Increase Your Knowledge

So, being from California, I have come across people who have many false assumptions about the state. I decided to inform all those who didn't already know about a few things. Here goes.

Things you should know about California:

1. We have mountains. And snow. BIG mountains. Ever heard of the Sierra Nevadas? Donner Pass (where it was so cold and snowy and conditions were so bad that they had to eat the dead bodies)? Mammoth? Yosemite? You know how we have earthquakes? Yeah. Those usually happen on fault lines. Know what else happens on fault lines? Yup, mountains.

2. California is a BIG state. If you want to drive from the bottom of CA to the top, it would take you probably close to 20 hours. Seriously. So when somebody says they are from San Francisco area or Southern California, realize that they are talking about a 6 hour drive or so (for perspective, it takes probably 8-9 hours to get from Southern CA to Provo).

3. San Francisco is not really in Northern California. Okay, maybe it is slightly in Northern California, but mostly it is in Central California - remember that it's a big state?

4. People from California don't usually call it Cali (granted there are a very few exceptions - usually people who haven't lived here for a while). Oh, and while I'm on it, note that people never call Orange County the OC. That's the name of a TV show. Period.

5. We have farms. Lots of farms. Lots of cows. In fact, the central part of California is pretty much all agriculture. When people say they are from Fresno, that's more of what you should be picturing rather than palm trees and beaches. If someone says they are from California and they have never seen a cow they're either lying or totally in their own world.

6. Misconception: there are no open areas in California (especially Southern California). It depends what you are talking about. It is true that there are generally a lot of people along the coast (not always, but most of the time), but we actually have a lot of open area. We have a really big empty desert (the Mojave). We also have tons of national parks (think Yosemite, Lassen, Sequoia, etc.). Not only that, but we must have open spaces because how do you think all of the wildfires start? Not in someone's kitchen, that's for sure.

7. No, we do not have earthquakes every day. You can't even feel most earthquakes because they are too small. I can distinctly remember 2 destructive earthquakes in Southern California during my lifetime and the last one was the Northridge earthquake in 1994.

8. Contrary to popular opinion, though California usually has pretty good weather, it is NOT a tropical climate. Translation - the ocean is cold. In about August and sometimes July it warms up and you can definitely go swimming, but it is not warm. Sorry to burst your bubble, but palm trees are not native to Southern California either, they just grow well here. And it really only rains in the winter months. Rarely does it rain after April and before November (by the way, that's called a Mediterranean Climate - guess where else is the only place on earth with the same climate?).

9. June Gloom - Southern California is not always sunny and pretty during the summer (actually, my favorite months in California are not the summer months, but that's just me). We get this thing called June Gloom. It has to do with a cloud cover that comes in from the ocean. I'm just saying, if you are looking for sunny skies, they are hit and miss in June (although it is still warm).

10. Californians can't really be generalized. Because it is such a large state, you must be careful in thinking that you can make generalizations about the state. I'm not talking about little differences that you find in every state, but the culture is actually pretty distinctive. Think of the differences you can imagine between Los Angeles and San Francisco. They actually are extremely different cities. Thus, Northern and Southern California are pretty distinctive culturally. You should really visit each to find out - wouldn't that be so much fun?

Anyway, if you stuck with it and read the whole list, hopefully you are a more educated person regarding California. Just something that's been on my mind. I think the key is just to remember that California is really BIG, which means that it's really hard to make assumptions about the whole state...