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I grew up in East L.A., home of the "Flats", "White Fence" and "Hazard". If you saw the movie "American Me", it was about a gang leader from "Hazard" that started the "Mexican Mafia". At 19, I moved to the San Fernando Valley where I cruised Van Nuys Blvd. Then at 38, I moved to Gardena then Torrance. Torrance is in the South Bay area of LA County next to Redondo Beach.

Torrance is the safest and largest city in the South Bay area.

The great thing about living in Torrance is the temperature is always mild, it's next to the beach (1 mile from my house) and we have yearround cruising. The bad, cost of living. Average home prices went from $250K in 94' to $750K now.
 
I`ve always wondered how these people can afford houses like that. Is the pay wage a lot more than other parts of the country or what ?
Where I live, $15 / hour is decent pay, but a nice house will only cost you about $125K.
Everyone here usually has a double income (husband & wife both work). Depending on the industry, pay is pretty good. There's TRW, Hughes, MacDonald Douglas, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mobil, Standard and the best wages, Longshoreman.

A guy I know works the cranes at the harbor. 4 hrs a day, 5 days a week, $125K a year.

I bought my house for $315K , 15 years ago. The house payment is $2300 a month but my wife works. If I needed to buy a house now, I couldn't afford it. 4 bedroom homes in my area are going for $800K-900K.

Another great job is the Hollywood industry. My neighbors son lives in Colorado but spends the spring and summer here, building sets for the studios. Fall and winter, he goes home.

My house, in another state, would probably be $125K.
 
lived all my life on the west side of Washington state in a lil town called Eatonville, Wa. 5 months ago I changed my life by Buying a house in Cheney Washington and moved here, love it and dont think i'm ever going to move.

Jim
 
Colorado

I also live in No. Ea. Colo. and love watching the sun set on the Rockys, but have been looking a land futher west. was in Leadville, Co few weeks ago looking at some land, also some old tin.
 
I live in diverse area. To the South rolling farm land to the West desert like arid land sage brush and cattle range, and farm land irrigated from the Columbia river. To the North and East Mountains. Don't have but a few miles in either direction to find the different landscape. 125 lakes within 125 miles.

First pic is from my front deck. The second was taken around sunrise from a place called Steptoe Butte, clouds provide the shadows, nothing but wheat farms as far as the eye can see.

Celebrities are even know to vacation in the area.
 

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Nothing to brag about here unless you like flat bald range or bald rolling hills. Can't wait till my son graduates from high school in the spring. Maybe this time next year can think about moving. Like to move to southern Az. or New Mexico. Any where it stays warmer in the winter.:eek:
 
Fiki,
Your city archives go back to the 13th century!!!!
I think we still had dinosaurs here then :D
Thanks for posting the links.
 
Gassergarage,
Heard a few stories about Van Nuys blvd. back in the day.
Would you share some highlights from your experiences? :)
 
i live about 45min. south of chicago. joliet. all we have is a prison. statesville. other than that we have starve rock state park. nice place to walk around.
 
I live in Truckee, right by Lake Tahoe. We really enjoy the lifestyle here and there is always stuff to do outside. Just got the grass in this summer.
 

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We can get a lot of snow just not much for the last couple of years. I hope we get a lot this year since my girlfriend and I bought ski passes. Truckee can get pretty cold though, it sometimes is the coldest place in the U.S.
 
Gassergarage,
Heard a few stories about Van Nuys blvd. back in the day.
Would you share some highlights from your experiences? :)
Here ya go!
Back in the 70's, cruising on Van Nuys Blvd was the place to be every Wed night. Every group had there own spot. Mine was Jack'n the Box. Van Nuys was 6 lanes plus a painted center divider, 2 lanes wide. It was a major shopping district for the San Fernando Valley. A lot of my friends belong to a street racing club call "RACE ?". On Wed, traffic was bumper to bumper. The strip was about 4 miles long and it would take an hour to make a circuit.

I would park my 65' Malibu SS in the parking lot and yell "Race?" at anything with mags. My Malibu had a 454, 4 speed with 4:88 on 11" M&H slicks. One night a kid pulled into Jack'n the Box with a 70' 454 Chevelle SS. He popped the hood and all the chrome and braided line would blind you. I asked the kid if he wanted to race, pointing at my 65'. The kid said, "But your tires are bald!". I told the kid I couldn't afford new tires.

We set the race for $25 and went behind the Burbank Airport (in those days, $25 would last you a week. You could fill a tank for $5). We took off and he smoked his tires so bad, I just idled out. When I saw his front end begin to rise, I figured he was finally getting traction and nailed it. 1st, 2nd and 3rd, I stayed in it, then coasted. I beat him by 1 car length. That kid was so happy, he almost caught me. I told him we could go from a roll and get his money back. He said he would do it but he was out of money.(sigh) Told him to come back when he had more.
 
Taylor Bay Washington.
8 miles to the nearest gas, 25 miles to a major grocery store, 65 miles to work (Seattle).

Burnout- I lived in Kings Beach 77-79,had a great time there but work was hard to come by.

Fred
 
Cape cod... aka: the sand bar
some of you MAY have heard of it.

Easy way to find it, look for the big ARM that sticks out into the ocean from MA :p
 

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