Connecting to Roots in This Agricultural Town

When I was in high school, I yearned to leave the small town of Moorpark, where I grew up, and venture off to college and the metropolis of Los Angeles.

I visualized myself immersed in the city life. Bustling downtown traffic, the excitement of concerts in Hollywood and the thought of meeting new and different people sparked my craving for adventure. I had outgrown the quiet bedroom community of Peach Hill.

However after my first daughter arrived, my hometown beckoned me back. I had grown tired of the hectic city life and wanted to surround my family with the comfort of the familiar and my memories of the past; memories like exploring the green and brown belts of Peach Hill with my friends in the summers.

We would go swimming at the community pool, roller skate and skateboard down to Peach Hill Park, or perhaps hop the fence and take the shortcut to 7-Eleven across the Arroyo to buy some sour straws and Runts and other candy. The hole in the fence where we snuck through to go on our candy exploits is now repaired, but the memory is not erased.

Plus, despite being a relaxing semi-rural refuge, we’re not all that far from the big city, should we crave that. Moorpark is close enough to L.A.—50 miles from downtown—that we can still hop in our car and be within reach of the city’s restaurants, museums, beaches, universities and other cultural gifts in under an hour’s drive (depending on traffic conditions, of course).

But unlike L.A., Moorpark means family and friends to me. This is the city where my mother and father chose to raise my brother and I. Although later as a teenager I became more rebellious and jaded, my innocent childhood blossomed in Moorpark. I met my best friend, Dawn, here. Even though she lives in Missouri now, her parents still live in Moorpark and when she visits them, we are together once again in our hometown and we reminisce. Our memories are forever planted in the rich soil of Moorpark.

I have other, more sacred, treasured and spiritual spots I have connected with, but Moorpark is my hometown hamlet in which my roots will always be grounded.