Chico is my hometown

The tale is so familiar that it’s almost become cliché. An 18-year-old moves to town to attend Chico State, eyes firmly focused toward the future in some other place. Four, five or six years later, now a twentysomething senior, that same individual couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. Chico has become a hometown.

The reality check we’ve given you wouldn’t be complete without the special qualities that inspire such loyalty. We asked a collection of Chicoans to share what brought them here and what keeps them here; these are their replies, in their words.

Ann Schwab
Mayor of Chico and program director for the Associated Students organization CAVE (Community Action Volunteers in Education)

When I think of Chico, I think of the tree-lined streets, the majestic Esplanade, vibrant downtown, the culture of the university and wondrous Bidwell Park. There’s a long list of what makes Chico special, but what made me fall in love with Chico is the people who live here, the people who call Chico home.

Looking for a small-town college experience, I moved to Chico in 1975 [from Santa Clara], fresh out of high school, shy and without knowing a soul. That didn’t last long. I remember walking down the street and being shocked that people looked me in the eye, smiled and said “Hello.” I knew right away that Chico was the place for me!

Everything about Chico was great. I loved how the streets south of campus spelled “Chico” [Chestnut, Hazel, Ivy, Cherry, Orange]. I loved how the rain smelled falling through the chestnut trees when I came out of Holt Hall after my biology lab. I loved walking out of Canal Street and seeing the train coming down Main Street. I loved driving down the Esplanade with my roommate, Jill, in her red Rambler station wagon without having to stop at one red light. I even discovered my driver’s license was a Chico phone number!

It didn’t take much to make me happy, just the simple pleasures of discovering Chico and discovering myself.

Still a shy person at heart, I’ve embraced Eleanor Roosevelt’s maxim: “You must do the thing you think you cannot.” I’ve met a lot of friends through volunteering with community groups like Chico Velo’s Wildflower Century and organizing cool bicycle projects like the No-Bell Prize and Women on Wheels.

I just keep trying new things, things I never imagined I’d do when I moved to Chico in 1975: hosting the centennial birthday party for Bidwell Park, advising students at CAVE and serving as mayor. Each new experience brings new friendships and a deeper understanding of and confidence in myself. Sure, I’ve had my setbacks, but I always have my friends to pick me up and new opportunities just around the corner to discover.

In Chico, I’ve learned I can do a lot more than I think I can. I can’t wait to find out what’s next.

Mike Baca
Radio sports director and news reporter on KPAY (1290 AM); announcer for Chico State basketball and baseball on ESPN Radio (1340 AM, 101.7 FM)

What brought me here, of course, was going to school at Chico State. I’d never been to Chico; I was making trips visiting different campuses during my senior year of high school. Chico was the last leg of the trip, and that was it—I got here and said, “Chico is the place for me.”

It was so different from where I’d grown up, Alameda, which is technically an island in the San Francisco Bay next to Oakland. I’d been so used to big cities; this just seemed so small and quaint, and it was far enough away from that area but close enough that if I wanted to go home for a weekend, I could. You’re so near to everything. I spent five years here, and I absolutely just loved it.

I left about two weeks after graduating, and I got a job in Ukiah. Then I got a job in Phoenix and then San Francisco, and I was gone about 2 1/2 years when I got a call from KPAY to be the sports director. I always told the news director [during an internship there] that if the sports job ever came open, I would come back and consider it.

The offer was like for a quarter of the money I was making, and I said I needed to think about it. I basically thought about it for seven minutes, called her right back and said, “I’ll be there.” I haven’t regretted it ever since, because I get to do what I love.

That’s a big thing: I love the area, I love Chico, and I love what it means to me, because I’ve lived here longer than I’ve lived anywhere else and I’ve done my real growing here—but also I love what I do.

We don’t make nearly the money that people in the media make in the bigger markets, but if you wake up every morning happy with what you do, you’re a winner. We forgo some of the dollars and cents for the peace of mind, the fresh air, the bike trails that are five minutes away, rock-climbing in Upper Bidwell Park—we give up a little bit to experience that. I haven’t really thought to move because I love it here so much.

