This post may upset some of the more sensitive readers out there so proceed with caution. The post may also come across as racist but I can assure you that I'm not attempting to make any cultural stereotypes, I'm merely reporting what I've been seeing and observing since becoming a stranger in the strange land that is Watsonville, California.
First off, I'm a minority in Watsonville. Half of the population is Mexican or Latin. I don't know for sure but I would guess that it is one of the most affluent Hispanic towns in the US. Helped by the fact that land values have gone through the friggin' roof in the last thirty or forty years.
Median house prices in Santa Cruz county topped $550,000 last year. That includes Watsonville and, while some of the neighborhoods may be bringing that number down, most of the neighborhoods I've gone through have numerous well appointed and well kept houses.
Anyway, think somewhere like Woodside, the Upper East Side in New York or somewhere else that seems to attract affluent white folks, well Watsonville attracts affluent Hispanic folks. The number of people driving around in Escalades, Excursions, Hummers, Benz's and other higher end cars indicates a higher income level than most other towns. Hell, the kid at the house up the street has a brand new Audi TT (they're also the house that rocks like mad when the parents go out of town with cars literally everywhere until around 3 in the morning).
So, yeah, there's folks with money and that's fine, you'd think it would encourage a more congenial level of interaction amongst their fellow man, wouldn't you? You'd be wrong. The default mode for people in Watsonville is Asshole. Asshole behind the wheel, asshole in the grocery store, asshole as neighbor, asshole on the slough trail, asshole everywhere.
I don't know why people are assholes. I don't know why people feel the need to drive like dickheads with their faces buried in their own rose-scented ass's (because you know THIER shit doesn't stink). High school kids driving around in brand new 4Runners, Honda's, Acura's and all manner of other nicer car, far nicer than anything I drove in while growing up. And driving around like they own the damned roads with stupid thump-dy music bumping and screeching up and down our hill all the time. And its not just the teenagers, its everyone.
I call a certain look the bullethead look. Its when someone's forehead slopes back sharply from their face and I don't know why but they seem to be the most willfully oblivious assholes on the road. Male, female, old, young, it doesn't matter in the least. They will cut you off for no reason at all. There can be two lanes and nobody but you and them on the road and they will swerve in front of you before coming to a stop at a stoplight. Just to make you be behind them. Which plays oh so well to a throttle jockey on a sport bike. I fear I'm not making any friends with my riding style in town but I really couldn't give a damn anymore.
All I'm doing now is knocking each day off as we approach that magical watershed moment when we can put this house up on the market and move back to Santa Cruz where the default is something more like, "Hey Dude" rather than "Asshole".
And it pains me on some levels to think that its so easy to dismiss a town because of a few douchebags behind the wheel. But the sentiment is borne out at every opportunity. Driving around "my" town is an exercise in slot car racing, you get cut off, pop right or pop left and get into a clear lane again. I suppose a more mature person would allow it to roll off their back like water off a duck. But fuck that. Everytime I don't react, I feel punked, like they had their way with me. And I'll be damned if I'm going to willfully allow some asswipe to punk me without a fight.
It makes life more dangerous but it also makes things a little more exciting. I enjoy my commute most mornings. This morning was no exception as I was running late and wound the bike up to triple digits for a little ways from time to time. Mostly though, I kept at about ten miles an hour faster than the rest of traffic to keep moving through it all and get to work before I was really, really late (by the way, was it damned near impossible for anyone else to get out of bed this morning?).
There are some distinct advantages to having a two wheel sport bike to slice through the herds of iron buffalos in the morning.
The problem is that there really is nothing I can do to alleviate this problem, aside from moving away, which we will be doing at our earliest possible opportunity. I know where we're not wanted and that's cool, we don't want to be there either. I want to have a little privacy with my homestead, I want to be able to wander around my property buck naked without half the neighborhood being able to glance out their window and see me. I want to be able to let my dog roam some and not worry about some 18 year old in a souped up Civic running her down because he's showing off for his hoochie-mama in the passenger seat. I want to be able to walk around the block at any time of the day or night and not worry about some gangsta giving me shit. I want to not have to be thinking about buying a pump shotgun to protect my family. I want to not feel like a goldfish in a bowl surrounded by hungry cats.
And I really want to get back to a place where people aren't automatically going to be assholes to me just because I'm not Hispanic or maybe they're assholes to each other just as much, who knows and who cares. I just want to not feel like my home is in the middle of a battlefield. And I really want to get away from the assholes posing as neighbors.
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