William Smythe, who in the mid-1890s, was a key figure to develop a utopian community of Standish in the Honey Lake Valley, had numerous observations of the territory.. The region left an impression on him. He dubbed the Lassen, Modoc and Plumas area as the California Highlands. In his opinion the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys were the California Lowlands.
Smythe noted some of the quirkiness of the residents of the Honey Lake Valley. One particular item that caught his attention was the local vernacular. Smythe wrote “When a Honey Laker contemplates a journey to San Francisco, or any other point on the other side of the great range, he says ‘I am going down below.’” Smythe continued “These peculiarities of local speech plainly reveal the physical geography of the country.”
The phrase going down below remained in the local lexicon for many decades. When I was growing up, it was still widely used, though it has since gone by the wayside.
Tim
I remembered that as well as when speaking of others, we would say, “we’re going to see Lois and them” (substitute the appropriate name).
Greetings from “down below”: Yuba City! It is geographically “down”–towards the bottom of a map when north is up; and, much lower/down in elevation–48′ ASL vs. 4100′