So this is the land that shaped me, nurtured me, inspired me, and even prompted me to leave home to explore even further. It’s a very conservative population, but in the best way. Ask anyone who has suffered a tragedy there, and they’ll affirm that there’s no place better when you are in need. These are people who still believe in taking care of their own. When my own father passed away when I was 19, our family came home to find that my mother’s friends had left an absolute banquet in our kitchen so that we wouldn’t worry about cooking for weeks after. Good people. And these were folks I would see again after a 40-year absence. I couldn’t wait.
My itinerary would include multiple stops in central California. I flew in to San Jose and spent the first night with my college roommates (and still best friends) Art and Alex and Art’s family, rented a car and drove to the mountains. I had been home several times over the years with my wife Kari and son Connor, but this was a pure “for me” by myself visit.
One of my first impressions this time was how much farmland was lying fallow. California provides more produce than any other state. Virtually all the avocados, nuts, broccoli, strawberries, cantaloupes, navel oranges and lettuce you eat today come from California. But the state is in the midst of the worst drought in recorded history, and after three straight years of virtually no rainfall the central farmland shows the damage. The reservoirs I drove past have been drying out for so long that huge portions of what once were underwater have become grasslands. The government is wrestling with competing interests, from environmentalists who want to restore salmon runs and save the delta snail darter, to the farmers and everyone else who needs the water coming from the Sacramento delta. Wells are running dry, and the ancient waters below the San Joaquin Valley are being tapped to the point that parts of the valley are actually sinking. Needless to say, no one seems happy with any of the decisions coming from the capitol, Sacramento, and some orchard owners are allowing their trees to die from lack of water so they can at least recoup insurance money. I stayed a couple nights with my cousin Buster and his family in Prather, in the foothills not far from Mariposa County. Last year, Prather’s rainfall totaled 3”.