And So It Goes

Seabiscuit Slept (With Lots of Mares) Here.
For the town of Willits, California, the revival of Seabiscuit -- who lived out a cushy retirement on a ranch there -- comes at an opportune moment. By Patricia Leigh Brown.
[New York Times: Books]

Looks like MXG's (My Ex-Girlfriend's) hometown is in the news. Though born in Europe, MXG was raised in the small northern California town of Willits (population 5,063), 130 miles north up highway US 101 from San Francisco in Mendocino County. Its claim to fame is as the home of racehorse Seabiscuit, and it's in the news because of the upcoming release of the Hollywood movie version of Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling book Seabiscuit: An American Legend.

(It is one hell of a book, by the way, and I highly recommend it.)

In any case, Laura Hillenbrand's book and now movie have reawakened interest in the horse, something that the residents of Willits hope to take advantage of, as described in the story linked above, a way of moving their town away from their lumber-based economy. I, of course, immediately forwarded the story to MXG.

I spoke to MXG about the article the day before yesterday, and although she found it interesting, she thought it looked down on the people of the town (me, I disagree). She said, though, it did capture the dynamics of its ambitions to be more than a place vacationers stop for gas on their way to the picturesque town of Mendocino--a place that MXG characterized as a gorgeous but snobby place up the road.* This contrasts with the ranchers, the farmers, and all the other people who chose to live in Willits, who accept the cut in income and job prospects just so they can stay in the area.

MXG can't understand why people pass right by Willits. You drive up that valley in Redwood country, she says, and if you get off the main highway onto any side road, then immediately get onto a side road to that, you can see loads of natural scenery. And if you pull off the road somewhere up one of the surrounding hills, you can look out over acres and acres of landscape spread out across the valley, beautiful, natural, clean, and clear. I've gone hiking in the area since I was a kid, she says, and the beauty of the natural surroundings is just stunning.

She escaped from the small town that is Willits, but if she could she'd go back there to live, under her own terms and not under the limitations placed by the facts of the local economy.

That's the sort of thing I'm not sure I really understood about MXG before. When we were together, she occasionally hinted that she'd like to move up to Willits permanently someday, a notion I found mysterious and with troubling implications for our future together: I sure as hell didn't want to move out to what I considered the sticks. But now I think I have a better idea of what she meant. Of course, this does me no good, now that our future together led to a dead end, but never mind.

*A rivalry the Times characterized by saying that Mendocino was playing War Admiral to Willits' Seabiscuit, a reference anyone familiar with the horse's history would recognize.