Anyone Moved from Fresno and Wanted to Move Back?

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Re: Anyone Moved from Fresno and Wanted to Move Back?

by Scott-o-Rama » Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:07 pm

Gosh, Bentley, now that Virginia has become sort of a blue state again, please know that good ol’ Fresno is ready to welcome you back whenever you’re ready. And just think, if you get a place in the “right” neighborhood you’ll feel “right” at home with Devin Nunez as your congressman!

Re: Anyone Moved from Fresno and Wanted to Move Back?

by Bentley Meredith » Fri Jan 31, 2020 1:47 pm

Moved to Fresno in 1963 as a child with my parents. Graduated from Bullard in 1978. Fresno State in 1997 (yeah I know)...left for LA in 2002, Las Vegas in 2012 and Virginia in 2013. Fresno has many of my long time Friends and many memories, but it holds nothing for my future. California just seems to go farther and farther to the left for me and that I just could not take.

Re: Anyone Moved from Fresno and Wanted to Move Back?

by MoDa65 » Thu Sep 12, 2019 12:47 am

Fresno back in the 90s was the worse. ill validate your other statement in another thread about it being high crime, but now fresno is safer than sacramento, la, sf, oakland obviously and other big cities in comparison. population has grown and with high cost of living everywhere in CA, fresno is the last major city left where middle class can actually live like middle class. its a great place to move TO in the 00s and 10s for raising a family. Especially those who have tech jobs in the bay area, making $100K which is poor over there and can only get you rent in a bad neighborhood, they can live a great life and raise their kids in great schools in clovis unified while living in nice neighborhoods and homes.

Re: Anyone Moved from Fresno and Wanted to Move Back?

by Brett G » Mon Jan 30, 2017 12:53 am

I would not move back to Fresno because I know it would not be the same as with everything growing up. I left in 1980 to join the Navy and never went back but a few times. My parent shad moved from Lansing Way to Vancouver, Wa when I was in Washington State with the navy. They passed away there. My brother Scott stayed and worked for Pelco until 2013 when he passed. I'm the last one and other than some friends I would love to reconnect with, Fresno is now a memory. It was a great place to grow up and there are some relatives that live in Sanger still.

Brett

Re: Anyone Moved from Fresno and Wanted to Move Back?

by oldschool » Sun Jan 29, 2017 7:35 pm

Thank you to everyone who has made comments. I have to say that I agree, those good times were that. Everything changes sometimes not for the best. I talk every few months to a few of my cousins that are still living and they tell me how things are now. For me I am now in Arizona, and I will be here for many more years. Seventeen years now.

Thank you for commenting. Feel free to keep this going if you like.

oldschool

Re: Anyone Moved from Fresno and Wanted to Move Back?

by BruceHancock » Tue Jan 17, 2017 10:28 am

A very interesting topic...and question! I lived in Fresno from about 1955 to 1965. I've always thought of it as my 'home town'. I attended Webster Elementary (1/2 of 4th grade), Morris E. Daiiy Elementary, 5th and 6th, Alexander Hamilton Jr. High, 7th,8th and 9th, and Fresno High, 10th, 11th and 12th. Then to Fresno City for two years. (Anyone remember Richard DeKonning and the architectural drafting 2 year certificate program?). I left for the service for four years in February 1965 and never returned.

One of the first things I did when I got out of the service was attempt to find a job in Fresno. It's where all of my friends still were, although almost all of my family had moved away. However, I found a job in Sacramento first...and that's where I've remained. I often think of Fresno, although I have rarely visited except to drive by the old house on Fedora Street near Thorne. And occasionally I still think of moving back, but in reality I know that I am thinking of a place that no longer exists. What I remember are long bike rides to the San Joaquin River to swim all day - usually skinnydipping - and never see another person. Today, the portion where we swam is a golf course and you can't even get down to the River. And I remember 'dragging the main' on Fulton in my '52 Chevy. It's been a mall forever.

My first 'real' job was at JJ Newberry's as a stock boy the summer following my senior year (1961). I worked six days a week, 8 hours a day for $1.00 per hour. Bought my Chevy with the earnings. Ate my lunch everyday at the lunch counter in Newberrys. It's gone too...although I don't miss it much! I remember a town where a 12 year old kid could ride the bus alone to the downtown library and spend hours reading Ray Bradbury. Or take the bus to the movies on Fulton, and then go next door to Walt Eastman's Hobby shop and browse the tiny space for two hours. Those were another time that don't exist anymore...at least not in Fresno or most anywhere else in California. My brother tells me that the little town he lives in in the middle of Kansas is stuck in 1956 and feels like Fresno when were kids...but even that is probably mostly wishful thinking.

