Back in the day, when it wasn't the hippest place on the globe
I was watching some game show on TV recently, and one of the contestants stated she was from "The O.C." I wanted to crawl thru the screen and wring her with-it little neck!
Then there's that TV show that so many people like called "The O.C." That's where all this got started, on some stupid show with vapid characters that don't resemble anyone you actually know. Pleeeeeease!
TV's been making shows about L.A. forever, now they've decided to move a little south and invade places I know like Newport Beach. Even I know that Newport Beach is cool, and this was back in the days when it was "locals only". The locals knew cool when they saw it.
"The O.C." they show on TV is worlds away from the place I grew up, Orange County, California. Not "The O.C." I wouldn't be caught dead telling people I was from "The O.C.", though that would give people some idea of where I was talking about, because of that show. That's like someone from San Francisco calling their city "Frisco" (which bugged the crap out of my dad, a San Francisco native), or New Orleanians calling their city "The Big Easy" (I read on some website that no one in New Orleans calls it that).
Now, granted, that I grew up in Orange County back in the 70's and 80's when it wasn't known the world over as the hippest address on the planet next to "90210". It was a "bedroom community" south of L.A. When people asked me where I was from (which after living on the East Coast for 15 years, I was asked that a lot because I didn't sound like I was from either Virginia or Massachusetts), I'd say Orange County, California. Usually, that was followed by "Where's that?" I'd say it's about 50 miles south of L.A., or where Disneyland is.
Orange County was a great place to grow up. My parents were "comfortable", not wealthy, and my sister and I lacked for nothing. Believe it or not, there are poor people in "The O.C." They lived in the county seat of Santa Ana (and still do to my knowledge) and were either mostly Hispanic or Vietnamese. I couldn't afford to live there now, even if I had a job, a house, a car that runs, and money in the bank. I don't want to live in California. I've been trying my whole adult life to escape from that place. It's nothing like it was when I lived there. I have my memories of what it was like, and I'd like to keep them without having them invalidated by some idiotic, unrealistic teen-angst drama.
In closing, I'd like to apologize to those of you who truly like the show. I don't. If you want to think that real life in "The O.C." is like that, that's your prerogative. I know it's not. I'm from Orange County, California. I'm proud of that. I'll always be a California girl. To paraphrase a well know saying, "You can take the girl out of California, but you can't take California out of the girl."
--MorelaterZ--
Then there's that TV show that so many people like called "The O.C." That's where all this got started, on some stupid show with vapid characters that don't resemble anyone you actually know. Pleeeeeease!
TV's been making shows about L.A. forever, now they've decided to move a little south and invade places I know like Newport Beach. Even I know that Newport Beach is cool, and this was back in the days when it was "locals only". The locals knew cool when they saw it.
"The O.C." they show on TV is worlds away from the place I grew up, Orange County, California. Not "The O.C." I wouldn't be caught dead telling people I was from "The O.C.", though that would give people some idea of where I was talking about, because of that show. That's like someone from San Francisco calling their city "Frisco" (which bugged the crap out of my dad, a San Francisco native), or New Orleanians calling their city "The Big Easy" (I read on some website that no one in New Orleans calls it that).
Now, granted, that I grew up in Orange County back in the 70's and 80's when it wasn't known the world over as the hippest address on the planet next to "90210". It was a "bedroom community" south of L.A. When people asked me where I was from (which after living on the East Coast for 15 years, I was asked that a lot because I didn't sound like I was from either Virginia or Massachusetts), I'd say Orange County, California. Usually, that was followed by "Where's that?" I'd say it's about 50 miles south of L.A., or where Disneyland is.
Orange County was a great place to grow up. My parents were "comfortable", not wealthy, and my sister and I lacked for nothing. Believe it or not, there are poor people in "The O.C." They lived in the county seat of Santa Ana (and still do to my knowledge) and were either mostly Hispanic or Vietnamese. I couldn't afford to live there now, even if I had a job, a house, a car that runs, and money in the bank. I don't want to live in California. I've been trying my whole adult life to escape from that place. It's nothing like it was when I lived there. I have my memories of what it was like, and I'd like to keep them without having them invalidated by some idiotic, unrealistic teen-angst drama.
In closing, I'd like to apologize to those of you who truly like the show. I don't. If you want to think that real life in "The O.C." is like that, that's your prerogative. I know it's not. I'm from Orange County, California. I'm proud of that. I'll always be a California girl. To paraphrase a well know saying, "You can take the girl out of California, but you can't take California out of the girl."
--MorelaterZ--
My name is Stef, and I approve this post. Posted @ 3:59 PM
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