While Che Underground regulars might think of sooty basements, Beatle boots and bottomless cups of coffee as pillars of San Diego history, most of the world makes simpler associations: There’s the zoo; Tijuana; and above all, the beach.
Time to draw the most glaring fact of San Diego geography into our memory exercise. Living in Encinitas, the Pacific Ocean to me was the definitive point of reference when plotting my movements (an absolute I miss in twisty Essex County, New Jersey). It was also the site of some memorable parties, and occasionally I even made it into the water! But it also scared me a little, and I never felt like I understood it the way a lot of other kids did.
The blue-green complexions and decidedly landlocked wardrobes of many of our colleagues make me think that even the California natives among them caught precious few rays at the beach. Others grew up surfing, but I can’t remember how much they segregated that part of their lives from the black-leather culture of punk. (All these categories seemed so much more rigid back in the day, and engineer boots don’t float.)
So let’s wax oceanographic: What did that big body of water due west represent to you? Was it a childhood friend? A painful reminder that you weren’t living in New York or London? Did it inform your aesthetic, your leisure and your social mores, either as a call to action or a source of reaction?
More on who we are and how we got here:
- “Tourist, go home!” (How native is “native”?)
- Record stores: Unchained vinyl (Where’d you buy your licorice pizza?)
- Our family tree (Let’s trace our roots)
- El sabor de San Diego (What do your memories taste like?)
- Let’s talk about girls (The scene wasn’t boys-only)
- Ye olde body mods (Where’d you get your ink?)
- Weird SD (Odd corners of San Diego)
- Rock ‘n’ roll high school (How HS scenes informed your creative process)
- The Mayor of Sunset Strip (How radio and other sources shaped your tastes)
- Hyphenates (How did you define yourself and those around you?)
- Career opportunities (What do you do nowadays to pay the bills? And what did you learn then that helps you now?)
- She gets confused … Flying over the dateline (Why’d you end up where you are?)
- OK, Jerry started it … (Our kids and cats in pictures)
- Under the ‘hood (Your corner of San Diego and how it shaped you)
- San Francisco exodus (Who left their hearts in San Francisco?)
- Who’s the OLD dude? (What would your current self tell your young self?)