After rescuing the Teddy Bear in Pacific Grove we headed through rural California to Stockton. Our drive was leisurely – along a 45 mph two-lane highway. No one was in a hurry so we were able to dawdle and enjoy the scenery. We drove through some of the most beautiful areas of rural California. After experiencing the countryside around Barstow from the train and the coastline along Pacific Highway 1, we learned that California scenery can be awful or awe inspiring. Here it was easily the latter.
Stockton is not on most people’s list of places to visit in California. It is an inland port city, some 80 miles inland to be precise, that has the dubious distinction of being Detroit’s sister city in bankruptcy. To add insult to injury, Stockton’s current mayor is a foot-in-mouth twin of Toronto’s Mayor Rob Ford. On a recent visit to a local elementary school he traumatized 3rd graders with his graphic description of gunshot wounds in school shootings. He then moved on to the 5th grade where he touted his opposition to condom use as a high school student. I suspect that the majority of the non-voting 5th graders could care less about his political position on condom use. And there was probably a sizable group who had no inkling of what he was even talking about. “What does he have against condominiums?” The Mayor had been invited to the school to promote reading. He’d been asked to read age appropriate books to each class. In his defense the mayor observed that he thought the books that he was assigned to read were “inappropriate.” Now the school officials have a better sense of what the mayor deems suitable for 3rd and 5th grade curricula.
The upside of our trip to Stockton was that it allowed us to re-connect with old Carrboro friends, Cheryl and Giulio. It has been many years since we last saw them, so it was great to catch up on each other’s lives, children and grandchildren. Giulio is the Dean of the Conservatory of Music at University of the Pacific in Stockton. Cheryl is a concert violinist and plays with the Stockton Symphony in addition to gigs in Los Angeles and elsewhere in California. For those of you who are familiar with our musical capabilities and our tone deafness I know it will be hard for you to imagine that we know such musically talented people. So we took pictures to prove it. We are indeed fortunate!
We had a wonderful dinner with Cheryl and Giulio our first evening in Stockton. The next morning they gave us a guided tour of the city and filled us in on its history and its political foibles. An explanatory tour by local residents who provide wry local color can make any city interesting.