People have mixed feelings about living in a city where the temperatures soar to triple digits and winters are bitterly cold. It's understandable considering we live between the desert and the mountains, which means we get the extremes for summer and winter. Nevertheless, there are some distinct features about Palmdale, California that makes it unique. For anyone who grew up in this "deserted" part of Southern California, here's a list of five things we all can relate to.
1. Hardly anyone knows where you're from.
I lost count of the times I told people where I was from only to see their puzzled faces and a question attached saying, "Where is that?" and "How far is it from Los Angeles?" It makes sense to hear these questions from outsiders, but I've also had my share of Californians that had no idea what Palmdale or Lancaster was. Sometimes it feels like we live in the middle of nowhere. But it just feels that way because we're a small city in comparison to the big name cities, like LA and San Diego.
2. The rivalry between Palmdale High School and Knight High School.
From academics to sports and student bodies, there has been a constant rivalry between these two high schools. Palmdale students show off their pride in green and white and Knight in gold and black. Pete Knight is known for its great academic performance and assistance while Palmdale High exceeds in sports. Palmdale High is also known for its vast amount of hands-on courses in medicine, fire/ems and video production. Luckily their rivalry has been in good fun, but the pride these students hold for their schools is strong.
3. The road to Los Angeles is a sight.
While it is a fair distance to reach Los Angeles and other popular cities in California from Palmdale, we do get an incredible view of the mountains, desert and numerous Joshua trees on our one plus hours trip when we enter the freeway. We may be so used to it that some of us are bored by it, but it's definitely a fascinating view to newcomers. There's also that famous place on the hilltop where a mansion sits and no one knows for sure who lives there. Nevertheless, it's no lie that we have all dreamed of owning that home at least once.
4. We have a water park in our backyard.
Okay, maybe it's not directly behind our house, but Palmdale has it's own residential water park that offers discounts to people in the Palmdale area. It's one of the few perks of living in a desert, as it does help to have a nearby place for us to cool down. It's not as big as Hurricane Harbor but it's a quick trip if you want to freshen up and don't want to spend hours getting to an expensive water park. Also because it's rural, the park tends to have fewer people which mean less waiting time out in the sun to enter a ride.
5. We have snow!
Yes, for those of you who are unaware, we do get snow in California. Specifically, in Palmdale, we tend to have some degree of snow every four years. It's not much, but, when it arrives, we get really excited. However, nowadays with global warming, we haven't seen much precipitation lately. We do get white Christmases, sadly not as often as we would like to, though. The amount of snow varies; we either have enough to frost our cars or enough to bury ourselves in.
