California Thread

[Finn]

Socal born and raised. 

[twodko]

Brock we'll be at Vista Point @ 10am. Some very nice cars show up for that El Cam cruise. Isn't that sponsored by Mid Peninsula Mopars? We hope to make the next one. See you on the 23rd.

440 - I'm really dating myself here but I went to Borel in '63. San Carlos was always a nice quiet town. The homes in the hills are gorgeous albeit on tiny narrow roads the FD just loves. I also lived off First Street in SJ for about 10 years. I got transferred to SF and thought "if I had to drive an hour to get to the city from SJ, I might as well move back home to Sonoma county". Driving a lot really wore me down but the views to SF are worth it.

We showed our 69' yesterday at a small show in Petaluma. The car received a lot of attention and the kids always love the 1:18 scale Charger we set on a little carousel on the air filter. When we had our 69 Chevelle we had a Chevelle model spinning on its air filter too. It was sponsored by AACA. Decent weather, a bit windy but that's Petaluma. Not the best venue though......you can't pitch an EasyUp and you're on asphalt all day so you get fried. Next up is another little show in downtown Calistoga on Main Street May 7th.

[Brock Samson]

 Very Cool! I'd like to see that when we meet up.. i've begun to notify local Moparians of the cheese cruise, and we may have a super bird along for some eye candy,..
Stu who's Pres. of the MPMC has set up the cruises and is a very entertaining sort of fella...  looking forward to seeing all our Charger bretheren show up! 
  BTW: Craigs' List SF rants and Raves has a lot of complaints from tourists hating on Calif. cause they feel they get ripped off, and folks here are rude... These Rants are avail. on c.l. with the Approp. search. That's why I seldom travel unless i stay with a local, i hate tourist traps and getting roped into those impersonal commercial things.   

[twodko]

 

[440]

I wish I still lived there to meet up. I didn't have a Mopar while living there so 

That looks like a stunning car twodko... 

lol, CA cops its fair share of bashing. But overall I think it is a great place to live if you can push all that crap aside and see it for what it is.

Surprised none of you have been to the Sierra Point car show or West Coast Dream Machines. 

[Dans 68]

Born in San Francisco, and lived in Northern California my entire life (except for a two year work sentence in Redondo Beach  ).

Dan

[LeesRT]

I live in Willows, California.  I'm third generation here and my kids are 4th generation.  Willows is a country town of about 5000 people and we're about 100 miles north of Sacramento in the middle of rice growing country.  Peaceful and quite up here compared to the larger cities.

[John_Kunkel]

I live in Willows, California. 

Ah, yes, Nancy's Airport Café....flew in there for many a "hundred dollar hamburger".

[SFRT]

spent a few years in Norcal in the 70's. it was awesome. returned and settled in San Francisco ( I can see the GG Bridge from my living room window) 18 years ago. I would say its not for everyone. lot of fucked up people in the bay area, and its really really really expensive. But...I have pretty good setup and situation so its home for me. I just wish it was warmer. warm nights is what i miss about the South. no warm nights in SF.

[440]

Did either yourself or Brock Samson go through the 89 Loma Prieta quake ?

[Dans 68]

Did either yourself or Brock Samson or Dans 68 go through the 89 Loma Prieta quake ?

Yep! Glad you asked.    I was at game two of the World Series at Candlestick Park. Upper deck. It was a rolling and wild ride.

Dan

[440]

Yes, sorry Dan... I remember watching that on TV... I was closer to the epicenter around Santa Cruz at the time but SF looked like a war zone 

[BB1]

I left in 1995, couldn't have been a better time. 

[Mr.Woolery]

California born and raised here.  My only complaint is CARB laws...not an issue with the Charger, but it sucks to be limited in tinkering with my other cars.

One little micro-rant...I think it sucks when people who've never lived here pass judgement on it or the people here.  Bagging on California/Californians as a whole is just as ignorant as someone bagging on the state you're from.

[twodko]

Did either yourself or Brock Samson go through the 89 Loma Prieta quake ?

I was at 500 hundred feet in a Bell Jet LongRanger III shooting video of the throng headed into Candlestick. The first video of the Marina fire, collapsed section of the BB and the collapsed Oaktown freeway was my stuff (ABC Sports blimp shot the majority of the Marina fire). Tooting my own horn here but, hell, I shot it.
It was a long night, the only lights we could see were down south in the San Jose area........it really was pitch black. The "low fuel" horn was competing with the radio chatter. By the way, a "low fuel" horn is not a comfy sound. Wil was the pilot's name, he flew slicks/gunships in the great rice paddy so I trusted him completely but we both had severe butt pucker that night. With the cameras we had back then, trying to shoot aerials at night was nye impossible unless you had a full moon or city lights. We landed at the Oakland Jet Center to refuel and get this..........we burned all of the reserve! The bird took a full load 'o fuel. You should have seen the look on the fuel truck driver's face. The Bell Jet III has long legs and we stretched 'em.Still gives me the creeps when I think about it.
We would be picked up and dropped off at a small fenced helipad in Hunters Point next door to a restaurant whose name escapes me. The idea was photogs would save time catching the bird by not having to drive to Oaktown. Later we caught the ship at Noss Field in Novato.....Hunters Point through the helo out - I was OK with that!  Pilot dropped me off about 7:30 that night, I couldn't shoot anymore, couldn't see anything. I stowed my gear, got into my live truck and headed out. When I say it was dark out, the only thing I could see was what the headlights lit up. I was driving slow......didn't want to hit anybody and them wham! I took a freakin' huge piece of concrete right through the windshield. More pucker factor. At first I thought I may have hit something then shadowy forms converged on my truck and the intention was to flip it over. One ton van......not likely but I wasn't keen on meeting those wraiths of the night so I most definitely drove a lot faster getting outta there. I still have the chunk of concrete that was embedded in the windshield. What a momento huh? That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

[Dans 68]

Hunters Point after lights out on any other day would be a puckering experience. Glad to hear you kept driving.