Megan McDonald
TV news anchor on KHSL (Channel 12) and KNVN (Channel 24)

My Chico visiting days actually started when I was 15 years old. My sister came up here [from San Diego] to go to Chico State. The cool thing about that is I was able to stay with her each year she was in school, so I got to see very different aspects of college living: the dorms, apartment life, life in the sorority house, and life in a big house downtown.

I think I almost knew immediately when I was just 15 that this is where I wanted to come to school. And, sure enough, I applied to Chico State, Long Beach and San Diego State, and gladly accepted the offer to come to Chico. I utterly enjoyed every moment of college.

Another thing I always knew was that I wanted to be a news reporter. In my last semester of college, I started interning at KHSL/KNVN. Shortly after graduation, I started working behind the camera for Wake Up! After a few grueling months, I started reporting. I have to say I really had a “full-circle” moment my first day as the Wake Up! anchor.

So here I am now, graduated for three years, and still loving my quiet little life in Chico. I really feel although I grew up in a big city, Chico has really turned me into a small-town girl. I absolutely love walking with my dog through Bidwell Park, window shopping downtown, running around Cal Park Lake, and taking five to 10 minutes to get to work!

You know who else loves Chico? My family! They all absolutely love coming up for weekend visits, and I bet would even consider moving here.

To sum it all up, I moved into my dorm room on my 18th birthday and I have grown so much personally and professionally in Chico, and have enjoyed my life—and especially the people here—very, very much.

Zack and Laurie Kincheloe
Married educators who met at Chico State

Zack: After high school, I ended up in college in the Bay Area but all of my high school buddies went to Chico State. So I visited Chico often and fell in love with the small-town atmosphere, the friendly, welcoming people, the beautiful campus, swimming in the creek, the all-night film orgies in Ayers Hall, the train chugging down Main Street in the middle of the night, the music at Nashville West and Canal Street, the summertime live stage series called Court Theatre (now defunct), Pageant Theatre, and all the rest. So after graduation, I came here to get my credential and, eventually, found a job and stayed.

I was already in love with the town, but in the credential program I fell in love with a woman who was also in love with Chico, so we got married in Alumni Glen, had our reception at La Salles, and never considered leaving.

Laurie: I came to Chico as a single mother in 1972 with a 2-year-old daughter, Kamala. I wanted to be a teacher, and I had heard that Chico State had an exemplary teacher training program. Chico was just what I wanted in a community, with its beautiful parks, warm people and great schools. It was a perfect place to raise my daughter. Kamala and I felt safe and secure in Chico and grew to treasure our new life.

I got my credential and master’s from Chico State and felt truly fortunate when I was offered a job teaching for the Chico Unified School District and later for Butte College. I had also found my soulmate, who felt the same way about Chico. It just seemed like the place where dreams came true. We married and raised three children here. I just couldn’t think of a better place to call home.

Alexa Valavanis
CEO of the nonprofit North Valley Community Foundation

I’ve made my home in quite a few places, but there’s only one place I call home.

Born and raised in Valparaiso, Ind., I find many of my childhood memories include chasing lightening bugs through corn fields, drive-in movies, Greek Sunday School, shooting countless free-throws in the rain, and attending the Annual Popcorn Festival (where Orville Redenbacher joined in the festivities each and every year).

In 1986, we moved from “The Popcorn Capital of the USA” to Beverly Hills. The Bears had just won the Super Bowl and Southern California freeways were teeming with drive-by shootings. I found refuge in the sun-kissed hills and would spend the next 10 years enjoying the gorgeous coastline of Southern California.

During my senior year of high school, my twin sister, Alisha, and I received a phone call from the late Mary Ann Lazzarini, Chico State women’s basketball coach: “Would you consider flying up to Chico for a visit? We’d like both of you to don Wildcat jerseys next season.”

