Uncle Jazzbeau’s Gallimaufrey

provincial musings

As the result of some playful commentary over on Desiderata, I've been trying to come to terms with the concepts of Northern and Southern California, as opposed to the mythical states of North and South California. It's all just a matter of physical, cultural, and political geography. Objectively, splitting the state in half physically would involve drawing a line west to east beginning somewhere around Monterey on the coast over through Clovis and on to the Nevada border near Death Valley somewhere west of Beatty. AJ, up in Chico, thinks that Northern California ends somewhere north of Sonoma county. Another concept thrown around was Central California. This would run north from Sonoma county down south to San Luis Obispo. There are even some people up in the Far North have kept the idea of a separate state alive. I always felt that while Del Norte and Siskiyou had more to do with Southern Oregon than California, Modoc had closer ties to Northwestern Nevada. Back in the '60s, state senator Richard Dolwig of San Mateo, introduced a bill to split the state in two, with South California being those counties south of the Tehachapi mountains. I suppose we could just succeed from the Union and reconstitute the Bear Flag Republic. Being a Sonoman, I'd approve of that. Meanwhile, politically, now we have to vote on whether or not we want the sitting governor to remain sitting.

[Addendum 07/27/03: Ernie, over at little. yellow different. has a whole different take on the whole North-South California thing vis-a-vis the Bay Area. Good Old Gold Mountain / Saint Francis; brittle, brittle. As for famous Oaklanders there's, of course, no-there-there, Dirty Gurdy Stein. via Chicken or Beef?]