My observations from traveling to California, a Midwesterners tale! Ask me a question

I got bad food poisoning in Weed CA. Id hang in mt Shasta town but norcal,very incest oriented,don't like outsiders.

FWIW....Humboldt is not what people think it should be, it's not cool at all. Heard this from a few people who have visited or lived there...all native californians.
Please don't judge the whole state by those freaks! LOL

yeah, be sure to see the rest of the freaks in Cali before you paint with such a broad brush.

I'm from a small town in Pennsylvania and I lived in L.A. for 7 years, and most of your observations would apply to the weirdos in the City of (fallen) Angels too, OP.

5. No bad part of town, or nice part. You would see a very well kept house next to the most rundown house. That said the architecture blows the Midwest away. The houses were all very unique and interesting looking unlike Midwest suburbia..

6. Rent was insane for everyone. It felt like everyone was working to move to a better place and fixated on where they will live, use to live etc. it also seemed like everyone was broke because most of their money went to rent. Nobody really had nice stuff, clothes, TVs etc. everyone bin the Midwest seemed like they had a ,or more disposable income if they worked. In Cali it seemed they worked to be poor and didn't realize it. This is hard to describe because everyone seemed to think they were doing well.

Very true. Most of my money goes for rent too.

Hey, it's California.

Most of us are not all high like the stereotype assumes.

You're right about many of us (especially conservative types) not wanting to make conversation with strangers though. Too many freaks to pay attention to as we watch our backs.

One thing you will notice IF you stick around long enough though is that we will warm up to, and be very neighborly to people after they have been around for at least a year.

We do pay attention to character and usually give it a little time to make our observations about you before formally introducing ourselves. Conservatives don't usually warm up to libs very well, so we tend to watch and listen to newcomers.

Another strange characteristic of the suburban Californian is that if we (neighbors talk) judge you as a good person, we will have your back in an emergency even if we do not yet know your name.

Foreigners (from other states) see us as cold and stand-offish, but that is far from the reality of us just being careful about who we associate with.

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Where in the Midwest OP?

7. in stores, like target everyone behaved like a npc (non player controlled) character In a video game. As in they had a set path and anything that interferes with that path breaks something. Several times I would be in someone's path and either they didn't know what to do or got really annoyed rather than walk around me. This is a really really hard to explain. But I had several very awkward encounters in large stores because of this.

8. Reminded me of florida with less hope. Seriously though, it was interesting but I couldn't deal with all the bum types.

9. the craziest thing the Latinos on average were most normal people there. There seems to be more going on in their heads and felt like real people and not spaced out like the Anglo Saxons. They also seemed to be observing this madness in the same manner I was. They seemed less interested in being young or old hipsters. I saw a Latino nuclear family come in a diner and it was the most normal site I had seen the entire trip. Also a lot of the workers at food establishments were Latino and it was great to look into someone's eyes and see a person.

you didn't have anything stolen? at all?

I did hear that the neighbors watch out for each other's back when you get in a good neighborhood with good people. This is not very common in mid-lower class Midwestern neighborhoods that I'm familiar with.

I realize Im Generalizing about a massive state. There were a lot of positives, I'm just trying to point out the things that struck me as weird or funny.

No. But it was the first time I ever felt the lock/alarm on my rental car was not sufficient. Every shopping center had vagrants at the doors, at the road going in, in the parking lot. I'm usually carefree in the Midwest, if I left my wallet in the car, no big deal it's locked, in California I did feel like there were theives around every corner.

Eastern Ohio.

#6 is right on. You got it. People feel that they are doing OK if they live among the well-to-do. They did not realize they can hardly make the ends meet.

Lived out there and...




I don't think so.

Taxes, anyone that works that isn't illegal has human lampreys attached to me.

Politicians, government workers, illegals and ghetto dwellers are the lampreys

huh, almost feels like a bullshit flag, yet the rest of story is fairly convincing

Good thing you didn't come to Fresno, you would definitely have stories to tell! lol

Last Edited by M*walk on 09/12/2014 01:13 AM

No bs. A little bit of exaggeration sure, but I'm not feeding you bs.

Were you surprised that so many people wear socks in the summer in CA?

You have some astute observations, OP. I live in CA, Los Angeles to be more specific. It is a lot more relaxed and people can be very nice and friendly if you stay in a community for any length of time. There is a generally more positive outlook on life here, less overt hostility and people here are more apt to believe everything will be okay. Mid-Westerners, at least in my experience, are more suspicious and tend to believe negative reporting and media. Yes, there is some mushy thinking, but all-in-all, there is a lot of good here.

Virtually all white liberals are on anti-depressants.

Virtually no Mexicans are on them.

You just noted the difference.

I am a Californian and went to visit my sister a couple of years ago in Des Moines, Iowa and felt like I was visiting another country in some ways. Everything was so green and beautiful. They consider Des Moines as a very large city but in Southern California its more like a moderate size city Like Ontario or San Bernardino. I did not see any homeless people, thieves or riffraff hanging out in shopping mall parking lots. In California it depends on what city you are in if there is a lot of these kind of people hanging out. In some cities like Pomona there are lots of bums outside some stores asking for money. Mostly old drunks. In other cities like in Ontario, there aren't any people in parking lots asking you for money. You go into downtown Los Angeles there are streets which you do not walk in. But if you go over to West L.A, Beverly Hills, Studio City there aren't any homeless people and nobody on shopping center parking lots asking for money. I think it has something to do with how well they are policed. Like you said you saw very few police cars. As far as friendliness goes yes you are right. Over the decades as I grew up the people have become much more unfriendly towards others, especially in areas they are not known. People seem to have gotten ruder towards one another especially while driving. People in stores like supermarkets are much more self centered and do not pay attention to other people in the isles. They will not move for you if you want to go by them, but these seem more like lower class people to me. In nice stores like department stores, (Macy's, Nordstrom ,JC Penny, Sears) people seem to be more friendly and considerate. But not in supermarkets, and stores like Target etc.

As a native Californian, I find this interesting, and pretty accurate.
You got to realize, the state, due to Hollywood and the politics attract a lot of opportunists and riff raff from all over the country. I'm always wary of non-natives because a lot of them expect this hyper-liberal utopia full of drugs and sex not realizing what a bunch of scum accumulates here.

come to Arizona. we got the cali flakes, retirees, mexicans, northerners, canadians, shit my doc was from africa... oh shit!

Are you a hobo?

What I remember about Arizona -- Retirees driving around to the shopping centers in golf carts and orange trees all along the residential streets. Shopping bags full of oranges were left in the hotel free breakfast rooms for anyone to take.

I'm a consultant (paid patsy). I was attending a social function that was non work related. but def was interested in seeing the west coast before I died. Which should be a far far away.

Corporate hobo I guess.

Californians are the scum of the earth. they are the most selfish people you will ever meet. Watch them drive. They don't know where they are going 3/4 of the time and have no problem putting everyone's life in jeopardy so they don't have to spend an extra minute to make a u turn.