Home

"There's no place like home", according to Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. "Home is where the heart is" states someone else.
I was on another site that lets one comment and give advice on the places they've lived. I always look at the Riverside/Inland Empire page. Most people hate the I.E.. I love it. "Why don't you move to L.A." they ask. I like going to L.A., The O.C. and South-Town but Riverside is home (even though I now live in Beaumont, Texas).
In Riverside, everything is brown. The dried weeds on the hillsides are brown. The people are various shades of brown - or at the least very tan. The sky is even, more often than not, brown. Crime has been on the rise since a nice house in a nice area became more affordable than a shack in "the hood" that is South-Central L.A. . Employment is mostly blue-collar and housing (by most standards not California) is over priced. The hills catching fire every summer is as reliable as the thick blanket of smog rolling in from the west most evenings. Not only can you see the smog, or smell it, you can taste it - even feel it (in your eyes and lungs). Mix that aroma of smog with that of the skunks that litter the roadways and you have true Riverside.
Delightful.
Okay, not really. Most of my childhood friends have left for the more glamorous coastal cities. Even I don't live there anymore. But I wish that I did. Why? For the same reasons I've listed for people not wanting to live there. The smog blows through to Moreno Valley at night. The smog on summer nights still hurts your lungs. But I miss feeling the warm cerulean sky on those summer nights. I miss the mix of hood and good. I miss eating tamales on Christmas Eve at Fernie's mom"s house. I miss the quick flight (or long drive) to Vegas on a whim. I miss Wednesday poker night - where there would be a Blood sitting next to a Crip sitting next to a prep sitting next to a stoner sitting next to an Esse' sitting next to a skin. I miss the Mission Inn, Mario's and T.G.I. Friday's (in San Bernardino). I miss going up to the snow in Arrowhead and/or getting drunk and kicked off the roof at the Hilton (thanks Turtle). I miss my pretty, smart, thin (not skinny) and nice female friends. (Everything really is bigger in Texas) I miss being able to date inter-racially without standing out in a crowd. I miss the potential that is Riverside.
Funny thing about Riverside-It's in the middle of nowhere... but in the middle of everywhere.