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A lot of people probably have good memories of their childhood when they watch TV shows or movies from the era in which they grew up. I think this is even more true if you happened to grow up near places that were filmed a lot. For instance, at least one episode of Dukes of Hazzard involving a racetrack was filmed at the Saugus Speedway–which, of course, reminds me of the weekend swapmeets held there, which we used to attend occasionally. Lots of the back road driving on that show reminds me vaguely of the Santa Clarita valley in the mid 80’s, as well (and not at all of the year we lived in the southeast, oddly enough). Always makes me think of how neat it was in the SCV and the surrounding area then–still relatively empty, lots of hills, scrub, onion fields, and not so developed. Very different from how it seemed last time I visited in ‘99, and I’m sure even moreso from how it looks now.

ET, while not specifically shot anywhere I knew, took place in a neighborhood that looked very much like the ones I grew up in. Don’t know where that corn field and pine forest came from, though; certainly not behind my house nor within biking distance.
Then, there is the mother lode of things shot near Vasquez Rocks…old Star Treks, old Battlestar Galacticas, commercials…just reminds me of all the hours I used to spend with my mom in nearby dry streambeds cracking open rocks looking for agate. Also it reminds me of the time my dad worked a night shoot for the TV show Benson and took me along to watch them tape. Very long night, while they sat near a “downed” helicopter and had to stop shooting every time a plane flew over. I remember arriving home cold (got pretty chilly overnight) and falling into bed exhausted.

Since my dad worked in TV (video engineer), a lot of TV shows trigger memories of where we were living at those times…Too Close for Comfort, It’s a Living, Golden Girls…got to go to the set for that last once. The movie The Color Purple reminds me of the time my dad worked on a short video shoot involving Whoopi Goldberg, whom I got to meet (she signed my VHS copy of the movie). Blah blah blah namedropping blah. Reruns of Night Court, along with a signed script (from one of the Hurricane episodes with Brent Spiner as a hick), remind me of my parents’ friend Jeff who had a few different jobs on the show, from what I recall.

Pump up the Volume, while done a couple of years after I left, was shot at my high school.
I’m not sure where this post came from. I fairly often get nostalgic about stuff, but I really wouldn’t want to be living out there now. For one, I’m glad we’ll be paying off our house within my lifetime, and I prefer the near-solitude here to the postage stamp yards I remember from those years. For another, I never got through a winter there without wishing it had snowed (I’m just about feeling that way this year here!) But it’s pretty nice remembering how it was then.

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