My Home Town; East of Eden

[HobieSport]

I thought it might be fun just to post a few snapshots of the town where I live.  But then I thought to throw a little bit of 1950s history into the mix.

The James Dean film East of Eden was partially shot here, especially the opening scenes, and many of the buildings still stand.  Here are a few shots.

The opening panorama long shot of "Monterrey 1917" is our town, Mendocino, in 1954.  The view is about the same today, just more cars on Main Street.

[HobieSport]

This shot on Main Street is right in front of our bookstore.

[HobieSport]

Folks asked the director where he discovered such great actors to play such authentic looking Portuguese fishermen.  They were local extras who were Portuguese fishermen.

The building on the right is Crown Hall, which doubles as one of our local theaters.  Many I time in the 1980s I spent there building and painting sets.

[HobieSport]

This is the old Preston House that was used as the evil mother's house of ill repute.  It burned down soon after the movie was made and is now the site of the Mendocino Art Center.

[HobieSport]

This building across the street is still our volunteer library.

[HobieSport]

This building, the "Ice House" in the movie, was originally a large carriage house, then a high school annex, and it finally just fell apart and was torn down about a decade ago to build a new theater for the high school.

I worked in an art studio during the 1990s with the front porch exactly where the actor on the left is sitting.

Folks who grew up here kind of take all this "James Dean filmed here" stuff for granted after all these years.

Anyway, this is our town, it has changed a lot since then but is still recognizable. Our home is just a bit East of this little Eden.

[Bill Cahill]

Neat looking neighborhood. Lucky you.
Bill Cahill

[HobieSport]

We do feel lucky here but the price of living in our little "storybok village" is pretty tough since the place got "discovered"!

[BDM]

Very interesting Matt. Thanks for sharing that. I'm a fan of that movie also

[McHeath]

Ah Mendocino.  A very nice town, very nice.  I've only been there a couple of times in my life but it certainly was a pleasant place.  Many of the small California costal towns are sweet, from Arcata and Ferndale up north, to Cambria on the central coast, down to Avalon even, all too pretty and neat for their own good.

We run off to the central coast a fair amount, probably 6 or so times a year, we spent a week last year renting a place right on the beach.  If I could afford it we'd set up house on the coast, but alas it costs a fortune to even buy a thimble of dirt.

Last few days here have been hot, 106 on Sunday, the oven of summer is ready it seems.  Aside from the dismal summer weather, my main complaint of my town is the dominant gangster culture of the area.  The police estimate that about a third of the town are in a gang, which seems about right from my experiences in the school system.  Hard to have a place with a lot of public spirit and civic pride with that demographic.  

One of my other "hobbies", due to necessity sadly, is removing gang graffiti in my neighborhood.  Last weekend I removed about 75 "tags" within a few block radius, which is typical after a few weeks of letting it build up.  The city graffiti abatement team removes thousands each month, they work 6 days a week.  

[HobieSport]

That's truly rough about the gangs Heath.  My cousin is also a teacher in So Cal and it's all around, and my brother in law is a principal in Maryland and it's there too. Around here if anyone wanted to do any tagging graffiti, they'd put a proposal together for the local planning groups and all get together and paint a tasteful mural with historically approved color schemes.   And the worst gang war activity we've had was in the 1980's when we did a full blown Summer production of West Side Story.  And yes, I was a Jet.

[Bill Cahill]

I like the town alot, but, looks kinda isolated.
You have to travel by boat to go anywhere.
Bill Cahill

[HobieSport]

"Isolated" from what, Bill? "Big city problems?"

Yes, in the 1880s to the turn of the last century the mode of transportation here was indeed by lumber schooner to the SF Bay area.  Since the whole economy here was lumbering and fishing, boats and ships docked right in Mendocino Bay, and there was usually passage available at least once a week.  After the SF earthquake and fire in 1906, our trees and lumber operations pretty much supplied the wood to rebuild the city, so ships were going back and forth constantly.  We could also get to the city by train in one day, as we supplied all the railroad ties.

During the depression folks survived on lumbering, ranching, fishing, farming and hunting.  But there was always food, and the money in the economy circulated in town but it stayed here, and everyone helped each other out. It was a one day trip by car, truck or train to the city.

In the early 1960s the town was "discovered" by the artists and hippies etc. and there was an influx of colorful new folks, not always seen as welcome, but we got along. But sometimes we missed our "isolation".

Now a days it's four hours by car to the city, or an hour or so by plane, or about a millisecond to anywhere in the world by high speed internet.   It's touristy during the Summers but that is our economy now that the lumbering and fishing has pretty much gone bust.

Anyway, as the old timers here say, "It was a good town then.  It's a good town now." True, we are sometimes thought of as "quaint" or "isolated" but that is just an outmoded stereotype that we perpetuate on purpose to keep the tourist money flowing.

[McHeath]

True, we are sometimes thought of as "quaint" or "isolated" but that is just an outmoded stereotype that we perpetuate on purpose to keep the tourist money flowing

Yup, that's what keeps us Central Valley California folk flowing to the coast towns, the idea of "quaint".  My town as well was once a lumber town, flumes brought the logs from the Sierras to the valley floor, but that went bust during the 30's and since then it's been a very poor town of mostly migrants and day laborers.  Some of the valley towns are in deep economic woe, and have been forever not just in this latest troubles.  One nearby town has an unemployment rate around 30%, my town is about 15%, so we are in great shape.     Even in good times our rate is usually above 10%. 

Funny how so many of the coast towns were once lumber and fishing, and now are tourism.  My folks used to talk about how no one wanted to live on the coast when they were kids in the 30s, it was a tough life, isolated and poor. 

[AET]

Bookstores are great for meeting dames!  Too bad nobody around my town can read.