Throughout my time at San Rafael High 1972 to 1976, it was always Skabo. I seem to recall some sort of a comic book reference about "lower skabo." Lil Abner or something?
In whitebread Marin, it was almost an African-American enclave, if memory serves.
Wow, I hadn't remembered this until I just read the entry. I never knew why we called it skabo, in fact I never even imagined what the spelling might be until this posting, some 35 years later! We always pronouned it skuh-boo, emphasis on boo, and as a kid I just thought it was a cool term that the older kids used, perhaps what would now be referred to as the "hood".
I had a girlfriend who lived in Santa Venetia. I remember going to parties there and the people would say " Who are you ? Skaboo or Scabo ? It was a dangerous situation being from southern Marin. Later I worked in the hills and on all the fire roads above there. The old Nike site was our HQ and there are a lot of nice trails there.
I was raised in Scabo from 6 months old,,, One of the wonderful things about that place is you never ever had to lock your doors. You could leave your front door open at night with just the screen closed, and never ever was ripped off.
I dont know what "Skabia" means to the thiefs on the hill waiting to change the history of SCABO, but SCABO was not that at all. We were honest kids that earned our own allowance, we did not have to rip off people. We mowed lawns, babysat, but we did not rip people off.
"Our hills" were sacred... fun and great memories.
We started school with kids in kindergarten and graduated with them in highschool. And still stay connected today.
Can you say that Walkie talkies??? ha ha.... spoiled kid turns into rip off... to bad for that.
Actually, the name was from lower skabia. Teenagers from the area use to sit on the hill with walkie talkies while their friends were burglarizing homes. When the sheriff would respond from the civic center, they would radio their friends to get out of the homes. They would just walk away.
Maybe a better question is... does anyone call it Santa Venetia?
I have wonderful memories of growing up there. Lots and lots of kids in the neighborhood.
Does anyone remember when it flooded one winter and Mrs. Duncan (Bruce Duncan's Mom) got her rowboat out and started rowing a bunch of kids out of John MacPhail school. Guess MacPhail's is no longer a school - is it an artist community now?
Does anyone else remember calling Santa Venetia "skabo"??? My family lived in Santa Venetia in the 60's and I thought it was only my brother that called it that ... but 35 years later, I ran into someone who refered to it and I was amazed.
I loved Skabo back then - full of families with lots of kids. Memories of playing outside till really late and not worrying.
Do you remember that little shopping center with Littleman's (became Cala) and Tweedies (a little general store)
Remember when the first Renaissance fair was over my China Camp. My friends and brothers and sisters roder our bikes over and could actually afford to go and buy things...
