andrea99 - 8:14 pm on Apr 1, 2006 (gmt 0)

A sense of place.

Place names like race names do not always follow logic. I've lived several places on the California coast (meaning close enough to smell the ocean) including Humboldt County, Mendocino County, Marin County, San Francisco County, Los Angeles County, and Baja California del Norte, which while in Mexico is still "California" though not the State of California which is in the United States of America.

The Bay Area is most definitely Northern California by the traditional custom of Californians. Central California usually refers to the Central Valley which runs from (roughly the cites of) Redding in the north to south of Bakersfield in the south, is the richest agricultural area in the world and has been described most eloquently by Joan Didion as a discrete area unto itself. I've never lived in the Central Valley myself but do not speak derisively about it as many coastal dwellers do.

In 1820 the US was divided (slave and free) along the southern boundary of Missouri. If extended to the Pacific Coast this would be just south of Montrerey which is often considered to be the southern most part of morthern California today.

Northern Californians often speak derisively about the south, while the reverse is not generally true. This sometimes has to do historically with the "water wars" but it more often seems irrationally based to me.

Eastern California is usually described as "the Sierras" or "up the hill" in the north (or "the Lake" if you're talking about Tahoe), or "the desert" if you're in the south.

The coastal area north of San Francisco is often called "the North Coast" and everything around and north of San Francisco and even many parts of Southern California (now) is "49er Country."

I'm currently living in Southern New Mexico (a nice place) but that's a different long story. As you may have gathered above I still consider myself a Californian and will return one day.

[edited by: andrea99 at 8:33 pm (utc) on April 1, 2006]