Chico instantly felt familiar. The charming and vibrant downtown surrounded by agricultural lands brought me back to my youth; everything save the lightening bugs was there. Mary Ann walked us around the stunning campus, its brick buildings and running creek. We took a long walk in Bidwell Park, and ate pizza and frozen yogurt downtown. With little more than a trip to Art Acker’s Gym, we were in.

Four years later, I had graduated from Chico State and was ready for work. I lived in Shanghai, China; then, Vietnam and Thailand. Later, I made my home in the brightly colored colonial town of Antigua, Guatemala. These places provided me with incredible lessons and opportunities to work with the locals, but I longed to give back to Chico.

It is the inexplicable magic of this little dot on the globe that brings you back. It is the exciting juxtaposition of the familiar and the wildly innovative; the endless dance between small-town joys and big-city amenities that makes living in Chico, Calif., so wonderful. For this Hoosier, Chico is home!

Tray Robinson
Diversity coordinator at Chico State

I originally got recruited to play football. I grew up in Compton, and I was looking for a completely different experience than the big city. I applied to several colleges; Chico was the farthest away and also the smallest, and some friends also had applied, so we came up to the summer bridge program to check out the university.

I was in culture shock. Chico was predominantly white, Compton primarily African-American and Latino, so it was a completely new experience for me and was going to be a challenge. I welcomed it—I needed a completely new feeling, a fresh start.

I had no plans of staying whatsoever. I thought I would graduate and go back to L.A. to teach, but like most people do, I fell in love with the community and was lucky enough, blessed, to find a job, and I’ve been here ever since.

I fell in love with the beauty of Chico. I think L.A. is stereotyped incorrectly—there are parts of L.A. that are green and beautiful. But for Chico being a small community and predominantly green, and with the creeks, that sold me. I met my partner—of 14 1/2 years—here. I love working at the university; every time I walk to work, the beauty of the campus is striking. Incredibly nice people also sealed the deal for me.

Several things happened to me regarding racism I experienced, but I’m of the belief that racism exists everywhere. That wasn’t going to prevent me from being here. I truly enjoy the community.

It’s growing faster than I’d like, but that’s OK. I understand why people would want to come.

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DYK … that the Pageant Theatre, Chico’s little art movie house, has Cheapskate Mondays every week? All seats only $3.

Erin Lizardo
Award-winning musician and new mom

My decision to move to Chico [from Yuba City] originated during a single drive down the Esplanade. I was 18, and my credulous romanticism peaked as I thought nothing terrible could happen in a town with such a lovely tree-lined street. Then followed, over the years, a drove of random “firsts” that subsequently persuaded me to stay here.

There was the first time I won a bicycle at an auction in the middle of campus, and the first time I rode that retro Schwinn the length of Bidwell. There was a first time seeing a rock show crammed inside a tiny vinyl shop. There was a first time I mustered courage enough to play my songs at an open mic.

There was a first time hearing some humble players recite Elizabethan rhymes under giant oaks. There was a first time I found new fashions, along with other thrifty girls, at a clothing swap. There was the first time sitting on a small worn-in couch in the front of a small worn-in theater and watching a film with subtitles.

There was the first time I hung my paintings in a local restaurant and the first time I traded, with the owners, one of those paintings for a tab. There was the first time I had my hair washed in a kitchen sink, followed by my first perfect haircut from an unassuming neighbor/hairdresser who only asked for 20 dollars but had earned much more. There was a first time taking my mother to the Saturday market, a first time taking my father to Melody Records, and a first time taking my older brother to Duffy’s Tavern.

And then there was the first time I fell in love. I served him coffee, and he sold me used books. There was the first time we wrote a song together, followed by the first time we played a show together. Then there was the first time I felt utterly content: The day we got married in the same church his parents did. And then the day our son was born was the first time I felt a rapturous state of bliss and yet, simultaneously, so undeserving.

If I ever do leave this quaint town with its wealth of artists and innovators, its miles of winsome landscape, and all my precious “firsts,” I would always be hopeful and ready to return.

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DYK … that Chico is home to two year-round farmers markets (by Chapman Elementary on Fridays; downtown on Saturdays) as well as a couple of other seasonal markets? Fresh produce! Woohoo!