The Californian's Tale

I'm not sure how many people who know me from my life in Maryland realize that I was born in California. Most know that I am from the west coast or that I grew up in Oregon, but I guess I don't feel much like a Californian anymore. I remember plenty from my first ten years there, but when I visit the town where I grew up, it doesn't feel at all like "home." Pleasanton's population has nearly doubled since my parents first moved there in 1983, and I hardly recognized anything besides Main Street the last time I was there. (As a side note, though, I'm reading Juaquin Murieta this semester and hoping there is at least one scene of him Zorro-ing his way through Pleasant0n.)

Although I never lived in either, the two places in California that remind me most of my youth are Lompoc, where my dad's family has now been living for generations, and Santa Barbara, where my mom grew up. This year, thanks to Mimi and Papa (my dad's parents), Billy and I were able to visit my family in both towns between Christmas and New Year's Day!!

After spotting John Waters in the Baltimore airport made me feel like some kind of official Baltimorean, we arrived at LAX (where, incidentally, we saw no celebrities). Our first stop on our drive up the coast toward Santa Barbara was at an In-N-Out Burger in Sherman Oaks that was seriously exceeding its 50 person capacity. Despite the crowd, we were actually in and out, and Billy gave the food the thumbs up. I forgot to ask them to hold the pickles, and Vickie informed me later that you can get your milkshake Neapolitan style. Perhaps my "Californian" card has been revoked, after all.

As we drove into Santa Barbara, I began recognizing street names that had been buried deep in the catacombs of my brain. The strangest sensation, though, was driving by the Montecito Country Club, next to which my grandparents used to live, and recognizing the smell. I'm not making this up. I put the windows down, and it got even stronger... and then it was gone. My mom thinks it was the eucalyptus.

We got to spend several delightful, sunny days in Santa Barbara. My Gramma Kingston had gotten us a room at her beautiful retirement community, and my mom was already in town for Christmas. It was nice to have the chance to sit and visit with both of them. I think Gramma really enjoyed showing Billy around her little "nest" (as she calls her condo) and the grounds of the community. We gave her a photo album of different photos of us throughout the years, so it was fun to go through them with her and talk about where we were in each one. Talking with Gramma is always entertaining because she has such a diverse collection of memories to draw from. I can never even keep up with her as she moves from one topic of discussion to another, so I just dig in and prepare for the ride. It is unbelievable to me that at her age she still has such a great memory. She has experienced so much change and innovation in her lifetime-- this is a woman who was born a week after Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated-- before World War 1 had even begun! Though she likes to throw up her hands and declare "oh, this modern world!" she has quite a firm grasp on a lot of the things that are going on. We also got to watch the video from her 95th birthday party this past summer, which I was glad to see because I was sorry to have missed the celebration.

On Sunday morning, we found what must be the only dive bar in all of Santa Barbara, and Billy found out what it is like to begin watching NFL football at 10am. The Ravens lost, but I learned the appropriate drink for a woman to order in this environment: a mimosa. After that, my Uncle Dean, my Aunt Andy, and my cousins David and Patrick arrived. I don't think I have seen them since I was in high school, so it was fun to catch up with them and hear a little bit about what they've been doing lately. (Patrick is a junior at UC Davis, and David works in San Franscisco.) Vickie got in that evening, so we got to celebrate her birthday with cake and ice cream.

On Monday, our close family friend/surrogate grandmother, Mrs. Whitney, met us all for lunch right on the beach in Santa Barbara. The location was beautiful and it was warm! Then we took Billy for a walk along the beach in town and went out onto the pier to take pictures and look in some shops. Then I made them all go to State Street in search of Pinkberry, the upscale frozen yogurt that is a favorite of the celebrities. It was delicious, but since State Street is the shopping district in SB, the people watching was even better. I loved that everyone there was consciously constructing a "look," and that every different type of look I know was represented: tailored, trendy, boho, surfer, emo, green, and more. There was not a lazy t-shirt and jeans anywhere to be seen. Billy just said, "this is what I thought people in California would be like." : ) We ended the day with family dinner at Gramma's and game night, which was also a lot of fun, and during which the cheaters were vanquished. The next morning, Mrs. Whitney took us all out to breakfast, and this time Billy and I got to spend the whole meal chatting with her, which was delightful. She is the first person I've talked to yet who seemed to fully appreciate my excitement about finding Cather's letter to Mencken. Mrs. Whitney knows a lot about everything, including space, so it was fun to listen to her talking to Billy about his job, too.

