October 2, 2007

• LA Foliage & Mid America

   

  America can be divided in many ways.  There are red states and blue states, there’s north and south, there’s east vs. west, and then there’s the good ole’ Midwest, which is where I’m from.  I hail from Chicago, the 3rd biggest city in the country.  The Midwest is traditionally considered our nation’s “heartland“, and the people consider themselves “middle of the road” Americans.  While the east coast is considered “uptight” and the west coast is considered “too liberal”, Wikipedia points out that:

  Midwesterners are alternately viewed as open, friendly, and straightforward, or sometimes stereotyped as unsophisticated and stubborn. Factors that probably affected the shaping of Midwest values include the religious heritage of the abolitionist, pro-education Congregationalists to the stalwart Calvinist heritage of the Midwestern Protestants, as well as the agricultural values inculcated by the hardy pioneers who settled the area. The Midwest remains a melting pot of Protestantism and Calvinism, mistrustful of authority and power.

  The rural heritage of the land in the Midwest remains widely held, even if industrialization and suburbanization have overtaken the states in the original Northwest Territory. Given the rural, antebellum associations with the Midwest, further rural states like Kansas have become icons of Midwesternism, most directly with the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.

  This is the time of year I really miss being from the Midwest.  At the beginning of the summer, I harked back to locusts and lightning bugs.  But it’s this time of the year that I miss waking up to the first frost and walking to the bus stop in mittens.  I miss jumping into piles of brightly colored leaves and the smell of leaves burning in the air on a cool fall night (though that rarely occurs any more, even in the Midwest).  No frost or leaves in LA however.  Here are some examples of a typical day in West Hollywood, and the things I see on an 8 block walk with Garbo & Ruby around my neighborhood.  I present to you, Autumn in LA:

  

  The famous Chateau Marmont on Sunset where Britney just got booted.

  

  What more could you want?

  

  The flag of West Hollywood, now there’s some fall color!

  

  The lovely Sunset Marquis Hotel, a few blocks from the infamous Hotel Careyfornia

  

  The Sunset Strip.  I live 2 blocks east and 1 block south of here.

  

  The closest thing we have to pretty fall leaves.

  As for what I miss about autumn in the Midwest, my Dad took these pictures yesterday:

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Speaking of leaves, this is one of my favorite pictures of my niece Nicole, also taken by my Dad:

  

  Happy Fall, wherever you may be!

   

  • 11:27 pm
  • 14 Comments