I am also a native Southern Californian. Sometimes I wonder if the shine wearing off of California isn’t more attributed to innocence lost and the hardships the responsibilities we bring on as adults. I think it has as much to do with this as with the hordes of invaders from other states.
Remember when your entire little league team could ride in the back of a pick-up truck for ice-cream…or when you could ride your bike around town to various gas stations…no helmet on and ask the gas attendants for stickers for your bike…when you didn’t know how ill a lot of people are or how bad everyone in government is?
When I get up early and take my kids to walk from dead mans down to the cove, for instance, I understand that nothing has really changed but perception. They can’t perceive kelp beds almost empty of sea life or barren sand where there used to be pismo clams or see that the abalone are gone. They don’t know how freakish these big box stores and strip mall after strip mall with the same 10 stores in them are. It’s all exciting. California is just as wonderful to them as it was to me…and I still like it O.K.