Yes, I've wanted to move back....but back to Fresno in the 1950's. It was a GREAT place to be a kid. Long, long, hot summers that went on forever. We managed with a swamp cooler...or better yet, went out under the trees in the front yard and had a Double Cola after throwing the afternoon Bee paper route (247 and 218). But that's an old man reminiscing - that town and that time is gone.

Re: Anyone Moved from Fresno and Wanted to Move Back?

by Scott Whitney » Mon Jan 16, 2017 5:03 pm

One of the things that makes Fresno what it is - It's constantly changing and morphing into something new. (much faster than most cities) Anyone who wants to go back had better realize the town of their memories no longer exists.

As for me., I'm happy where I'm at and would never consider moving back to Fresno (or California). In the 50s-60's it was a great place to move to. Somewhere between the 80s and 90s it became a great place to move from.

Re: Anyone Moved from Fresno and Wanted to Move Back?

by Rodstone713 » Mon Jul 18, 2016 12:58 pm

I was born in Fresno on 1971, my whole family living all over various parts of town but nowhere is more iconic to my childhood memories than the West Side. My grandparents owned a tiny, 3-bedroom house on infamous Strother Avenue; I can still remember taking the old Thorne Ave. exit off the 99 to visit. All my summers and many more childhood memories surround that small house on the "bad" side of town; we were one of only a handful of Mexican (& Filipino) families on the street but we played, as kids, with everyone.

Mello's Ice Cream was a standard during summertime. I remember my grandfather bringing home those big gallon tubs for us wild kids (usually, at least 3-4 of us at grandparents' house at any one time.) Later, I remember having to take summer school classes at Edison(-Computech) High School and freaking out friends when I told them I was walking to my grandparents' home afterwards. I NEVER feared being on the West Side; growing up there definitely helped to build my confidence and character; I earned my street credentials there.

I moved from Fresno shortly after graduating from Fresno State in 1995 to the San Diego area where I completed my teaching credential and was quickly hired to teach high school in north San Diego County (Carlsbad) but my mother and most of my family are still living in the Fresno/Madera area so I return to visit at least a couple of times a year. Fresno will always be "home" for me. As a teacher I always reflect on my childhood and formative years in the Valley. I often tell my students, mostly So.Cal. surfers, skaters and the occasional cholo (it's Carlsbad, after all) that none of them are "bad kids" because being from Fresno ..."y'all don't know what bad IS."

Despite the occasional bouts of nostalgia, I've never wanted to move back to Fresno. Nothing from my childhood memory remains and the town has grown and morphed into some new creature that I hardly recognize.

Best memories:

1) Mel-lo Ice Cream & West Side family bbqs
2) Dancing (trying to meet girls) at The Lighthouse teen club
4) Water slides at Blackbeard's & Clovis Lakes
5) Cruising Blackstone Avenue
6) The Tower District (& sneaking into shows at the Wild Blue)
7) Doing a reggae-night broadcast on KFSR (90.7) radio and a night club dj gig in the Tower back in early 90s
8) Having lunch with my dad at the Old Fresno Hofbrau
9) Christmas Tree Lane & Huntington Boulevard holiday decorations
10) Watching the Fresno Giants play ball at Beiden Field (and seeing Al Radka in the stands!)

Re: Anyone Moved from Fresno and Wanted to Move Back?

by RoughRider1961 » Sun Jul 17, 2016 12:20 am

I left Fresno in 1969 for a much better job with a greater future in the S.F. Bay Area. The problem with Fresno is that it is an agricultural economy and the pay levels reflected that fact. There were so few jobs available and there was a line of people every morning applying for any job they could find, including mine.

I have some great memories of Fresno, but leaving the area was the right move for me. I love coming back to visit, but I have no desire to relocate back to Fresno.

Re: Anyone Moved from Fresno and Wanted to Move Back?

by Fresno2SoCal » Thu Jun 30, 2016 10:35 am

Yes and no. I mean, I was born at Valley Medical Center in the early 1970s. Went to Rowell and Turner. Those neighborhoods have changed by the way, big time to alot more ghetto. Used to be all American. Anyway, moved to LA in the mid 80s. Now back in Fresno for about a year but, definitely moving back out to Palm Springs. Fresno is beautiful but the culture here is just too conservative, stale, old school (not in a good way), and very hick-ish. :( Too many bums, unemployed, and uneducated people to make it a happening place. So I'm out, again, later this year. Cool to be back I guess for now. lol

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