Growing Up in the Bay

There are many transplants to the Bay and there are only a select few of us who have experienced actually growing up in the Bay. A true bay area child I am. Born in San Francisco to parents from the Bayview. Have lived in Daly City, Richmond, El Cerrito, Vallejo, San Francisco, Oakland...SF and East Bay mostly. This is why I can speak from the Bay Area perspective.

For those of us who were born here, the Bay was a very unique and diverse place to grow up. Super liberal with people of varied nationalities and racial backgrounds living together harmoniously for the most part. All of that pretty much stemmed from being a hippie mecca back in the sixties, and many of those transplants who came to our area came with an open mind and heart. Lifestyles were varied and interesting. Not uncommon is having grown up in a commune, with same-sex parents, biracial, or adopted. Childhood friends of mine were every color of the rainbow.

Of course my experience is shaped by my surroundings and environment. But there is always a flip side to the coin. I had family where it was a whole different story. Struggling, on public assistance, dealing with drugs, violence and poverty. Coming home when living in Oakland to crackheads on my doorstep. Hearing gunshots from my auntie's apartment window down in the street below. Hearing of a case of someone who lived nearby and had abandoned 5 small children from 1 - 7 years of age with no food or clean clothes for over 7 days. So obviously it wasn't all peaches and cream in the Bay either.
But through it all, in general people who grew up here are similar in many ways in terms of our way of seeing things. Definitely in our way of talking, how we dress, what we value and the choices we make.

Critical Mass
Occupy Oakland
Bay to Breakers
Tree Sitters

These type of protest events and spectacles are what embodies the Bay experience to the core. Free-spirited, politcal protesting, slightly anarchist, defitely left. Every election, strongly in the democratic sector overall...so different from our Southern California natives. Of value here...art, nature, spirit, quality of life. There is nothing like it.

So what makes the Bay Area special to you? What do you think are some things which embody the Bay experience?