I lived in Fresno a couple decades ago when I was transferred there by my company. I lived there all of about a couple/few weeks and hated it. On New Years Day at about 1:00 am I was driving home from a friend's and there was a big commotion and police presence across from the Blackstone Mall. Of course, I stopped to see what was going on, thinking that a car when into the drainage ditch or something like that. Then I found out that a teenager had been stabbed and killed, and his body was laying on the side of the road. It was then that I learned why they call a body a "stiff", as rigamortis had already set in. Blackstone is (was?) a major street, so for someone to be lying there in the street, dead, and there were no witnesses it was pretty strange, let alone a teenager.
After a couple weeks I went to San Diego to visit and decided to stay. So after my two week visit I left for Fresno at 6:00 am and when I arrived at my home I packed up everything in my car (I was young, travelled light!) and told my landlord I was leaving, and quit my job, telling my boss I was done. I got back to San Diego that night and that was the last I saw of Fresno other than a sign or two while passing by!
The funniest thing that I can remember, though, was that the radio station I listened to kept dedicating everything to some guy named Larry. I couldn't figure it out...every once in a while they'd say the name of a song that played, then their station, and then they'd say "To Larry". It wasn't until I was leaving that I realized that the radio station was in a town named Tulare (Tu-Laree) and there really wasn't some all-important guy named Larry who got all the credit!
