Rio

Regarding California

I have a complicated relationship with a complicated state.

I had been looking for some good images of Sacramento, where I grew up.  Jackpot!  I found some great ones today.

I started looking for pictures of my high school, Rio Americano High School.  It was a new school at the time; I started as a freshman in 1967; the first year they had a graduating class.  I don't spend much time thinking about those years; I certainly did NOT have fond memories.  But there it is.  Most everybody went to high school somewhere...and it left its mark.

Like that concept of 'place' I learned about last year which is an essence that has meaning for a person that transcends space and time.  Has its own parameters and charateristics that do not necessarily correspond to measurement.

Here's an image from a contractor who did a paving job in one of the courtyards. Yes, looks familiar.  But you know what it also reminds me of?  The courts at Shorecrest High School, in Shoreline WA.  Our local high school.  My kids all went there.  Built at almost the same time as Rio Americano.  At Shorecrest, the different groups hung out in different physical locations.  A place looking similar such as the "A Court."  But already, all those places are GONE!  My youngest graduated in 2009 so it has been awhile.  But they just tore down most of Shorecrest to build a whole new school.  Completely different!  New new new.  The Shoreline School District and its surrounding community (which is not particularly wealthy) keeps their schools up to date.

So, the high school places of my children are more 'gone' than mine.

Found this photographer, tileston who posts pictures on panomamio.  Great aerial shots of Sacramento and outlying areas.  The outlying areas are the key because the land is semi-arid and somewhat forbidding.  Including a picture of the edge of the high school track onto the American River which was kind of a magical place in its own right.  Maybe more for my husband than me.  But the spirit of the river trancended the banality of the subutrban high school.  The shot, probably taken in the spring overplays the greenery.  But, the river, more important than I realize.