Sacramento through new eyes

Written last night:

Quick, before it disappears into the everyday, let me tell you some Sacramento idiosyncrasies:

• The young men take good care of their hair: picked, poufed or parted, it’s art for Everyman. For a while, I was trying to take a photo of a new man’s hairstyle every day, but it was hard to be  subtle. I’m still thinking about it. Among the men I see, that bald, shaved-head style seems to be disappearing. Clark would stand out.
• This must be the backpack capital of the country. Men especially, seem to have switched from briefcase to backpack, much more than what I saw in north Florida.  And, of course, the homeless often have a backpack.
• People aren’t terribly stylish here, but they look good. Today I worked with a saleswoman in baggy jeans at Home Depot, passed many women in heels on their way to work, and dodged a gardener at a bank building on Capitol Mall wearing pressed khakis and safari hat, riding a lawn mower set precisely on the diagonal to the street. And yet, I blend in wearing jeans and a t-shirt (or I feel like I do.) 
• Purple (for the Kings) is a big color here.
• Dogs are welcome at Home Depot -- at least the one next to PetSmart. (Zing was calm and disinterested as I selected sinks and countertop.)
• Low-water landscaping is common. Think rocks and air plants and succulents. 
• Ordinary food is extraordinarily delicious.
• Here pedestrians actually DO have the right-of-way. Cars always stop when a pedestrian steps into the crosswalk. (In Miami you never did that.)
• Cars do not enter the intersection on a yellow light.
• At least in midtown, cars stop at stop signs.
• People here don’t say Sacramento; it’s Sacto, and I thought I've heard Sac too — as in I live in East Sac, but maybe they talk faster than I listen. I live in Sac, and I love the city.  **
• In the afternoon they wish you, Have a good rest of the day. (Does everyone say this and I just never noticed?)
• Taco trucks dominate the food truck scene. I recently enjoyed a delicious farm-to-table Vietnamese taco. 
• Long-time residents I’ve talked to don’t know which one is the Sacramento and which is the American River.
• And today I was on the phone with a service person in Texas who took my address. I said the street number and then Sacramento, and the zip code. He was quiet for a moment, and then he asked, “What state is Sacramento in?” 

I’m getting acquainted and pretty soon all this will be normal.

**My friend Susan, who has lived in San Jose for a long time, has enriched this discussion. She just wrote me, "The rest of the state calls it Sacto, not Sac." Could be they say Sacto here too, and I just heard wrong. Maybe they talk faster than I listen. Either way, they (we!) shorten the name down to one or two syllables. Kind of like Tally for Tallahassee. 

  

Love,

k