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Justinoaksford — North Wall Pasadena
Published: 2011-10-09 02:05:16 +0000 UTC; Views: 2178; Favourites: 41; Downloads: 76
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Description
The north end of PasadenaRelated content
Comments: 6
Haven't been to Pasadena, but I spent three years in the San Francisco bay area in the mid-'90s, and this certainly looks like a familiar kind of terrain. Makes me smile.
I remember, shortly after I moved to Mountain View, a friend who'd been there longer told me you couldn't be really lost in Silicon Valley and the peninsula itself. "If what's in front of you is dark hills, you're facing west toward the coastal range. If what's in front of you is tawny hills, you're facing east toward the dryer Sierras, which aren't watered by the coastal fog.. If you see both, you're heading south to where they run together, and if you can't see either, you're facing north toward San Francisco."
And she was certainly right, and it came in handy. But the one thing she forgot to warn me about was that, of course, the peninsula doesn't run directly north-south, so if you're on a freeway and want to head, say, East, you might have to figure out quickly whether you wanted the ramp marked North or South.
--Nonie
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This is precisely how pasadena works for people- most of my friends here don't know north, south, east, or west. They live here for 3 years and say "it's facing away from the mountains" or "if you are going away from the mountains you turn left".
Thanks for your comment! I like reading people's anecdotes like this.
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Isn't it Hawaii whose main directions are, basically, landward/seaward/clockwise/anticlockwise?
Directions are one of those linguistic/anthropological delights for me, because they can shake us out of our assumptions. I once saw a young and well-meaning Wiccan online who was trying to sort out candle colors for the four directions (if I remember right) ask an older woman what colors the Native Americans used for the four directions.
And the older woman, whom I took to immediately, told her gently that there are hundreds of "Native American" cultures with completely different religions, but that if she was thinking about groups like the Navaho, there were actually six or seven directions, not four, because they also had Above, Below, and perhaps Here.
It's good for us to have our minds shaken up every now and then.
Your fan, as always,
--Nonie
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