The California treatment page

[sbhikes]

So as I've traveled a little around the US, I've had a sneaking suspicion that I sometimes get "the California treatment" from various establishments and people. I might get a little more hassle than is necessary in a transaction. Or sometimes I believe I'm actually charged more money for things, sometimes double. I am nearly always forced to listen to some kind of anti-California political diatribe even though I have as much to do with crooked politicians and businesses as anybody else. Almost nobody is ever nicer to me after they find out I'm from California.

Tell me the truth. Are you a resident of another state and do you purposefully mistreat Californians when they are visiting?

[bloodorchid]

i will loudly and publically shun a bostonian

[Picaro]

I think you may be a little over sensitive, so I suggest you increase the fat in your diet.

[GuineaPigQueen]

The only negative things I hear in Washington State about Californians is they are bad drivers. To be fair, everyone I know with terrible road rage has a bias about every other driver not from their state. They'll get cut off by someone from Maryland, Idaho, whatever and all of a sudden everyone from there is a bad driver.

When I lived in Arizona pre-adulthood, folks from California were "all a bunch of hippies".

I know nothing of politics in California.

[Rasputina]

I live in Missouri, and we have absolutely no preconceived notions about California or Californians. My dad was a rock musician in the 80s, so we lived in Huntington Beach. I miss that beach, to this day!

[cori93437]

When ever I run into a Californian I always admit that I did not enjoy the year I lived there.
I was cold and miserable... totally a location issue.

However... I visited lots of places there and met lots of great people.
I think that if people have strange ideas about Californians its completely a media issue. *shrug*

I think that lots of people have the similar misperceptions about people from many areas of the country though.
For instance NYC, 'the south', Florida, Washington/Oregon... on and on.

[Rasputina]

I also hate Boston. Learn how to drive! Ughhhhhh.

[Lily Marie]

Many people outside of California believe that all of us live in L.A. - on a sunny beach, talking like valley girls and surfer dudes.

I guess the dinks don't know that California is a very large state that could be split into 3. L.A. is very small compared to the rest of the state. Only the media makes it seem that San Francisco and L.A. are the cities that make up the entire state.

I live 3 hours north of San Francisco and it's very, very different than southern cali. It's nothing like S.F. either. Us northerners don't have much fondness for the city folk of the south, either. Most are just so naive about . . . . everything. Following all the rules that are put in place by the T.V. and ads.

[RitaRose]

I grew up in California (Orange County and then the Antelope Valley) and then I moved to Vegas 13 years ago.

I was advised to immediately get local plates for my car because people here hate Californians.

California suffers from an image problem that it's also partly responsible for. In an effort to increase the tourist trade, it has been painted as all beach, surfers and movie stars. I know the reality is very different, but some people still think that's how it is. It's also assumed that all Californians are very liberal, which I find particularly funny having grown up in ultra-conservative Orange County.

I don't get it, but I've experienced many of the varied lifestyles and communities in California. I think it's a lot like thinking all New Yorkers are rude and all Texans have cattle ranches. Here in Vegas, people assume I must work for a casino becasue they think that's all we are.

BTW, Vegas driver are WAY worse than California drivers, and I have the car insurance premiums to prove it.

[Urban Forager]

Hey Lily Marie, I also live about 3 hrs north of SF.

Cori, I know what you mean about the weather, I spent most of my life on the central coast of California and it was cold and foggy most of the time, when the sun came out it was usually windy and cold. Where I am now we have actual Summers and sometimes snow in the Winter. I don't miss the coastal weather.

When my sister and her family moved Oregon, years ago she had some vandalism done to her house; she heard it was because they still had California plates on their cars.