[Zeke]

Seahawk's mention in another thread, "California, in the early 70's, was just a different place than it is today" got me to thinking why am I still here? If I went looking for high school and jr college buddies nowadays I would find hardly any, if even a single one.

Either jobs or retirement has given all of them reason to leave. I wonder if some still think of CA as the place where they grew up. Surf city, hot rods and woodies (not restored — in real use), early Disneyland, Sunset strip and Laurel Canyon (birth of many rock and roll groups and stars), damn good and cheap skiing close by, great rivers up and down the state along with enough lakes and outdoor recreation for nearly all.

And the weather, which for the most part is actually the same. Hot in a lot of places in the summer and chilly on the coast to 7 foot depths of snow in the mountains in winter. Lots of open space even still, but always crowded now on weekends. It was a wonderful place to be with boredom never a factor.

There were drive-in dairy stores and drive-in movies 12 months a year. Car shows consisted of cruising Whittier Blvd, Sunset Blvd, and the main drag in almost every town. (Listen to Randy Newman's "I love LA" and watch American Graffiti and you get the absolute essence captured in a song and a movie.)

Is the magic gone? I think so. Ask tabs, he was here in SoCal for his youth and many of his years before leaving for Vegas. (If you went to the LV suburb of Henderson, NV and asked how many are originally from CA, I think a big majority would raise their hands.

Small coastal towns on the Central Coast are still charming if not touristy. Prices for a modest house are out of the reach for 99%. Especially for those that need a job with a salary in the low 6 figures to maintain such a place and pay the taxes.

So, to any of you CA expats (Red Beard, etc.), is the magic gone? Does it live only in the minds of us diehard remaining natives (3rd generation here)?

Do all the palm trees keep us from seeing the trees instead of the forest? (Less the 3.7 million acres burned in the last 2 months, well mostly last 5 weeks.)

I find myself isolated in more ways than the COVID shut down. I find my kind exist only as seniors who were there when it all went down. I think of the lyric in "American Pie," a repeated line, "The day the music died."

Now that song was not written about CA and the day the music died has been interpreted as a reference to Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens (a native CA'n) deaths in 1959. But the overall gist of the work is how America was heading towards a downward spiral that may have begun with the Viet Nam war.

Nevertheless, some CA institutions still forage on. You can still get a date shake on the way to Palm Springs, and the surf's up, baby. The cable cars run in SF and Route 66 is still marked in many places ending in Santa Monica. There are 9 National Parks, more than any other state and they don't change much. There's 840 miles of coastline, 3rd behind AK and FL.

But that's all physical stuff. It's the people shift that has drastically changed. Did they not notice the magic? Well, it is after all, magic and sometimes things seem to disappear, only to reappear.

Maybe for only some, though. The reality is the place is dirty and rude. That didn't used to be but I know we are not alone with that.

I do wonder what CA expats think. There is a saying here that if you leave you can't get back.