Parts of the TV show Roswell was filmed in one of our favorite coffee/bookshop/music/etc areas of my semi-home city, Covina. I never really watched an entire episode, but I did catch opening credits once and was amused to see much of the downtown area in the backdrop. One of the leads worked in the “Crashdown” cafe, which is now some other restaurant. It was weird seeing them build that; we thought it was a real restaurant. It was fully furnished, complete with salt and pepper shakers on the patio tables, but had No Trespassing signs everywhere. Even more amusing, if you turned a few corners you found an older empty building sporting a huge neon green “UFO HEADQUARTERS” sign. Heh heh.
Getting away from Hollywood, something odd about our neighborhood is that the two cities (I consider them both home, even if our address specifies only one) have historically been goofy about each other. West Covina split from Covina decades ago over an argument about where a sewer line was going to go. It was an irregular split that resulted in odd city limits. Hubby teaches in Covina, although technically his school is about 100ft into the neighboring city.
Recently, he pointed to a half-repaved road by the school. He explained that the city border ran right through the middle of the street–so Covina paved their side only and left the other alone. :rolleyes:
Not odd, but interesting.
Before my neighborhood was built (early 50s), the developer had purchased a big chunk of land to build affordable homes for middle-class workers. He’d already broken ground, laid out streets and sewer lines, and started construction of some of the houses. The State Highway Administration came through, claimed eminent domain (is that the right phrase?) and took about a hundred acres away from him right through the freaking middle of the development to build the Baltimore Beltway (the highway that circles the city).
He went ahead with his house-building, and ended up with a neighborhood that basically straddles the Baltimore Beltway. Same name, same house type, same civic association, but you have to go out to the main road and cross over the Beltway to get to the other side.
Someone got shot at a bar three blocks away from my house Saturday night, the neighbors play rap music on their car stereo at 6:00 in the morning, and somehow people’s whisky bottles are always finding their way into my garden.
But I guess that’s not unusual.
OK, well, then, there’s a prairie dog colony in a vacant lot a few blocks up the nearest major street. I recently went to take some pictures of them, since I don’t know how long they will be around–another, closer colony disappeared suddenly and a discount tire store was put up on their lot.
I live near where Jim Morrison lived briefly back in the '50’s, but I can’t remember the exact location of the house. According to a news article from several years ago, the woman who lives there now was somewhat alarmed to notice that strangers were often staring at her house. She was a bit relieved to learn that her home had once been the residence of a famous rock musician and that these people were his fans. (I wouldn’t have been very relieved if I had been her–I would have moved.)
I live across the road from a lovely 19th century house that used to be the residence of the Papal Nuncio to Australia. The papal coat of arms is prominently worked into the wrought-iron gates.
I live in Carson City, NV. Last week we were in the news nation wide because of fire. Burned down about 15 or so expensive houses and came down to about 200 feet of Casa De Hook. We were in no danger of burning but the smoke was something so we got invited over to some friends and had steak and wine.
There are two working farms with about 100 or so cattle and a dozen horses in the mile between us and the governers mansion. The farmer was out bailing his hay last week.
We haven’t had any measurable rain since early June and it was only .05 inches or so then.
Lance Armstrong’s parents (so I’ve been told) live close by.
We have 4 legal whorehouses just out of town. We take all of our visitors out to see them. My mom thought it was a hoot. We don’t go in though, just drive by and take a few snaps.
We got a tower for making shot for shotguns. They melt the lead and drop it down a tall tower. It rolls it’s self into a ball as it falls and when it plops into some water at the bottom you got yourself something to shot. Anyway that’s what I’ve been told.
We got two indian colonies. They aren’t called reservations, don’t know why. One is about a half mile square right on the edge of town and the Sierras, but they have their own police. A nice looking young kid who is forever pulling people over for speeding in a foreign land.
We got a pony express station. Well it was way back when. Now it’s just a red brick 140 year old hotel on the main drag that’s for sale.
There is an old landfill/dump that they closed sometime in the 60’s or 70’s about an eighth of a mile from my house. In the 80’s they turned it into a park and little league baseball field. There are warning signs not to eat the fish from the pond, and they closed the baseball field last year and moved it to a less toxic area a block or two away. Our water comes from a well that very likely shares the same aquifer as the park.
I live a block away from El Camino Real, which in the Bay Area is an endless row of strip malls, car dealerships, and fast food restaurants from stretching San Jose to San Francisco. Anyhow, in the stretch closest to me (from one stoplighted intersection to the next, about a 1/4 mile, I think…) there are three different mattress stores, including two that are basically next door to each other. There are also two different stores to buy bedding from after you’ve picked out your mattress. I’ve got to think they’ve got a handshake deal going on prices too, because they’ve all coexisted for as long as I’ve been in the neighborhood.
Also, in the not too recent past, two different Korean “hostess” clubs got busted and shutdown for prostitution. No one told me about them before I read about the bust in the newspaper though. They looked completely non-descript on the outside.
We’ve lived in our house for 6 years. We know most of our neighbors… except those right next door. They have 2 boys, we’ve seen them in the yard less than 10 times in 6 years. They cook dinner(?) between 11:00PM and 1:00AM (their kitchen faces our bedroom)
They mow the lawn once a month whether it needs it or not. The gate in the chain link fence is always padlocked, so introducing oneself is out of the question.
My husband is sure they’re in the witness protection program. :dubious:
My childhood neighborhood: It was the setting for the late NBC sitcom Jessie. Also, dig a foot or so into the ground, and you’ll hit bedrock. Thanks to the generous use of dynamite, though, all the houses have basements. The basement walls of many houses is just an Onondaga imestone face. Trenches for sewer and water lines were also created by blasted in in many cases.
The neighborhood I live in now: the founder of Vivid Video grew up just down the street.
My childhood neighborhood: It was the setting for the late NBC sitcom Jessie. Also, dig a foot or so into the ground, and you’ll hit bedrock. Thanks to the generous use of dynamite, though, all the houses have basements. The basement walls of many houses is just an Onondaga imestone face. Trenches for sewer and water lines were also created by blasted in in many cases.
The neighborhood I live in now: the founder of Vivid Video grew up just down the street.
The building, which is torn down now, was 2 minutes from my front door. I pass it every day on my way to work. Every year, in the now empty lot, people STILL leave memorials/mementos.
Oddly enough, it was over this whole thing that I lost a very good friend - she had, when this happened, become one of the “gapers” who gathered at the restaurant to ogle and rubberneck when the horror was all unfolding and the community was finding out what had happened - I went off on her about her being there in the first place and then BRAGGING about it and we haven’t spoken since.
My neighborhood is built on the grounds of the former Hundred Oaks Plantation. There is still a large estate in the center of the neighborhood which we think may be where the main house once stood. There are two structures on the property which look like they might have been pigeonnaires for the main house back in the day. There also appears to be a *parterre * behind the house. Many of the oaks throughout the neighborhood – including the one in my backyard – are registered as historic.
