while you go away for an afternoon and don't lock your car in a parking lot and .................. well there is a reason for car alarms and home security now. Plenty of open space, no traffic to speak of and reasonable cost as my mother did not work while my father was alive and we bought a new home each time we moved, and his trade was welding. If we misbehaved any parent could (and did) give us a whack. Then of course when we got home we got another one. It was far better then than now. The type of community we had then does not exist now, but that is virtually the case nation wide, not just CA. CA leads in many good things, but in bad as well. Just spoke to a new business contact who moved from CA to GA and while it is humid he says it is like Eden compared to where he lived in CA and that also was So Cal. Now I disagree with him about GA being Eden, but in some ways it is better than CA and in others worse. What is important to someone makes the difference and good year round weather just didn't cut it for him anymore.

[Count David]

I grew up in the Inland Empire, mostly in the 90's. I'm 31 now, but keep in mind, I spent all of my summers growing up in WA.

I don't think growing up in CA was ALL THAT different from growing up most other places. We played outside year round (yes, I guess THAT would be a difference). We played football and baseball in the street, or across the street at the local elementary school (basketball there too). We'd go explore the hills at the end of the street, and find all kinds of things (couples doing it, a huge cache of porno magazines hidden under some rocks, liquor bottles, great views).

For fun, we'd walk or ride bikes to the video store (mostly for video games), to Circle K, or AM/PM, or to Wal-Mart, or to Denny's to see my mom.

I grew up in a "se habla espanol" type of neighborhood until I was 13. Thus, we had frequent visits from the paletero, and the tamale folks. There'd be huge, almost nightly soccer matches at the school across the street (ironically, the school has since replaced much of its playground with an Olympic-sized soccer field). Sometimes we'd sit on the swings and do commentary.

There were gangs. It was like a rite of passage once reaching 7th grade. All of the sudden 40% of everybody was some sort of cholo/a. It was stereotypical Blood In, Blood Out in my hood, no joke. The local gang would beat the crap out of new non-Latino kids to the neighborhood until they moved out/changed schools etc. Fighting was the norm for that age group, hard to stay out of it, even as a Student of the Month type kid like myself.

We had to duck gunshots on many holidays. We had an alarm on the house. We were burglarized, tagged, had car stereos stolen, cars vandalized. No bars on the windows though.

We had the best neighbors in he world. They were like family. Most of them are still there to this day. My brother still works in the area (ironically, the same Wal-Mart we'd always walk to), so growing up there must have had some sort of imprint on him.

Well, in 1996, my mother purposely let the house go to foreclosure, so we could move to a boring suburban style apartment complex in another city, in another school district, just 2 miles away. It was different, much wussier than anything I was used to. We still did many of the things we had done before, but we added walking to the mall/other stores to it. One friend and I would do these insanely long bike-rides all over Riverside, through the orange groves in the south, along Victoria Ave, and beyond.

Wearing sunglasses to school was a rite of passage to driving, which opened up the rest of Southern CA to our freedom. The beach (the Wedge, CDM, Newport), Disneyland (incl. Grad Nite), Knott's, Magic Mountain, the LA County Fair, the San Bernardino Mountains, Downtown LA, sporting events in LA and Anaheim, the Galleria at Tyler, Ontario Mills, fast food (oh gosh, the fast food!). Heading out to SantAna and cruising Bristol for some reason. Driving past the Santa Ana Canyon and just exploring the multitudes of cities beyond. Jamming your music with the windows down and the bass up. Being you, and making sure everybody saw.

Yeah, just like everywhere else.

[Ruth4Truth]

um..... thanks for sharing?

[Count David]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

um..... thanks for sharing?

Keepin' it real just like Cali (sic) yo!

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Yo soy peninsulare ... so here are some of the things I experienced.

The old Marine World (where Oracle now resides).
Sailing dinghies at Searsville Lake and Redwood Creek.
Riding the various El Camino buses to untold adventures.
Riding my bike up into the Santa Cruz Mountains and then the radical cruise back down.
Walking around with my brother several steps behind my parents around The City so we could grab the nasty, nasty porno newspapers from stands jimmied open by others.
Waiting for the lift bridge on the Old Dumbo (and the drive in general on that bridge when it was storming and the waves nearly spraying the road, two lanes, no shoulder ... 1920s relic).
Pre-Caltrain ... pre-double decker cars ... the old SP Commuter which used a ragtag collection of old SP long haul rolling stock.
The Giants when they were endlessly hopeless ... and yet ... sitting at The Stick ... papers swirling in the wind ... maybe, just maybe .... nope.
The 49ers " " " ....
Senior Prom at the St. Francis.
Buying booze in Whiskey Gulch ... when we were 17.
When BART opened for business on this side of the Bay ... riding through the Trans Bay Tube at 83 MPH during the first week of service.
The open trenches on Market Street during BART / MUNI Metro construction.
Watching Playland bite the dust and condos and a Safeway rise.
237 as a country road through the marshes and farmland.
Combines harvesting wheat and oats along Highway 17 in Alameda County.
So many more ...

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by David Aguilar

Keepin' it real just like Cali (sic) yo!

Well I, for one, enjoyed the inspirational take away message from your story, David. From humble scrappy beginnings you have managed to work your way up to C-D Moderator. I hope everyone reading takes note of this lesson in perseverance!

[MarciaMarshaMarcia]

Originally Posted by David Aguilar

Keepin' it real just like Cali (sic) yo!

You are funny as ----, fellow IE survivor! Reps to you! (If CD would let me!)

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by David Aguilar

Keepin' it real just like Cali (sic) yo!

That was excellent!