“I was born and raised in Cali, as was my mom in the ‘30’s, and I’ve always called it Cali”
You are definitely qualified to call it “Cali”. One of my daughters who lived for awhile in California named one of her children “Cali” (middle name, she doesn’t use it).
What’s funny is, my mom always pronounced L.A. as Los Angle-us, with a hard “g”, and we’d always tell her she was saying it wrong.
Then I saw a bunch of old movies of Los Angelenos talking, and they all pronounced it the was she did, with a hard “g,” Los Angle-us.
Turns out people in the ‘30’s and ‘40’s pronounced it different than today!
She was a Rosie The Riveter for Lockheed during the war, and saw the actual Zoot Suit riots when they happened.
I miss talking to her about the old days. She remembers the 1932 earthquake vividly, it almost toppled their house.