DISCOVERY OF CA 2: CALIFORNIA DREAMIN'

      The movie "Pretty Woman" ends with the message from HAPPY MAN: "Welcome to Hollywood! What's your dream? Everybody comes here; this is Hollywood, land of dreams. Some dreams come true, some don't; but keep on dreamin' - this is Hollywood. Always time to dream, so keep on dreamin'. "
     The historian Ken Starr wrote a series of books on the history of California from its discovery to the 1960's.  They provide an introduction to the major topics and events in the state in its short but dramatic history.  The first is called "Americans and the California Dream",  and the subsequent volumes all carry the dream theme along in their title.  I think his intention was to capture the hopes and fantasies of people coming to the state and the continuous quality of dreams in later arrivals.   There have been many migrations of dreamers into the state.  The first was the Junipero Sera expedition of the Spanish Missionaries that created the chain of missions on the coast.  The second was the gold rush of 1849 that created San Francisco and the State as a state of the union.  The third major migration of the "pioneers" in covered wagons was an amazing heroic series of journeys,  described from a personal perspective by Didion in "Where I was From".  The fourth was the dust bowl "Okie" migration of desperate farmers from the mid-West described in "Grapes of Wrath" and numerous films.  And there have been many other smaller ones,  including Chinese and Japanese settlers coming to help develop the new state.   Each group came with their dreams of wealth and happiness,  and some were rewarded beyond even their wildest dreams,  and others ended in disaster and death,  like the "Donner party".
     The disparity between dreams and reality is huge.  The Okies came swarming to Southern California imagining it was the Eden of their dreams, only to find themselves blocked at the borders by the previous generations of immigrants who were all too aware of how limited the opportunities were, and did not welcome more competition for the limited resources.  Didion's description of Sacramento echoes the same impatience with the economic invasion of post war immigrants, who were not "settlers" and did not understand what the previous generation of "pioneers" had been through. After living here for a few years,  I realize that I am no different from the other migrants to this place.  I came with dreams, like being close to family, which have been realized. And others, like being part of the film industry, that have not. It is not an easy place to retire since the housing costs are high, and the scattered development makes car travel a necessity in a place where this can be very frustrating. (Driving in LA is a whole other story!) The weather is often pleasant, though not quite as promoted by the C of C. Some very wealthy people retire to LA and enjoy its charms buoyed up by their affluence, but most come with less, and struggle to find their place in a city which has embodied the extremes of rich and poor much longer than the most of the US. As always, the poor struggle most, the middle class have less coherence as they try desperately to ascend to the 1% and have more influence, and even the 1% have little influence in a place where the 0.1% are in great supply.
      The irony is not lost on me. For there is a mental transformation that immigrants to California  must go through after they arrive. The "dreams of California" must be replaced by the realities of sustaining daily lives in a difficult environment.  At one time, the challenges were a lack of water, and very limited development.  Oil, movie, aviation, military and real estate booms brought prosperity, over development, and the challenges of modern California: an overpopulated, economically competitive state the size of most countries.   The "old timers" who have managed to survive here all understand: if you have not struggled to survive here, you are not really a Californian, just a "California dreamer".