estebanana -> RE: New to forum- 18 years old (Picado Questions) (Jun. 18 2017 1:07:58)
|
Once when I was in Texas I wanted to buy a fishing license. I went to a sporting goods store that sold half guns and half fishing equipment. I went up to the counter asked if I could buy a fishing license, he said can I see your ID. I showed him my CA drivers license. He yelled out loud so th ewhole store could hear it. "THAT DOG DON'T HUNT". I said what, excuse me? He said Nope, sold out for the year! If you're from California you get that kind of attitude once in a while, it always comes from guys who've never been to California, or visited a few days. When I briefly lived in Fort Wayne Indiana I got a lot of that out in the country side. I went to farm across the road from a relatives house to meet them and the guy asked where I was from. Without hesitating to actually check into who I am he launched into diatribe about how California is over privileged and does not pull its share. He said things like people CA are spoiled and go from air conditioned houses into air conditioned cars to air conditioned jobs that are cushy and soft. He was just full of piss and bile. And he he finally stopped talking I just said ok let's go the cousin. I just walked off, I could have him CA has more dairy farms than the whole mid west put together and produces more beef than Texas.......but why bother rubbing it in. Corn is king out there, we don't do corn. Then Uncle Jerry, or as I call him Uncle Stupid Ass, back across the street was soaking his face in beer. After he was lit up a bit he vaulted into a separate anti-CA rant, but his was almost funny. He said Yeah I came out to visit you guys and all there is out there is rocks and mountains, you got deserts too, we don't have deserts. You guys have all that bad desert. I grew up in the Lower Mohave desert which is a singularly fascinating place geologically, topologically, historically significant ..anyway he moved on to LA and the Central Valley, and finally the ocean. You have all that coast line with that rocks stuff and sand and waves, you now we got lakes here and we can fish without all that ocean mess. We did go fishing on this dismal little pond in a motor boat. We did not catch anything. My parents realized CA was a better deal and moved back West, they were talked into moving to Indiana by Uncle Stupid Ass who told them how pure and great it was, but they soon got tired of the attitude and it admitted it was great mistake and moved back to CA three months later. My mom and my step dad were not like me, they could fit into Indiana in a metropolitan area. But they got tired of heard blah blah blah CA is blah blah blah. Especially my step dad got tired rather quickly of the midwest. He was like I left Holland because it's just flat land and I want some rocks and mountains. When I was in grad school we had a summer break, and I had heard by that time that people refer to the midwest as "the fly over states". I had to do some research at the Smithsonian later mid summer, I went to study the dulcimer collection. Anyway, I proposed to myself that I would ride the bus across the country instead of fly. I took some time. One night I left my apt near Lake Merritt in down town Oakland and walked to the Greyhound station with a duffle bag. I got on a bus about 10:30 at night and it headed south. I had driven I-5 enough times over the years that it was nothing I had to see, so I slept a little and as down came up I reckon we were between San Bernardino and Palm Springs...eventually hitting Needles CA, we were headed to Texas on I-10, my first stop through the fly overs. One the bus crossed over the Colorado River near Needles I was on the same course we had taken 12 years earlier to go to Indiana with our trailer and all our stuff. And I watched and relived the trip through New Mexico. I sat up near the driver so I could see the road. There were lots of rocks in New Mexico, and a desert. And in Amarillo, there was more desert. I took a week in Texas a lurked around the UT library and saw some rock shows..then got on a bus and snaked my way over to DC via all those states under Indiana. And I stayed in places near the bus stations and observed the deep inner city of the stopovers. To be on a bus and not in control of who you travel with and listen to them talk in different regional accents, you realize how interesting and diverse the country really is.
|
|
|
|