Thursday was the sort of day that must have inspired John Phillips to write "California Dreamin'." The song came to me as I walked through Kennedy Forest with the dogs.

"All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray. I've been for a walk on a winter's day."

It was rainy and cold, but not quite cold enough to turn the rain into snow. Too bad. I walk through these same woods in the snow, and I think of Robert Frost.

A cold rain inspires only thoughts of elsewhere. And what Midwesterner, in the midst of a dreary winter, has not thought of Southern California?

It was once considered a magical place. People went there to get discovered.

The Andersons lived two doors down from us. Andy was an electrician like my father, but my dad and he were not close. Andy often wore a sport shirt to work. My father, who favored dark green work pants and a dark green work shirt, thought that Andy was putting on airs.

The Andersons had two daughters. Susan, the oldest, taught tap-dancing in their basement. So there was always a whiff of show business to the family. But it was the younger girl, Kathy, upon whom the family had pinned its hopes. She was going to be a star.

One summer, they loaded up their station wagon and headed to California for a vacation. Actually, the trip was more than a vacation. They were going to Disneyland, and the plan was for Kathy to be discovered.

She was, the Andersons figured, cuter than any of the Mouseketeers.

It sounded like a plan to me, but most of the neighbors scoffed. Still, I think everybody was secretly rooting for Kathy. Who doesn't want to know a star?

Sadly, the plan did not work. I don't know what happened, but I can imagine the Andersons arriving at Disneyland and getting lost in the crowd of thousands. How does one draw attention to a child — no matter how cute — in such a crowd?

Oddly enough, Kathy eventually ended up in northern California, which is where people go not to get discovered but to get lost. And she did. As Oscar Wilde said, "It is an odd thing, but everyone who disappears is said to be seen at San Francisco." He said that long before anybody had heard of Haight-Ashbury.

I once toyed with the idea of moving to Southern California. A buddy from the service was living in Manhattan Beach. I visited him. I remember a pier and a bar and bloody marys in the morning. All very nice, but I was comfortably ensconced in Arizona. Why leave?

Now, of course, California has lost much of its luster. People are leaving. My buddy remains, but only because he can't sell his condo. He put a note to that effect in his last Christmas card. He wants to go north, to the state of Washington. "You don't want to buy a condo out here, do you?"

No, I don't.

But on days like Thursday, I wonder if anybody could really blame Stan Kroenke if he took his football team to Los Angeles.

What would you do?

Put yourself in his shoes. You don't live in St. Louis. You don't have roots here.

In September, Forbes ranked the Rams as the 30th most valuable team in the 32-team league. Imagine how that value would jump if the Rams were playing in a new, palatial stadium in the second-largest city in the country.

Maybe you could work a deal where you'd share ownership of the stadium. You know the league will put Super Bowls in that stadium. You'd make a mint.

But even if you can't get part of the stadium, you have to think about moving. You're in the sports business. Key word — business. You could dramatically increase the value of one chunk of your portfolio if you move. Why wouldn't you do it?

Plus, you've already got a home in Malibu.

That's quite a place, Malibu. Go to the grocery store, and you might run into Jodie Foster. Or Tom Hanks. Or Jennifer Aniston. The place is crawling with stars.

So you could leave millions on the table to be a big deal in St. Louis, where you don't live, or you could take the millions and be a big deal in Malibu, where you do live.

Fortunately for St. Louis football fans, Kroenke doesn't spend much time here, so he almost certainly wasn't walking in the cold and rain Thursday, letting his thoughts drift to the Mamas and the Papas.

"I'd be safe and warm if I was in LA. California dreamin' on such a winter's day."