My Fellow Stocktonians

This made me nostalgic and think of a time far far away in a ghetto land called Stockton. I can't imagine ever moving back but it's always home. If you understand the following then you can proudly (or shamefully) call yourself a true Stocktonian.

1) You get offended/defensive when people assume that Stockton is a small town in the middle of nowhere.

-Yea we are not a cow town. That's Stanislaus.

2) "March" is not just a month of the year.

3) You try to avoid Sherwood Mall unless
a. You are going to Macy's - I worked there.
b. It is completely necessary...Which in most cases, it is not.

4) Some of your best/worst middle school days were spent at Lincoln Center Live.
- I thought it was so cool to eat 3 dollar bagels from Noah's Bagel there.

5) You're tired of seeing snobby moms at Lincoln Center Live.
-Yeah but I wanted to be one of those snobby people

6) You can't count the number of times you've been to Discovery Zone [may it rest in peace] and you refer to it as "DZ".

-DZ was the new Chuck E Cheese man. And the roller slide was the best

7) You get excited when you meet other students from Stockton and think, 'FINALLY, someone understands!'

-Instant bond

8) You've gone bowling. A lot. For too many birthdays. It's not that fun.

9) Non-Stocktonians don't understand why you're so gangster. There are just some things you can't explain...
-That's why Im the YANGSTER
10) You've seen enough Escalades and rims to last you a lifetime.

11) You've been to/been in the Delta.
-It smells

12) You got excited for the new Target to open on 8 Mile and you drive out there because you think it is better than the old one...but they're exactly the same.

-It's the only reason that I ventured to that haunted 8 Mile Road.

13) College is too difficult or you are homesick and you wonder why you didn't apply/go to UOP.

-Honestly I think that now

14) You wonder what UOP students do for fun outside of school.
-Never would have guessed Stockton was a college town
15) It's 110 degrees outside and you learn to deal with it.
-Until you live in AZ then you know what the heat is

16) 95.1, 93.1, and 97.7 are programed in your radio.

-97.7 is so ghetto but when in Rome...

17) You and your friends go to Java when there is nothing else to do and you end up staying for hours because you run into random friends.

-Man those were some of my best memories drinking the same smoothie for 4 hours

18) You've almost been or have been late to school because of the fog in the winter.

-I'm still so scared of driving in fog to this day

19) You've been to Delta College on [too] many different occasions such as for elementary school field trips, the SATs, extra credit plays, summer school, regular school...

-Can't even comment on this

20) People ask you what you do for fun in Stockton and you're at a loss for words because you can't think of anything significant.

21) No matter how bad you want it, Stockton is not part of The Bay. Get over it.

-LOL guilty of that. But it just makes us sound so much cooler

22) You know that there has to be a back road to get from Point A to Point B.

23) You see way too many emo people wherever you go. Come on, people! Mix it up a bit!

24) The downtown movie theater opening was the best thing since sliced bread.

-It actually made it become a real downtown

25) Taking a field trip to Golfland was pretty much the most exciting place to go for a field trip.

26) You were super depressed when Golfland closed.
-*tear* I didn't even know it closed down. Another place of memories

27) You've been stuck in traffic on Swain one too many times.
-Dang those stop signs and elementary schools

28) The Asparagus festival is the biggest event of the year.

-I am so sad to confess that I never went. I took it for granted and now live with regret

29) You've been to Hammer Skate too many times and although you laughed a little when you found out it was closing, you later realized that you would never again skate in that rink or buy gifts from that gift shop.

-Another place that saddens me it closed. So many memories and bruises and I actually won during the games they played

30) The word "legit" is part of your vocabulary.

31) You used to Trick-or-Treat in the big gates of Brookside because you thought they'd give king sized candy.
-Yeah but they were shisty

32) If all plans fail, you can always have a bonfire.

33) You never went to Krispy Kreme and you can understand why it would have to close down.

34) You considered a day trip to Manteca Waterslides to be fun times.
-Manteca Waterslides rocked

35) You know you're from Stockton if you ever got a haircut at Sir Gauuan's.
-I thought I was so chic paying for my 25 dollar hair cut

36) You don't dare travel down Wilson Way or around the fairgrounds past 8 at night and try

to avoid this area as much as possible during any part of the day.

Let's just say that with the amount of cop cars there you'd have thought it was the police station

37) You go to the Baskin Robbins on Swain and Pacific because that's the 'best' one, even if the line is out the door.

-I used to get free blueberry freezes all the time AND I wanted to work there so bad but they had a million interviews so I said screw that

38) You refer to it as the 2-0-9 or the Dub Nine.
-HOLLAR!!

39) You went to Philip's Farm every year until you were 10 and you took pictures with the Raggedy Anne and Andy cutouts every time.

40) You've been to Tepa Taqueria too many times to count.

41) You remember when the Stockton Royal was actually open for cheap and classic movies.
-Yeah it was like a buck, it was ghetto but hey it was a buck

4

2) You know that the biggest hill in Stockton is the Feather River bridge.

43) You can name all the exits off of I-5 until 8 Mile.

44) You call speed bumps 'undulations' and no one knows what you're talking about...Then you realize it's just a fancy name Brookside made up for them.
-Dang Brookside and their gated communities. FYI you're still in Stockton, even if you think it's its own city

45) You flip out when you hit one red or yellow light on Pacific because you know that hitting one red light means that they'll ALL BE RED.

46) You crave Yen Du.

-It's all about the cheap Chinese food at Food 4 Less grocery

47) You call it "Five" or "I-5". Regardless, it has never been, is not, and NEVER will be "The Five."
-No one gets it outside of Cali

48) You get really excited for a new business or restaurant to open, only to realize that two weeks later it has become just as ghetto as every other place in town.
-True that

49) You know what the Pershing bumps are.

50) You go down Hammer Lane and still do 55 when the new speed limit says 40.
- Yeah after the 10+ year construction

51) People say, "Yeah, I know Stockton, My *insert random relative* ALMOST went to UOP."

52) You learned to drive in the Delta parking lot on a Sunday.

53) You thought you'd never afford a meal at Le Bistro.

-LOL how little I knew

54) You go away to college and tell your friends you're so excited to go home for the Asparagus Festival and they say, "There's a festival for a vegetable?"

55) People ask where it is you respond that it's the Foreclosure Capital of America and then promptly wonder why you would share such negative information.

56) You tell people you're "30 min from where the whole Scott Peterson - Modesto thing happened."

-That's my claim to fame. And we can't forget the Chandra Levy/Congressman Gary Condit murder investigation

57) You got your senior picture taken by Fritz Chin.
-It was mandatory for schools to do that

58) You are not really phased by the "bad" part of any city you've ever visited.
-I always thought all cities were ghetto until I moved away and realized it was just Stockton

59) You've waited in line to drive down Lincoln so you could look at Christmas lights.
-Where Spano lives and see what his family did that year

60) You actually know who Benjamin Holt is and why he's important.

-He made farming easier and no we are still not a cow town

And that my friend, is my childhood, teens, and young adulthood in a nutshell.