Everybody's heard of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Fewer know Bakersfield, and practically nobody ever heard of Oildale, Taft, Buttonwillow, Ford City, McKittrick, or Maricopa. But these dusty San Joaquin Valley towns, some now gone to ruin, are Haslam country. Most owe much of their colorful history to oil discoveries and the Dust Bowl migrants who brought southern food , speech rhythms, and the flavor of country music to a landscape claimed mostly by jackrabbits and rattlesnakes. Oildale native Haslam shares his personal coming of age experiences in these essays that capture the spirit of a time, people, and place, with some statewide wanderings thrown in for spice. Overall a wonderful California memoir, Coming of Age in California proves not only is there life beyond the state's big cities and freeways, but also heart.---Val Morehouse. reviewer val@valmorehouse.com ( )