People of Arcata

Jill's Journal: You know those hilarious “People of Wal-mart” e-mails that go around every now and then, where people snap photos of some crazy ensembles caught on shoppers at Wal-mart? Well, I should have had my camera out for more than five minutes in Arcata today, because Wal-mart’s got nothing on this town.

To be fair, there was some sort of special festival in Arcata this weekend, so maybe some of the outfits were a little more extravagant than usual. Arcata is right next door to Eureka and is Eureka’s smaller and very charming cousin. Humboldt State University is here and it is the greenest, most organic town we’ve ever been in. It seems like there’s a natural food shop or health store or co-op on every corner, plus an eclectic Farmers’ Market on several days of the week. It seems to be a liberal and hippy haven (of all ages), also evidenced by the frequent smell of marijuana smoke wafting from crowds of people.

What we like so much about Arcata is that it is unpretentious and very accepting of everyone just as they are. It is as natural as a town in Western civilization comes. We’ve never seen so many women without make-up, so many people who look like they’ve just rolled out of bed. People are who they are here – no excuses, no false pretenses. And if judging by the happy, free spirits we’ve seen during our time in Arcata today, everyone embraces that individuality. That’s something to be proud of and something we can all learn from, even if we personally won’t be wearing any pink tutus, Mickey Mouse ears, and knee-high boots all together any time soon (one of my favorites of the hundreds of awesome ensembles we saw today at the Farmers’ Market).