Discussion: Thousand Oaks

Did you ever do any two-stepping at Borderline? I've gone over there a couple times when I've been there for medical work...it is a very large and active bar just off 101 in Thousand Oaks. A fun place to people watch, have a beer, enjoy some live music, and stumble through a line dance or two.

Reading about the twin disasters (shooting, Woolsey fire) that were visited on the town this week, I was interested in the current description of the town:

...for those from Thousand Oaks it is a point of pride to not be from Los Angeles, 40 miles to the east — residents love their 805 area code and country music is a big thing. The community is conservative and popular with law enforcement and military veterans. It prides itself on its safety, and has been on a list of America’s safest communities.

I know you used to live there quite a while ago; would you have described it in those terms then?

This “conservative” community is part of the California 24th district that just reelected Democrat Julia Brownley to a 4th term. 59% to 41%.

I suppose it was different when I was there, a bit more rural. I never went to the bar (or to any bar). Most of my free time was spent running or mountain biking in the forests, hiking with the family and enjoying the amazing variety of wildflowers, or road biking in the hills. I imagine some of the places I liked to run are likely to have been burnt in this latest conflagration. The last time I was there, the trail across the street that I used to take up into the hills and an almost unbroken stretch of open land all the way to Cheseboro Canyon state park. Did that run one time with Jerry Rice, who was visiting for a few days. Jerry was a great runner. Now there is a gated community where I used to enter the woods. I also met Jerry's brother when I was living there. Jerry was much the more conventional and straightforward character of the two. Which is really saying something.

Unfortunately I didn't know Jerry. Guess he was killed in a car accident a couple of years ago. Some prominent orienteers, including you, wrote nice words in his a/p epitaph thread.

Yes, it sounds like you remember 'vanishing California' with the same nostalgia as I do, having grown up there in the 1940's and '50's. Hard to believe that is where they filmed all those westerns in those days! Seeing Thousand Oaks today must be as disconcerting for you....as seeing the Bay Area is for me.

Many of the westerns were filmed at Wildwood Regional Park, still safe from development, as far as I know. Many other things, including MASH and Dr Quinn Medicine Woman were filmed at Malibu State Park, also, as far as I know, safe from development. The latter was contemporaneous with my stay in those parts, and I remember running by the main set.

I had an interesting run with my friend Jussi Hamalainen one time at Malibu SP. We got there early in the morning on an unusual foggy day, and ran a good part of the route of an ultra race that takes place there, or at least used to. He knew the place, and it was my first time there, and he was a far, far superior runner, even though I was at the top of my game around then. As I recall, he has won a number of 100 mile races, like Angeles Crest. There was a weekend with a trail marathon that he won on Saturday, and I competed. By Sunday I was feeling pretty tender, but went for some gentle mountain biking at Big Sycamore Canyon park, where I found a 50K in progress, and Jussi won that, too. Remarkable fellow.

Anyway, back to our run in Malibu. Eventually the fog burned off, and we had been out maybe 3 or 4 hours and I was pretty trashed. We were headed down a long, long descent, and at one point Jussi pointed up to a ridge line up above and said, "Today we are going up there." As we continued to head downhill I was getting more and more discouraged about the prospect of the climb ahead of me, but then suddenly we were back at the car and I realized I had been confused by Jussi's English grammar, which did not extend to mastery of the past tense. He had been pointing out to me where we had already been. But a really fine fellow and I haven't seen him since I moved back east in '93.

Jerry was also a fine fellow, and a good friend. A pretty unconventional guy. Thanks for posting the link, always nice to remember him.