So I was in Hemet last Friday with my girlfriend. We
just drove through, so my impression of the city is a bit
superficial.
While waiting at a stoplight, this beat up old four door sedan pulled up next to us. I glanced over at it, and saw what looked like some young 20-something guy driving around with what looked like a 12 year old girl wearing way too much makeup. I just felt judgmental all of a sudden, and had
this strange feeling based on the body language between the two and its seemingly flirtacious nature that they were involved in some nasty cradle robbing situation. So I said to my girlfriend something to that effect. But I was only half joking, saying something like "I think that guy next to us needs to start getting older girlfriends, what do you say?" But my girlfriend was distracted. She had seen something even more disturbing going on in this car, and she called my attention to it.
Lounging in the backseat of the car was what appeared to be a 10 year old little boy. But unlike ordinary little boys, he was enjoying a cigarette and demonstrating with great skill that he could blow rings of smoke. They put kids like him on Jerry Springer, okay?
While trying to get out of this town as soon as possible, we passed a wide variety of trailer parks and crummy little homes with beat-up old trucks on blocks in their front yards. We were both incredibly anxious to flee this hell hole.
As we were leaving, my girlfriend said this, "This place sucks. It's just so horribly white trash. No offense."
Maybe she was just feeling bad about being judgmental and was overly sensitive to the fact that I, as a white person of mostly European descent, might have found that label offensive. Like, perhaps she was just being extra careful and wanted to make sure I didn't hold any resentment towards asian girls like her who might use that label frivolously. Who knows. I wasn't offended either way. But, I just thought it was incredibly funny that she said that. I also thought she was correct in her assessment of Hemet. It's just a big ol' pile of white trash out in one of the less interesting parts of California.