SQUID ROW ~ SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA

Squid Row is a one block long street in the heart of Santa Cruz. Artist studios, machine shops, and this retail storefront occupy most of one side of the street and Santa Cruz Art Center occupy the other. I was taken by all the wonderful colors and the traveler and his dog that stopped by to shop. Santa Cruz was known very quite a while as a place where "hippies" lived. At one time it was the Volkswagen Bus capitol of America. This shop continues that tradition although fewer and fewer exist. Much more upscale housing and shops have taken their place. Santa Cruz also had a "Skid Road" created by the processing of limestone in the nearby mountains. A skid road was made up of wooden logs placed across a downhill road and spaces about six feet apart. Large sleds pulled by horses and mules would pull the sled filled with processed limestone from the kilns to the wharf for further processing into cement in a town about 12 miles north on the coast. The term "skid row" probably comes from this "skid road" term because once the sled began to slide downhill it wouldn't stop until it reached bottom. Makes sense. Just don't get on the sled.