David Rigsby Rigsby is a second-year
political science student who is proud to call himself a
Californian. You can reach him at
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I have been to Minnesota, and the rumors are true. There really
are people in the world who resemble the cast from the movie
“Fargo.” Every few years my parents would load us kids
onto an airplane or into a minivan and we would be on our way to
visit my mother’s relatives. Once we had arrived, my siblings
and I were always bombarded by questions from people who wanted to
know what life was like in California. A typical exchange between
myself and some distant relative would go as follows:
“So, you’re from out west. How close to L.A. do you
live?”
“Well I’m from Northern California, so L.A.’s
pretty far.”
“Oh, so you live next to San Francisco,
don’tcha?”
“Umm … not exactly.”
“What do you mean? You’re either by one or the other
… aren’t you?
At this point I would usually go into some explanation about how
my hometown of Yuba City is actually farther north than Sacramento.
I’ve gotten pretty good at growing up and laughing off the
out-of-state mindset that says you’re either a stone’s
throw away from SF or L.A. I mean, it’s no shock that they
should associate California with its two most popular cities.
It has not been so easy to laugh off certain mindsets that I
have encountered here at UCLA regarding NorCal. I assumed that the
Californians I met here would actually have a sense of what the
state looks like geographically. The idea that NorCal and the Bay
Area are synonymous is simply not true.
 Illustration by CASEY CROWE/Daily Bruin Whenever the
phrase “NorCal” is used, entire regions of the northern
half of the state are overlooked. There is some symmetry, however,
between the way in which SF overshadows the rest of NorCal and L.A.
overshadows the rest of SoCal. I think that people from San Diego
will agree with me.
My main concern is not that my region of California is lost in
the shuffle, but rather that myths are proliferated by not only
out-of-staters, but by other Californians as well. Many of the
friends that I have made here have told me that had it not been for
meeting me, they never would have given much thought to the
northernmost parts of California. So I’ve taken it upon
myself to clear up some common mistakes that people make when, on
the rare occasion, they give a thought to what lies north of the
Bay Area.
The first general misconception which comes to mind is that when
people think of life north of SF, and to some extent, north of
Sacramento, they think of this giant wilderness. Now, while
Northern California prides itself on its vast natural resources,
there is still civilization up there. The days of the pioneers
crossing over the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range have long passed.
But, like many myths, I suppose that this one is based on some
truth.
A lot of the Gold Rush towns hold on tightly to their past. For
example, I know the names of the founders of my hometown, and I
have some concept of the ways in which the early settlers lived.
This is because community history is a fundamental part of our
social studies core in the lower grades. Well, that and the fact
that it is beaten into our heads with parades and Founder’s
Day celebrations. In addition, street, park, and landmark names all
generally relate to the founders in some way or another.
I once asked a UCLA friend of mine who happened to be from SoCal
if she knew how her city was founded. She shrugged her shoulders
and said, “I guess it’s because that’s where the
405 and the 110 cross.” I don’t know how everyone else
feels, but I take pride in the fact that my hometown was founded
for some other reason than that it was a convenient location to put
a gas station and a no-tell motel.
Another major misconception is that everyone in NorCal is a
political activist. Yes, it is true that we have the state capitol
nearby, but that doesn’t mean we all go out on weekends and
hold signs while chanting, “Hell no, we won’t
go!” I do, however, agree with the foundation of this
myth.
Northern Californians tend to be more politically aware of
what’s happening on a state level. A large portion of
Sacramento’s local news coverage is devoted to state issues
because the city is a beehive of political activity. So while the
fourth or fifth story on a Sacramento affiliate station might be
devoted to a bill that Gray Davis signed, the same slot on a Los
Angeles affiliate would be devoted to a story titled “Nipping
and Tucking: How to Get the Most Out of Your Buck.”
A modern-day myth is that the weather is always foggy and gray
across all of NorCal. This is rooted in people’s minds when
they take vacations to SF and notice how fog rolls in and out of
the city on a daily basis. However, fog is not nearly as common in
other parts of NorCal, especially the landlocked areas.
During the summers, temperatures are generally hotter in the
Sacramento area than they are here in SoCal. I remember a few years
ago when a record was broken in NorCal for the greatest number of
consecutive days in which the temperature was over one hundred
degrees. And has anyone out here ever been to Redding in the
summer? Think Death Valley, with a little more foliage.
When people find out that my hometown is about 45 miles north of
UC Davis, they usually make reference to all of the cows up North.
While I will agree that NorCal is more dependent on farming and
agriculture than SoCal, I do not agree with the stereotype that all
Northern Californians go “cow tipping.” I have never,
ever, ever, even toyed with the notion of sneaking into some cow
pasture late at night and pushing over a sleeping cow. Nor do I
know of anyone who has actually done it.
But I will admit to running through an orchard or two late on a
summer night when some friends and I were pretty bored. But pushing
over a docile, defenseless, sleeping animal? No thanks.
If there is any one piece of advice that I can give to someone
who has just met another person from the northernmost reaches of
the state, it is to be open-minded. Just because life might be a
little slower-paced and subdued up north doesn’t mean that it
isn’t an interesting place to live.
So if you’re ever making a road trip up to Sacramento,
Chico, or even Seattle, don’t doze off in the back seat, or
you’ll miss out on a wonderful, often forgotten side of
California.