Dan

[twodko]

In hind sight I truly hope those were speed bumps I felt on the way out.

[twodko]

I stuck with that job for another 14 years before I retired. Journalism had died well before that IMO. None the less I was lucky enough to see some wonderful beautiful things.......also saw too much of man's/society's ugly side and the job cost me 2 marriages. I miss my fellow trenchmates but not the job.

[Brock Samson]

 I was at work entering the Newspapers' Display Desk a room half way down the hall that runs the length of the building at least a hundred feet,  just walking through the doorway when the gal just ahead of me swore at the first sharp jolt and dove under the desk just ahead... there was no room for me there so i took one step back in the door way held on to the frame which was  squared metal and pretty stout. I looked down the hall from where I'd just come, I, besides feeling a couple lifting jolts and smaller shudders in-between, saw a wave rolling toward me as it traveled from north to south and passed directly under my feet, like you might at the ocean in the surf, everything rose and fell as it passed by,.. only about three inches high it was pretty obvious, and instantly there was a lot of dust in the air, it seemed to rise off the office furnature and come down from the ceiling. that all took about 10-15 seconds but there were some other sharp after shocks, we didn't evacuate at all, we instantly went to the store room and began to get medical gear and flashlights, the sun was very low on the horizon and the only light was orange and coming in between tow large buildings I remember the TV which were all tuned to the Game were dead were bouncing on their mounts where they were secured to the walls. Some folks went up to the roof ( i got there a bit later) and reported they saw through the dusty haze that smoke was rising from the marina and oakland and a couple buildings close to where we were, where the brick work had fell smashing onto cars that were at the curb picking up folks as this was a little after 5 PM. Some of these car were burning and of course the occupants were crushed.
Soon I and some others went/ran to the local hardware stores to secure more supplies especially batteries of all type and any flashlights left, we got as many as we could and portable radios. A hefty trash bag full of D size batteries is really, really heavy!  
There was rioting on 3rd street as folks left the game and were stuck in total gridlock, my buddy a photog. lost an eye from a thrown bottle while riding from the game (where he was working) after offering a motorcycle owner $300 cash to take him downtown to the marina, about 7 miles away. I heard from others it was pretty ugly on third street. One guy directing traffic on van Ness and Broadway was shot dead when a car wouldn't wait for him to let them proceed. Little of this violence was reported, only a mention of the guy shot who was directing traffic. There were probably many, many more incidents that went unreported.
I eventually wound up on Lombard St. driving my van there with my boss, an ex-ambulance driver, hanging out the window and imitating a siren...   We bought a small mom and pop delicatessen out of every lunch meat and loaf of bread and soda and some six-packs of beer they had (we still drank beer in the office in '89.) and my huge workmate "Rufus" who played football at Baylor Univ. picked some idiot up and hurled him into traffic outside after he tried to rob the place directly ahead of us at the register.
(please excuse the stream of consciousness writing as i'm just typing my remembrances as they come up).
Anyhow - we spent the night in the office working by flashlights and drug out all the old typewriters that were still around then (they're all gone now) and somehow managed to put out a paper the next morning. I forget all the convolutions involved in that nights' work, but i didn't get home to bed till six the next morning. And everyone loved the beer!  

[SFRT]

I was in Texas during the 89 quake....the Gallery that sold my stuff was here and I managed to get thru to them on the phone that day. Gallery owner was on the roof with a gun, guarding his shit. Later, I got drunk and took a nap on the screened in porch. I miss Texas sometimes.

[Vainglory, Esq.]

I was in Texas during the 89 quake....the Gallery that sold my stuff was here and I managed to get thru to them on the phone that day. Gallery owner was on the roof with a gun, guarding his shit. Later, I got drunk and took a nap on the screened in porch. I miss Texas sometimes.

You're an artist?  Have you posted any of your stuff here?

[freddyd02]

Nice knowing there's quite a few of you in northern Cali, I live in Petaluma at the moment and probably moving to Cotati in the summer.. I work in SF as a union plumber. Anyone wanna swing by my place and check out my charger? :p

[SFRT]

I was in Texas during the 89 quake....the Gallery that sold my stuff was here and I managed to get thru to them on the phone that day. Gallery owner was on the roof with a gun, guarding his shit. Later, I got drunk and took a nap on the screened in porch. I miss Texas sometimes.

You're an artist?  Have you posted any of your stuff here?

sort of. google 'frank kozik'

[twodko]

Frank

Nice stuff on your website! Who knew?........and accomplished gearhead and an artist.  

[Steve P.]

I spent a week there one afternoon. We were picking up parts and stuck on some damned freeway that I believe should have been better named a PARKING LOT.. We were somewhere in or around LA....  I figured it a good time to look around at the ladies stuck in other cars, but all I saw was people with cell phones stuck to their ears...