I am native Californian...I miss the past here, hate to have seen it disappear and I love things that capture the images of that era. I found it upsetting that I could no longer drive into downtown L..A., Chinatown, Philippe, the garment district, Santa Monica, the arboretum, etc. without several hours of traffic just to get there. I love Long Beach, but missed the seedy old Pierpoint Landing and The Pike, missed old TinCan Beach after it became state park and charged money to get in, the same with Salt Creek where the old guy used to take a dollar for parking and then it became the Ritz Carlton, Dana Cove for surfing became a marina.
Having spent years also in the San Joaquin Valley, I found it distressing to suddenly find the advance guard of tract housing going in where there were orchards....this continuing to this day. I like the old houses in Modesto, Stockton, etc....bungalows, farmhouses. I noticed on Houzz recently a newly built small, architectural type 'cabin', whose dominant feature was a classic valley watertower and it made me homesick for that also.....a large acreage of peaches, or apricots, grapes, whatever with a two story white wooden house, often with a large pine (or more, maybe two) to one side...and the big wooden watertower alongside. I think the mental image I carry of that comes from maybe one house in particular along Hwy 99 down around Turlock.
That's a large part of why I am so at home here, there's a timeless quality to it, so simple. I am sorry that the old wooden storefronts in town were wiped out in the 60's tsunami...although, if I'd known them, I would be missing them.... this way I can appreciate 'downtown' as still from another era, the 60's which even now is long ago...lol..
