"Toto, I don't
think we're in Kansas anymore."
-
L. Frank Baum
"Toto, I don't
think we're in Kansas anymore."
-
L. Frank Baum
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People always seem surprised at how far I'm willing to drive to get to work. "Wouldn't you ever consider moving over the hill?" they ask. Sometimes I just tell them that, where I grew up, lots of kids had parents who commuted into the city; my father did, and I don't feel as if it's that unusual. Sometimes I point out that my grownup daughters consider me a destination partially because I don't live in some generic Silicon Valley suburb. But the real reason I'm not anxious to move is that I just plain love Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is beautiful, varied, the seat of lots of weird politics, and the home of lots of weird people. (I tell people I won't shop at Berkeley because it's too right-wing.) It's also a fantastic place to ride a motorcycle. For grins, check out:
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over the hill -- Moving over the hill, in this case, does not refer to becoming middle-aged. "Over the hill," is how Santa Cruz county denizens refer to Silicon Valley -- which is ringed by the Diablo Range to the east and the Santa Cruz Mountains ("the hill") to the west and south. It's a nicer sobriquet than "The Pit" -- which is another thing Santa Cruzans call Silicon Valley. the city -- In my case, "the city" meant New York City. I never knew anyplace had the hubris to call itself "The City" (and capitalize it, no less!) until I moved to San Francisco in 1979. |
(c) Freda Salatino, 1999-2019