Man on the Street with Greg Kristapovich
How often do YOU visit the Central Valley?
(asked in Angels Camp)
“I haven’t been past Farmington in the past five years! There’s really no reason to go to the Central Valley. I’m kidding! I go to Modesto, occasionally. I’ll go to Costco. And I’ll go to Vintage Faire Mall, once a year, like Christmas time. But I mean, really, there’s no reason to go to the Valley. What the heck’s down there to see?”—Daryl Williams, Angels Camp, (sports bar co-owner)
“Every couple of months, to go shopping down there because we’re so limited up here. Trader Joe’s! We don’t have one up here. I like their cheeses! I go to the Stockton Asparagus Festival! Also, I meet my son from the Bay Area down there. It’s meeting him half-way, or sort of. But my favorite thing to do down there is to go to Asian restaurants, and the Asian markets on Hammer Lane! It’s not like there’s a lot of them up here! I went to a Vietnamese restaurant. The food was good! Then there’s Vietnamese coffee! That’s my favorite thing in Stockton: the Vietnamese coffee! For real! That’s the one thing we get every time!”—Mary Sacks, Mountain Ranch, (retail merchandiser)
“We got to the Valley a lot for the dog parks! We don’t have any up here. My boyfriend, Mike and I have two dogs, boxer mix. They’re mutts. But it’s nice to let dogs socialize with the other dogs. Our dogs are still young—and they need that! It’s also nice to let them go; let them do their own thing a little bit! My favorite dog parks are in Sacramento. They’re really nice! My friend, Anita lives in Elk Grove and she takes me to them. She has a dog, too, and they get to do a little “play date”! I also go to the malls in Stockton. I like to browse somewhere that’s not Wal-Mart, ‘cause that’s all we have up here.”—Sandra Johnson, Angels Camp, (front desk clerk)
“I used to go to Sacramento for their “2nd Saturdays”, which is this huge artists’ event! They block off the street! They have music, art, gifts, wine-tasting and free cheese! Now I just go to the Valley for sculpting and sandblasting supplies that, unfortunately, we just can’t get here in this area. I do metal sculpting, so I need steel. I get my steel either from Sacramento or Stockton. I also go there for the junkyards! Like for airplane parts! Have you even heard of the expression ‘steam punking’? You take something new, like a laptop, or something that’s of this era—and you make it look like it’s from the 1800s! So, you’ve got to gather those parts from junkyards! Or airplane parts from airplane graveyards, and they just don’t have them here.”—Paul Herek, Murphys, (artist/designer/inventor)
“Personally, I go the Valley a lot because I have to work down there. I do security work, contract work. But if it weren’t for that, I’d only really go down there only just to get away from the mountains, or for shopping, ‘cause we don’t have, for example, a Costco up here. And we don’t have any malls. And, of course, the sporting events and concerts in the Valley! The A’s games! The Giants! The 49’ers! And I do security for the Raiders. I mean, The Bay Area and the Central Valley; I kind of combine them both as the same. So these would be reasons to go down there. Other than that, I’m perfectly content being up here. I love it up here! We live where people vacation!”—Manuel Herrada, Angels Camp, (bodyguard)
