It never rains in Southern California
Campus Times
September 19, 1997
by Rob Strauss
Editorial Assistant
As an out-of-state senior at the University La Verne, I have been able
to notice and analyze the differences between my home state, Washington,
and this land of milk and honey we call California.
One of the biggest things that sticks out in my mind is a difference
in how the residents of both states react to weather. We have a joke up
in Washington that goes:
What did the Washingtonian say to the Pillsbury Dough Boy?
Nice Tan.
While it is not that bad, I definitely have seen my share of rain. I
have become acquainted with rain. I know rain. Rain is my friend. Someday
I will recount stories to my grandchildren of having to walk to classes
in the rain and snow (uphill both ways, you know).
This brings me to the point of how people in Southern California react
to rain. Last Sunday, with the tropical storm off the coast, we had a slight
rainstorm which lasted approximately 10 minutes. Whereas, in Seattle, we
would refer to this drastic change in weather as "the afternoon."
Down here I saw people run for their umbrellas, dive for cover, and shout
"Hail Marys."
OK, I am exaggerating, but let's face it, many Southern Californians
just do not know how to deal with rain. I have noticed in past years that
big rain storms become the top story on the news. Jimi Hendrix and Elvis
Presley could come back from the dead to tour and the top story would still
be, "Three thousand people got wet today when rain fell over Southern
California." The follow-up story would focus on how many "bad
hair days" it caused.
A fun game you can play sometime is "Spot the Californian in the
rainstorm." They are usually the first ones to yell for a taxi or a
chauffeur.
Californians even give their weather conditions fancy names like "El
Niño," which I guess is Spanish for "really big windy rainy
storm." The name even sounds intimidating. It gives me images of an
old B-movie with people running through the streets screaming, "El
Niño! El Niño!"
I am not saying we do not overreact in Seattle. Every time somebody
steps on the ground wrong, people dive under tables shouting "earthquake."
I still remember going through my first earthquake two years ago. I felt
my body shaking and I was not sure if it was the ground or the food I had
eaten at Davenport. I ran to the closest person and asked them if they had
felt it. Their reaction was, "Felt what?" (Oh, just the fact that
my lung is up in my throat, but no worries).
Do not get me wrong, it is not that I necessarily like rain. Sometimes
it is nice, but days of overcast weather explains why Seattle produces people
such as Courtney Love and Jimi Hendrix. It can get a little depressing.
I have just learned to deal with poor weather in the same way that Southern
Californians can deal with temperatures that you could make stir-fry in.
What there really needs to be is a conference between California and
the Northwest on how to deal with these differences of nature. We can definitely
learn from each other. The California representatives could recount stories
of the Northridge earthquake, while the Northwest representatives could
recount stories of every Fourth of July in the history of this country (it
always rains). We could also teach the Californians how to drive, but that
is a different column altogether.
Rob Strauss, a senior broadcast major, is editorial assistant of
the Campus Times. He can be reached by e-mail at straussr@ulv.edu.
