Even though I no longer live on Mountain Drive, I grew up there and lived there for 30 years. I found out last night that the house I grew up in has burned to the ground. The house that I built has also burned down. My younger brother's house has burned down. My older brother and his wife were lucky enough to be have their house spared by this fire. I am sorting through photos that I have, some of them are showing the houses being cleaned out after mudslides and floods. Those were pictures of joy, when the houses were standing, and survived such events. Now they no longer stand, only memories. I am lucky to have a copy of the Mountain Drive "Santa Barbara's Pioneer Bohemian Community" book published by Elias Chiacos in 1995, which contains many pictures and articles from many of the original "Mountain Drivers" that started and created this community, decades ago. It was, and will be again, a way of life. I will never ever forget how I was raised and lived in this community. The Mountain Drive community has given me, and those that grew up there, a way of life, and an understanding of simple values that are so rare in today's society. I now live in Idaho, but I also live by those values that I grew up with, everyday. It is part of me, and that will never change.
I am saddened by the many loses of those that are suffering through this event. These things cant be changed. We can all help, hope, and pray for those that lost homes.
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Posted on November 15 at 11:35 a.m.
Even though I no longer live on Mountain Drive, I grew up there and lived there for 30 years. I found out last night that the house I grew up in has burned to the ground. The house that I built has also burned down. My younger brother's house has burned down. My older brother and his wife were lucky enough to be have their house spared by this fire. I am sorting through photos that I have, some of them are showing the houses being cleaned out after mudslides and floods. Those were pictures of joy, when the houses were standing, and survived such events. Now they no longer stand, only memories.
I am lucky to have a copy of the Mountain Drive "Santa Barbara's Pioneer Bohemian Community" book published by Elias Chiacos in 1995, which contains many pictures and articles from many of the original "Mountain Drivers" that started and created this community, decades ago. It was, and will be again, a way of life. I will never ever forget how I was raised and lived in this community. The Mountain Drive community has given me, and those that grew up there, a way of life, and an understanding of simple values that are so rare in today's society. I now live in Idaho, but I also live by those values that I grew up with, everyday. It is part of me, and that will never change.
I am saddened by the many loses of those that are suffering through this event. These things cant be changed. We can all help, hope, and pray for those that lost homes.
On Voices of the Evacuated