Once upon a time, I was born in Riverside, California. Well, not that long ago. 1969. It sure seems like a long time ago. Or would, if I could remember it, but I can't so it makes it seem like even longer ago. Sometime also before I can remember, my family moved out of the land of smog, and headed north to San Jose.
I grew up in San Jose, CA. In fact, my mom's side of the family grew up in San Jose. If I had been born here, I would have been a 5th generation San Jose native, which is as far back as just about anybody else. My younger brother earns that distinction, though. San Jose is a confused city. Part sprawling suburb (well, mostly sprawling suburb), part Capital of Silicon Valley (even if Palo Alto is the real heart), and a wanna-be metropolis. Let's face it, it's suburban. The movers and shakers of Silicon Valley may live in San Jose, but they probably commute out of it every day.
My grandfather, Theron Fox, was one of the prime motivators for the San Jose Historical Museum, preserving some of the history behind "early" San Jose. Both he and my grandmother, Frances Fox, have done a lot of work with local Santa Clara Valley history.
I spent all my college time at the University of California at Santa Cruz. I was in the dorms for the first year, and off-campus for the rest of my time. Santa Cruz is a great city, and the UCSC campus is even better. UCSC is nestled between redwood trees and rolling hills, which are home to all sorts of wild critters. It's certainly not uncommon to see quail and deer on a walk across campus. (And watch out for those banana slugs, especially after it rains.)
After the dorms, I lived in two geekhouses, TheHouse and Echo St.
These years in Santa Cruz were some of the most formative for defining who I am.
I lived in Palo Alto from summer '92 until summer '94. I wasn't sure how much I'd like it when I moved in, but it grew on me. I lived downtown, and could walk just about anywhere - in particular to the movies and out to eat. There are a zillion good places to eat in Palo Alto, which definitely spoils you. There are also a pile of movie places - the Landmark chain of "artsy-fartsy" theaters, plus the Stanford Theater. The Stanford Theater is an awesome theater. It's an old art deco movie palace, complete with Mighty Wurlitzer. They play "classic" movies, almost always a double feature, and for a good price! (and popcorn with real butter!) Some of those old movies just need to be on the big screen for full effect.
I like movies a lot, and it's great to see the older stuff, back when there were plots and people had to act
I moved to Los Gatos since summer of '94. There is a huge pile of good restaurants in Los Gatos, of which our current favorite is 2wenty 9ine, a cafe that has really good salads and pizza. The downside of Los Gatos is that there are no good bookstores or video stores, and a lot of the people seem to be stereotypes. Maybe this is the difference between living in a High School town instead of a College town.
Despite a lot of perceived trendiness, spandex, espresso, and mountain bikes, Los Gatos has more of a feeling of community than anyplace else I've lived so far. Living in a downtown is great, since so much of what's going on is nearby and accessible. Being able to walk around the corner for a hot chocolate, croissant, or the farmer's market and juggling on sundays is extremely cool.
Rudy Rucker captures the essence of Los Gatos pretty well in his book "The Hacker and the Ants", though he renamed it Los Perros.
I moved to Edinburgh in late June 1996. Check out the stories about Edinburgh over here.
Living in Edinburgh was great, aside from work. In December 1996, I moved back to Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz feels like home. I haven't lived here in a long time, but it's like I never left. The buildings change, some. The businesses change more. Something about it just feels right.