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Monday, February 13, 2023

California Dreaming

The beacon of hope that used to be California is now a fading memory. Once the state symbolized the American Dream and prosperity, with classic cars cruising along Muscle Beach and Hollywood glamour drawing talent and beauty from everywhere: today it is a shadow of its former self, drowning in struggle and decline. As a native Californian, it breaks my heart to see my home state in such disrepair. In Texas I feel like a refugee from a country destroyed by some unimaginable disaster. The pain that I feel when I think about California’s current condition runs deep.

I grew up in the 90s in a small farming town in California’s central valley, with an economy built on peach orchards and a state university. Like many rural inland areas, our town was heavily white and conservative and struggled to cope with high taxes designed to support a large welfare class within the big cities. Those taxes enabled service industry workers to survive on low wages that couldn’t keep up with the high cost of living, but also fostered dependency. 
-WiscoDave

*****

The description of the town in the second paragraph makes me think he's talking about Turlock in the southern part of Stanislaus County, where I came from. It used to be a nice small town, but over the years, it's become just another city.

20 comments:

  1. Demographics matter.

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  2. Did you ever know Dan Watt? Car and bike enthusiast.....upholstery man, great friend who moved to Colorado in 1980's...

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  3. I was born in San Francisco in 1952, and loved the City and its surrounding countryside as the best place in the world to live. I had a fantastic childhood. All the advantages of a world-class city, with weekends in the country fishing, hiking, hunting, and swimming. Its now all gone.

    I fled to Alaska in 1975 and never looked back. California, to me, is Occupied Territory that is
    to be avoided and shunned at all costs. That may sound extreme, but in my lifetime I have found that the truth hurts. I do, though, have memories of a paradise lost....

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  4. I was born here and been here for 66 years. It makes me sad, the situation that leftist politicians have created. Now, I'm trying to figure out how to and where to, escape to.

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    1. When you do, remember: You're a refugee, not a missionary.
      Me, I'm living for the day when my son and his family in Oakland come to their senses.

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    2. My Dad was born in San Francisco in 1919 and retired from the SF Fire Department in 1984. He passed away in 2003. We used to have long conversations on the phone. I wish he was still alive as I'd love to hear his opinion of what his city has become. I'm sure his feelings would be off the charts angry, him being the good Irishman he was.

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    3. Obviously, one could ascertain from my comment that I’m not a “missionary” for the left as they’ve made my life extremely difficult for the last thirty years or so, particularly with the craziness of the “green” bullshit.

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  5. Now DON'T GO FUCKING UP ANOYHER GOOD STATE WITH YOUR LIBERAL BULLSHIT!
    Fucking locusts, I hate Californians, they're all living in camping trailers around here in EastTN.

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    Replies
    1. You did read the part about it sounded like Turlock, a town in Stanislaus County where I came from, right?
      You came to an ex-Californian's blog and are going to insult your host by calling him a fucking locust?
      Kiss my lily white ass.

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    2. Seems like this page has attracted a troll

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    3. Are you sure that lily white ass doesn't have BFYTW tattooed on it? It should for the troll.

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    4. Categorizing and generalizing about groups of people and then attempting to demonize them is a Leftist trait. You, Anonymous, have become what you hate. Congratulations.

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    5. You should get out in the sun more.
      Ex California , born and raised there back in the 50's...it's total ahit now.

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    6. Are you the same Anonymous that started this thread? If so, that means you're a California native who moved to East Tennessee and now you're complaining about people that move from California to East Tennessee because Californians are all 'fucking locusts'.

      See any irony or hipocrasy in that?

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    7. Damn, your reply to the troll had me laughing. Reminded me of Rob Smith (RIP) at Gut Rumbles. Classic.
      Tomoldguy

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    8. Just to play devil's advocate for Anonymous, it seems to me he was speaking of the liberals that move somewhere conservative and then immediately begin voting in the same old liberals that fucked up where they just left. I don't think he was speaking of conservative Californians that move just because they want to be with like-minded conservatives.

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    9. All he had to do was put the word 'liberal' in front of Californians and everybody would've agreed with him, me included.

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  6. I get a good laugh at some of the old movies about a dystopian future where everybody is trying to flee to California, because it is the only remaining "land of the free". The movie "The Last Chase" with Lee Majors is one such movie that I recall.

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  7. People don’t believe me when I tell them that California was beyond awesome in the 70s and 80s. People also don’t have a fucking clue about how big that place is and how many different cultures are there. Or, rather WERE there.
    It’s a 3rd world shithole and a failed state.
    And it’s just one of many in the US of A.

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