(From Left: Mrs. Whitney, Liz, Billy, Vickie, Patrick, Mom, Gramma, David, Uncle Dean)

After breakfast, Billy, Vickie, and I made the drive up to Lompoc, where we were going to be staying with my dad's parents, Mimi and Papa. It was fun pulling up to their house with Billy, because they have lived at 1124 N Gardenia since long before I was born. The tree out front that I crashed into when learning to ride a bike is gone, and they have replaced the blue shag carpet that was great for pick-up-stix, but it still feels like "home" to me.

After visiting with them for a while, Dad and Judy arrived, and Papa took us all on a tour of the Lompoc Valley. He took us up above the valley so we could look down on it, and he pointed out Vandenberg Air Force Base and the places from which they launch the rockets, some of which are affiliated with Billy's job. Driving around town with Papa is especially fun because he says things like, "I leveled the ground for this development," or "my crew carved out this mountainside to give clearance for the wings of the space shuttle when they towed it down the road." Billy got to see my Uncle Steve's farm and all the crops, too. We made a quick trip to a bar called Jasper's to visit with my (great) Aunt Betty before she left town. Outside, an older, homeless looking woman shuffled by, which struck me as strange because I have never in my life seen a homeless person in Lompoc (I thought they had all moved to Santa Barbara). Billy and I had to try to keep from laughing when, after she walked by, Papa said, "she was in my graduating class at Lompoc High," before pointing her out as Mimi's "friend," to which Mim said "she said hello to you, Donnie."

All of my dad's siblings still live in Lompoc, so it was a great chance to spend time with different family members. Our cousin Mackenzee is 13 now, and she was a lot of fun to have along throughout our visit. I kept my mouth shut about her plans to quit dance and stick with soccer but it was fun to hear her thinking through decisions like this on her own. Her brother Dalton is 16, so he was busy with friends while we were there, but he still made some time to come to family dinner at Mim's and stop by for some football. He says he wants to go to the University of Texas, so maybe this will finally give me an excuse to visit Austin. Their parents, my Aunt Kim and Uncle Craig, were great to see, and since Craig and Dalton weren't able to make it to Maryland for the wedding, I was really glad Billy was able to meet them. I was not surprised to find that Uncle Craig is also a Rob Dyrdek fan or that Billy noticed how unique my Aunt Kim's laugh is. : )

We also got to spend some time with Dad, Judy, Aunt Carrie, and Uncle Steve at Carrie and Steve's house. They just put in bar in their upstairs room, along with a 60" television, so this was the prime place to watch Navy destroy Missouri in their bowl game and to see Oregon fare less favorably in the Rose Bowl against Ohio State. Aunt Carrie also made dinner for us on New Year's Eve, including some fresh artichokes from Uncle Steve's farm and prime rib from the cow raised by one of Mackenzee's 4-H friends. (We didn't get to eat any of Luau, the pig Mackenzee raised from 30ish pounds to 240 pounds, though.) My Aunt Dana joined us for this dinner as well as the spaghetti dinner Mim had made the night before, and it was good to have a chance to hear what she has been up to lately.

I am very thankful that Billy and I got to stay with Mimi and Papa, who went out of their way to make us feel right at home, as always. Billy got to experience some of their bantering back and forth and their interjecting into one another's stories. These two have always cracked me up. I hope that when we are retired, Billy and I get to enjoy a life together like they have. This gives me about 30 years to convince Billy that we should get a motorhome, because right now, he is not enthusiastic about the idea. : ) Mim even made us breakfast every morning without mentioning the fact that when I was young, I called her velveeta macaroni and cheese "disgusting."

One moment that I think gave Billy a pretty good indication of my "family life" in Lompoc revolved around a discussion of Mike Leach, the now former head coach of Texas Tech's football team. The questions about whether or not he locked a player with a concussion into a dark room kept being discussed on the tv. Mimi and Papa kept talking about how unfortunate it was that this young man has brought down this coach's career when nobody really knows what happened. Papa pointed out that one of the other coaches called the player "uncoachable." Dad pointed out that Leach would have to be stupid to lock up that particular kid, because his dad works for ESPN. My Aunt Dana sided with the kid and was ready to condemn Leach, suggesting that they should "put him where they put Michael Vick." Then someone brought up the fact that earlier in the season, Leach said his players were doing poorly because they were spending time with their "fat little girlfriends." My Aunt Kim said that was awful, and everyone else agreed, and then after a pause, my Uncle Craig said, "Well, were they fat?" Kim shouted "Craig!", Mim said "well, that was not nice," and Billy and I cracked up.

This is life in the Chambers family, Billy. Welcome to it!!

("The Californian's Tale" is a short story by Mark Twain about California during its prospecting/ Gold Rush days.)