cbd@ihu1e.UUCP (Carl Deitrick) (02/22/84)
(This is the second time I've posted this; the first one got lost in the ozone.) I lived in a Hawthorne, California (a suburb of Los Angeles) from 1974 until 1978. I always thought that the climate in California was the pits. It was warm in the winter and warmer in the summer, and things looked the same all year round - gray. I longed for a snow storm, a good hard frost, or even a wave of high temperature and humidity to relieve the monotony. The sameness caused me to lose track of time - I had to concentrate to remember if it was May or September or January. The first thing I did when I got out of the Air Force and back to northern New York was go hiking to let the weather beat on me. I now live in the Chicago area and wouldn't go back to California for anything. It may get down to -25 in the winter and up to +100 in the summer, but you have no doubt that Mother Nature is in charge. The occasional down- pour or hurricane or earthquake in Southern California is seen as more of a aberration than as a part of the normal course of events. The only part of the California climate I liked was winter in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The cross-country skiing (which wasn't as popular then as it is now) was just great. I didn't have a TV when I was in California, but there was a radio commercial for Cal Stereo featuring Tom Campbell that was damn near a parody of the slick, fast-talking, hyperbolic (?) salesman. His commercials were so bad that I called the headquarters of Cal Stereo to complain about them. About a year ago I heard one of his commercials on WXRT here in Chicago and called the radio station to complain. Evidently, other people did the same thing because I've not heard him on the radio since. Carl "Glad I'm Out of California" Deitrick ihu1e!cbd