Two in a Million

Paradise

Map of California with Fresno Locator

Sunnyside is one of those neighborhoods in Fresno, California, we've all seen depicted on popular 1970s television—Mrs. Brady pulling into her driveway, passing lush green carpets of grass reflecting freshly painted clapboard homes and shrubbery so neatly trimmed it belongs on a kid's train set landscape.

Undeniably, this vestige of wealth so openly displayed in Sunnyside, along the famed Chestnut Avenue, not only bleeds affluence into the surrounding streets and cul-de-sacs, but the entire district's curb appeal—such a modern term, isn't it, so reality TV—has sustained a charmed resonance throughout the years. People have kept up with their homes, even though many of them may not have upgraded or modernized, making do, in other words, with what they have.

The Fresno region of Cali where Sunnyside resides could be called home to the sports stars (and maybe a gold medalist or two). Professional baseball. Basketball. Football.

Players. Managers.

Tom Seaver. Frenchy Bordagaray. Brice Bowen. Laura Berg. Frank Chance.

Celebrity Cher

Cher went to Fresno high. Kevin Federline, Mr. Britney Spears, FedEx, K-Fed, whatever, grew up in town. Writer and renowned director Sam Peckinpah did, too. An area favorite, however, a man who embodies the spirit of bell bottoms, pork chop sideburns and the disco era, is Mike Connors: the indelible TV detective Mannix, who has called this pristine suburb south of Modesto home for decades.

Sunnyside is, one could say, a retro neighborhood—a place where the fictional world of TV and the overblown popularity of sports blend with reality and the sometimes violent hurricane of everyday life.