Week 4 project 4A Group 1

The Big Valley by Mark Arax

Mark Arax writes about his childhood growing up in Fresno, Ca. He explains stories of the orchards and the life of a young farmer child. He then describes how the economy has changed the need for the farmers and the developing that is taking place in his home town. Mark does a really good job illustrating the "small town" atmosphere in his usage of words. The story then transfers to present day as Mark is a grown up struggling with the loss of his father and desire to keep the family farming legend alive.

My favorite line in his story is " Every third vehicle that whooshes past the oleanders that divide the road is a big rig and, more often than not, they're hauling away some piece of the valley's lavish bounty."(20)

I loved this reading, I found myself really interested in it and was a little upset that it finished as quickly as it did. I work in the transportation industry and am very familiar (due to my co-workers) with the truckers on the highway near fresno. As I continued to read this story, I often thought to myself I heard of that.

The one part that did bug me in the story is "Truck drivers hauling one crop or another are sometimes too drunk or wired on crank to know that they've just crossed the oleander line". The department of transportation has a STRICT policy on truck drivers which require them to have random drug testing.

The one thing I learned from this reading is that in mid-February Tulare holds the biggest farm equipment show in the world.

Transients in Paradise by Aimee Liu

Aimee Liu writes a story about Beverly Hills. She starts out describing the houses and the roads . She then begins to describe people she sees as if she was walking past them all or sitting in a chair watching them all pass her. She describes the rich, the poor, the healthy, the sick and lastly the dead.

My favorite line in her story is "I see buses carrying housekeepers from Crenshaw nudge the pickups of gardeners from Inglewood, Range Rovers driven by trophy wives cut off Hondas bearing handicap placards."(31)

This reading I did not enjoy as much as the first one. I found myself attempting to do anything but read it. How the author wrote did not make a lot of sense to me. She seemed to jump quickly from one subject to another with very little if any transitions. I am unaware of what southern California is like so unfortunately I didn't feel there was anything that the reading made me think of besides anything but reading it.

The one thing that I didn't realise until reading it is the following quote "We are all transients of one kind of another. On our way into or out of wealth, into or out of sanity,beauty,love ,health or death." I've never taken the time to see things that way, I felt this sentence was very powerful.

Showing Off the Owens By T.Jefferson Parker

T Jefferson Parker writes a story about a road trip through highway 395 to the Owens River and their intentions to "fly-fish" the river. He and a friend Brian spend many hours driving through various small cities and everything is fine until Brian develops a rash. The two gentlemen go fishing rash and all, and then finally decide to go to the store for some antibiotics. The rash gets healed, they caught some fish and that was the joist of the story.

My favorite line in his story is "What was that In-N-Out Burger there? asked Brian. Is it a chain? Good burgers, I said. I don't know the 'out' kind of worries me."(38)

This reading made me think of fishing. I am not a fisherman by any means but it brought me back to my childhood and camping out at anchor bay on the coast. I remember walking down the small grass pathway to the ocean and attempting to fish with bright pink barbie fishing pole and only catching seaweed on a good day. Maybe it was because i was too loud and "upsetting" the fish or maybe it was due to the fact I just didn't have the patients to wait for something.

The thing i think i took from this reading was the vision of the author "standing in my driveway (miles from the nearest river) casting hookless flies to the lizards for practice. (I've caught many.)"

The Distant Cataract About Which We Do Not Speak by Mary Mackey

Mary Mackey describes her experiences in the American River. She starts out describing an incident where she hops into the water and swims up to some ducks to observe them. She then goes into another incident where she was swimming in the river and meet up with a beaver. Mary contrasts her behavior to meeting the beaver with the way the ducks act as she interacts with them. Mary then finishes her story discussing the different ethnicity's of people and their experiences at the river.

My favorite line in her story is "We have come upon a Circle of Samoans, up to their chests in water, drinking cold beers and singing"Under The Boardwalk" in perfect harmony."(48)

This story made me thing of My aunt and uncles summer property near Bullard bar resivor in California. As you take the three hour drive to there retreat you pass the American river, which looks more like a fast moving lake then any river I've seen. There is this one spot where the five, the eighty and the seventy almost meet. At this location on the far side of the river is tons of dirt mounds that have been turned into dirt bike jumps and it appears to be quite the ridding experience.

Although this story was very much about the river itself the one thing i found the most educational for me was the statistic that about seventy five thousand Russians live in sacramento. Presently Sacramento has approximately four hundred thousand people, that means that approximately 20% of all people in sacramento are Russian.