As part of my current employment I find myself interviewing folks in some pretty odd places. This week for example I started out talking to people in Compton and South Central L.A., and then found myself in a few very special locations in Bakersfield.

For most Californians, Bakersfield is a stop off for gas or food, and otherwise best left to its own devices. This is evident if you spend any more time here than that. On its surface Bakersfield appears like most of the rest of the larger towns in the US: populated by chain dominated strip malls and tract housing. As depressing as most of these images are to us, the underside of Bakersfield is much more sad. I'll try to convey this with a few written images perhaps augmented with photos later if legal issues don't preclude me.

- A small run down house in a neighborhood like many others, but with a confederate flag flying from a flagpole in the front yard.

- A pitbull running down the middle of a street, minded by no one, with mobile home parks that look as they belong in Guatemala City on both sides.

- A Husky mounting a Rottweiler, as a pack of ragged children chased by a pack of smaller dogs try to halt the coitus.

- An old man in only underwear, with a miniature poodle, telling me that he would "Hang the sonofabitch toooday!" as he stands in the doorway of a home which appears to lack structural integrity  to an incredible degree.

- A middle aged drug addicted woman walking down the street in slippers, stops to tell me that my car is beautiful a number of times before deciding it necessary to inform me that she is "Just going to buy some ice cream."

- A 500 square foot apartment inhabited by an indeterminate number of meth addicted shiftless young adults, with all the filth and desperation inherent to their situation. Not to mention the third budlight at 11 AM.

All that said I left feeling that I had learned something else about the country and state that I live in. Next time you find yourself in Bakersfield I recommend you make your way to McCord Avenue, and take a look around. I guarantee you'll learn something.