{"id":632,"date":"2012-05-16T07:00:06","date_gmt":"2012-05-16T14:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/morningnewsinverse.com\/?p=632"},"modified":"2012-05-16T07:00:06","modified_gmt":"2012-05-16T14:00:06","slug":"the-palm-the-pine-a-california-story-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=632","title":{"rendered":"The Palm & The Pine – A California Story Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So, what about the trees in the picture?\u00a0 Glad you asked.\u00a0 If you travel on Highway 99, which goes north-south through the heart of California, about 10 miles north of Fresno, if you look carefully, drive slowly, very slowly, you will see a palm tree and a pine tree together in the meridian.\u00a0 Nothing else, no grassy park, no plaques, no mention of this being a landmark, no special entrance, in fact, no entrance at all, just rows and rows of oleanders along the meridian, then the trees, then more oleanders, all protected by the freeway guard rails.\u00a0 Don\u2019t look for a place to pull over to see the trees, there isn\u2019t one.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The history of how the trees got there is fuzzy at best.\u00a0 Most historians suspect they were put there by agricultural students from Fresno Normal School (now Fresno State University \u2013 they had to take the word \u2018Normal\u2019 out because . . .\u00a0 it\u2019s Fresno!), around 1915.\u00a0\u00a0 We know they were there before 1926 when Highway 99 was under construction. \u00a0It was then workers from the Department of Highways (later to become CalTrans) were ready to cut down the trees to make way for the highway, when a crew member (one of California\u2019s first \u201ctree-huggers\u201d) suggested that the highway go on each side of the trees, which it did.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I was challenged to take pictures of the trees as I drove by (in both directions . . . several times!) window rolled down, one hand on the wheel, one hand on my camera.\u00a0 As I checked out the pictures that I\u2019d taken I found that they were all a little blurry.\u00a0 So to get a good look, or rather a good picture, like the one shown here, one would have to illegally pull off to the side of the highway and hope the CHPs are still back at the Dunkin\u2019 Donut cleaning the contents of a jelly roll from their uniform.\u00a0 Not to be denied a good picture, I got a bright idea.\u00a0 On my next trip around I pulled off to the shoulder of the highway across from the trees, popped my hood and pretended to be looking under it (which is a fairly common occurrence on many of my road trips), but really I was taking pictures.\u00a0 Three people slowed down to offer help, but I gave them a big \u2018OK\u2019 sign and they moved on; perhaps they didn\u2019t want to get involved with someone who was seemingly taking a picture of his motor.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The two trees have special meaning for me.\u00a0 I was born and raised\u00a028 miles north\u00a0of \u2018The City\u2019 (San Francisco) in Novato, and then a teaching job brought me to what my northern friends call \u2018the dark side\u2019 and have now spent the past 40 years in \u2018The O.C.\u2019 (Orange County) in southern California; so I feel eminently qualified to ponder and pontificate on the state of the two halves of the state.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I have observed this: If you talk to Northern Californians they may refer disparagingly to a number of things in the south, nothing personal, just things like, \u201cHow do you stand . . . \u2018all the smog?\u2019, \u2018all the traffic?\u2019, \u2018all the people?\u2019, \u2018all the fake boobs?\u2019 And then add, \u2018and stop stealing our water!\u2019.\u00a0 If you ask Southern Californians about the north and those remarks, they say, \u2018Chill dude, whatever . . . wait a minute, what did you say about boobs?\u2019\u00a0 An objective observer might say the \u2018North\u2019 is a little up-tight and the \u2018South\u2019 a little too laid back.\u00a0 As the self-proclaimed expert on these things, I have seen these traits exhibited as well as some other differences, but I actually see so many more similarities that it\u2019s not conceivable to me that the state will ever be divided.\u00a0 When I think of California I don\u2019t think north and south, I think of things like our beautiful coast line, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Palm Springs, the wine country, the San Joaquin Valley, where nearly every crop known to man can be grown.\u00a0 I think of the creativity in Silicon Valley as well as in Hollywood. \u00a0I think of the history of the Missions and of the Gold Rush.\u00a0 I think of those great writers who lived in and wrote about California, John Steinbeck, Jack London, John Muir, Mark Twain and one of my favorites, Herb Caen, although he had no use for the southern part of the state. \u00a0I think of the fact that no matter where you live in California you\u2019re just a few hours (and sometimes just a few minutes) from the mountains, the desert, and the ocean.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So I think the palm and the pine tree are indeed special, not because they create a \u2018border\u2019, but because they\u2019ve existed peacefully, side-by-side for so many years.<\/p>\n

EPILOGUE<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The two trees were supposedly planted in the exact middle of the state, but actually they\u2019re about 25 miles off, not sure which way.\u00a0 Incidentally, the palm tree is a Canary Island Date Palm and the pine tree is not a pine at all, but a Deodar Cedar; neither is indigenous to California, but then most Californians aren\u2019t.\u00a0 Viva La Difference!<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So, what about the trees in the picture?\u00a0 Glad you asked.\u00a0 If you travel on Highway 99, which goes north-south through the heart of California, about 10 miles north of Fresno, if you look carefully, drive slowly, very slowly, … read more<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[113,285,317,325,355,377,378,409,435,539,540,562,627,649,714,720,792],"class_list":["post-632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-california-coast-line","tag-gold-rush","tag-herb-caen","tag-hollywood","tag-jack-london","tag-john-muir","tag-john-steinbeck","tag-lake-tahoe","tag-mark-twain","tag-palm","tag-palm-springs","tag-pine","tag-san-joaquin-valley","tag-silicon-valley","tag-the-missions","tag-the-wine-country","tag-yosemite"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p31aN0-ac","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}