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Nelae's become lost on the path less traveled by
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Lauren Dowell
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LaurenNelae - > Nelae's become lost on the path less traveled by
A few words on Oildale
    I moved to Tehachapi in '04, and it was around that time I got my first impression of Oildale...the impression the highway has to offer.  It seemed like a hot, industrial, primitive place.  Eventually I met a man who lived in Oildale. I visited him at his house, and was surprised to find a cute, older, mature, quit, well-kept neighborhood.  The houses were older, but well maintained and the trees were large and mature.  It was at this point I realized that Oildale was a nice little place, and didn’t deserve its reputation. 
   Well that was all fine and good until the first time I got lost on the way to his house. While lost I saw hookers on Chester, dozens of wire fences, about women that were literally barefoot and pregnant (two looked to be about fifteen), roads that had tons of potholes, business's that looked like they were about to fall over, a weird oilfield smell, and probably 100 barking underfed pit-bulls.
   Ok, so I realized that there was a dark side (chuckle chuckle) to Oildale.  But, eventually I found my way to his house and again felt comforted by his quiet little neighborhood.  I spent many many days and nights on that quiet street.  Recalling all of those fond beautiful memories, I decided Oildale was like any other city, it had its good parts and its bad parts....
    Well that was until I drove from Rosedale to Santa Barbra Pizza Kitchen.  I saw streets and streets of one room houses (with about 6 people coming in and out of them) that didn’t look safe (by safe I mean it looked like the roof would fall in etc), again I saw hundreds of pit-bulls, the general look of the people was just an irritated depression, I saw macho white supremacists, trash strewn everywhere, and dirty looks were shot at us from every direction. It seemed sad really...this wasn't just poverty, it appeared to be misery, there were drugs, incessantly barking underfed dogs, and deep deep deep-seated racism.
     So now I understand the aversion to Oildale. But, I can't help but mention that is completely elitist and wrong to curse an entire city (community, area, whatever the hell Oildale is).  I have a feeling the real thing that we should be cursing is drugs, and racism.  Those two entities could destroy anything....
    Surprisingly, in the end I look at Oildale fondly.  I fell in love under the shade of those mature trees.... From Oildale I will always remember loving, warm, and honest people. Oildale deserves a little more credit, ;).
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Topics: oildale, Bakersfield
posted by LaurenNelae on Sunday, September 23, 2007 at 01:51 PM
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