why did we leave humboldt county?

I'd be working at Murrish's and dating some nasty cross between hippie and a hick if I were still there....oh yeah, and the school system SUCKS! However, it was a beautiful place to grow up, and I love to visit.

There is a ton of stuff to do in HC. You just have to know where to look.

Try going to the Logger Bar in Blue Lake after a Dell 'Arte show. That's always a hoot. Hicks mixed with the finest eurotrash this side of the atlantic. It's quite the scene.

Dating in HC is pathetic though. That is one of the reasons I left.

I didn't smoke, do drugs, drink, cuss, or have physical contact with anybody in humboldt county... then there was the breakdown, the stockpiling of weapons, and that whole purity of essence thing (POE). Anyways, after two years, it was time for me to leave, which was ok, because a number of the long term residents just plain freaked me out. Arcata also had a habit of eating people who were new to the area and turning them into an ever growning dark minion of the undead.

I couldn't live on Mad River Beach and in Redwood Park behind HSU, and work at the bulb farm in Arcata all my life! Off I went to Japan to teach Engrish!

humboldt needed a better night life...

i left humboldt reluctantly...i just couldn't have a degree and work at the jewelry counter of gottschalks...part-time.

also, there's a lack of diversity in humboldt, and i was starved for it when i moved back to l.a.

i miss it though...

I left to get away from my mother mostly. We moved up there in '75 to gwet out of LA and the smog. I left in '83 to go back to he big city because I was a bored teenager. I sometimes have hopes of retiring there after she is dead (she's psychotic) but it's too fucking far away from civilization, so I'll probably stay here in Sonoma county instead.

I couldn't be a Marching Lumberjack all my life. Granted, playing Toby and Jacks and Sidelines after the Crabs games for free beer will always hold a special place in my heart, there's just not enough real work up there to keep me interested.

Besides, they killed Arcata Bowl.

I had plenty to do up there--I've always been pretty good at finding things to do. But I knew that a job was not something I could find up there, so I ran home to Sacramento.

I visit there every couple of years, and am always kind of happy to see how little has changed--although I was horrified when I saw the burned rubble that had formerly been Marino's. Compared to that, seeing Larry's Market (where I used to buy mac & cheese, cheap beer and ramen) changed into "Wild Berries Market" was only a mild shock.

At least Hey Juan! was still open the last time I was up there... and Don's Donut Bar, and Tin Can Mailman, and People's Records, and Cafe Mokka. Those five places are where I spent most of my time up there...

I lived in Eureka for two years. I was a news reporter for KINS NewsTalk radio. The pay was low and the work was steady. My boss was a republican conservative and not a joy to work for. With the exception of the standard professions, such as lawyer, doctor, city and/or country employee, etc...it was very difficult to earn a living in Humboldt County. Most "jobs" were minimum wage and you made little income. I tried for a brief time to find something else but it didn't happen. Although I probably didn't try hard enough as its possible something might have given way...I know that my then friend, Rodney, who helped lead the Food Not Bombs organization, went to work for a bank and eventually that grew into a much more substantial job for him and he makes a good living for himself. He also headed the Arcata food cooperative..don't know if he's still doing that...

But in the end, while I was in Eureka, I found Humboldt to be a very depressed economy..Fishing and logging declined and there was a terrible speed/meth problem throughout the county that harmed many of the kids who grew up there....the girls in Aracata, in particular, HSU, I found to be very pretty and it made me wish I'd been a student at HSU for that alone (shameful confession)....nevertheless, I got tired of being "poor" and left...now I'm poor anyway and I'm right back where I started..(but at least I own property..;-))

I have not been back to Humboldt since the end of 1996..I met some great folks up in Humboldt and I hope one day to return and revisit some of those people.....I do not want to meet the red neck bastards that also populate Humboldt....

I couldn't support a family making $8 an hour at some scabby Eureka office...I do wish I could go back, though. I fonly I won the lottery and could just play in the forest instead of work...