"Life's a Gamble"

Bill - Passing of a friend

2010-12-29T09:35:00.000-08:00

While it had been my intention to be through with this posting site, news was just sent to the Port Gamble community which I want to personally comment on. It said in a letter from Shana:

   All of Port Gamble:
   It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I tell you that Bill Segerman passed away yesterday December 28th of an apparent heart attack. Bill was a friend to everyone he met and he leaves a great void and will be missed by all of us.

   We know very little else as his family is undergoing the shock from this news. We will share more information as it becomes available. Until then, please send out your prayers to his wife Martha, children, and family.
   Shana

When one moves to a new community, the true "nice guys" are often the ones who show their faces first. They are the ones, like Bill, who aren't especially flashy, don't put themselves first, but always are there when you need them, willing to help, willing to give advice when asked, and never passing judgement on the people or events around him.

I knew from the first day I met him that Bill was special, that he could be relied upon for any kind of help I might need, professional or otherwise, and he was willing to "go the extra distance" to make this new-comer feel welcome and comfortable. I spoke with him a couple of times when I was writing a blog about someone in town and his perspective came from a jovial, positive viewpoint that was unmatched by anyone else here.

The loss of Bill will be felt for a long time by all of us here. It is especially hard in such a small town where everyone knows everyone (especially if he is a maintenance worker), but perhaps we will find some joy in realizing that we had the pleasure and privilege of knowing a truly classic kind of guy, the kind of guy we may never forget.

A service will be held for Bill on Sunday, Jan. 2nd, at noon at the Hood Canal Vista Pavilion in Port Gamble (which he helped build). Everyone who mourns his loss is invited, in hopes that we might give each other strength.

God be with you, Bill

A beginning.........an ending.

2010-12-23T04:55:00.000-08:00

First the beginning.

There are several beginnings right now. The first day of winter. For those of us who like to think we have "SAD" (Seasonal Affective Disorder), the first day of the days getting longer. Or, as one of my sisters in law reminded me when she brought a celebration to our house, the event of the "winter solstice."

I'd heard of the winter solstice, knew little about it, but was intrigued by the notion of "a celebration of light" which she said it is. In a brief study of it, I found the name a bit confusing, "winter solstice", until I found it broken down into "sun" for sol and "stopped" for stice. Sure enough, we all know what few did in the dark ages, that our seasons are determined by the earth's tilt away from or toward the sun, rather than it's distance from the sun, so this stice is the stopping of the earth's tilt away from the sun (in the northern hemisphere) and the beginning of moving toward it. And stop it does. The days don't suddenly get longer, but for three or four days they stop and stay the same length until they get started down that path we love.

And what better way to celebrate this end of the dark nights than with light!!! with Christmas lights, for instance. Here I am, a celebrator of the Winter Solstice, without even knowing it. BUT, in a bit of irony that we English speaking Christians understand, the event of the beginning of the time of the SUN coincides with the beginning of the time of the SON. Actually, the date of the beginning of the life of Jesus Christ (the son of God) has been determined to have been much closer to summer, and is thought to have been changed in the Dark Ages to its present date, probably by some frozen monk, looking for an excuse for a day off in December. But it is interesting that we now celebrate these two new lives at the same time.

So, thank you, Laura, for reminding me that the winter solstice is not some pagan holiday, but the beginning of more light in our days, which we all can celebrate. Especially Greg, who in a week or so will begin that long, slow process of taking down more lights than any of us put up around our houses. Maybe next year some of us will present formidable challenges on the quantities of lights, but his position as "master of lights" on the east end of town is solid for another year.

And now the ending..........

I started "blogging" last spring when Kris and I first came to town. You all have been fun to write for and about, you opened the doors for me and told me secrets about this wonderful town which I have kept secret and will continue to do, but my health has lately told me it is time to let some one else tell the tales.

So, with MANY thanks for your many comments and great support, I bring this to an end. I do hope that someone else can continue this because there are so many fascinating people, events, and stories here. And someone needs to tell about them. But thanks, Port Gamble, it was a lot of fun.

Country Christmas - final post

2010-12-13T11:33:00.000-08:00

When a person like me gets behind a digital camera when there's lots of kids around, that person can go crazy when he sees how many photos he can take. Hundreds go on that little card that comes out of the camera.

So he takes hundreds and does nothing with them? No, he digs out some of the best and lets people see the fun those kids were having at the event ... like at the Country Christmas, for instance. I'll TRY to keep my comments to a minimum, but by now, you know me .....

Santa, every where you turned

But ALL the kids LOVED him.

This one had ALMOST too much.

He's enjoying the long wait for Santa.

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I've heard there are times of the year that ice cream should not be eaten. NOT!!!!!

Let's see. When I hit this big piece of metal with a wooden stick
.... I bet it's loud.

Haven't I met you somewhere before? Oh yeah. You-re my brother.

Santa is EVERYWHERE! Well, so are kids and they go very well together.

I'm sure I've seen these two guys somewhere ... was it in a Western with Clint Eastwood?

My mother is no doubt sitting up in her grave about now. She LOVED bagpipes.

Wow. This was worth getting dressed up for!!

If you are going to have your picture taken, you are going to have to look good.

The next planned weekend event for families doesn't seem to be until Summer. I heard mention of a town wide Easter Egg Hunter. That sounds like fun to me.

All this, plus there's a cookie under here too? TOO MUCH !!!

Country Christmas, Day one, Part 2

2010-12-12T04:51:00.000-08:00

I hope you are keeping track of all this. We are checking photos of both the Christmas lights and the Country Christmas' first day, the latter being the subject for this post.

There were all kinds of activities going on around town, these folks were trying a little wine tasting (which will still be happening Sunday).

The festival was started mainly for kids, several years ago, although some adult activities have snuck in. But kids didn't HAVE to be involved. This young child has chosen to just "hang around" all day (yes, you can moan now), and what a time she had with Mother right there behind her.

Shop owners, too, got into the picture. If they weren't answering questions they were cleaning up the place, like Sheila was doing.

Lots of the products being sold were edible, some were not,

but the kids could all tell the difference. This boy knows what gingerbread is for .... and it's not for making houses!!!

It didn't seem to matter where Santa or the kids were, they always found each other.

And those kids ALWAYS found the gingerbread .... TASTY!!

Upstairs in the General Store was this group providing excellent live music. I wouldn't exactly call them a "rock band", however.

Give him, what? 2 years, and he will be as tall as the nutcracker?

And finally, three people who have their work cut out for them. It seems a tradition at Port Gamble, a new tradition anyway, that a major facility be put into place each year. The new Pavilion was a couple years ago, showing Olympic Property Groups' serious interest in providing a quality facility for weddings, meetings and other gatherings.

Next came the remodel of the stables (or more recently a maintenance building) into a first class retail store, which shows OPG's continuing interest in providing a unique shopping venue.

And now? Now comes OPG's plans to refurbish, remodel, and in a way recreate a top-notch theater for live performances for the north Kitsap area. And these three can and will make it happen. The building? The community center now housing the post office, which has an open third floor which began its life as a basketball court for the mill workers.

On the left is Tom, head of maintenance who over saw the construction on the other buildings. He knows how to get construction done, on time and in budget, and he knows how to use the expertise of others when needed. If it needs to be on time, on budget, and safely done, you'll see Tom behind it.

On the right is Shana, the representative of OPG to the community, the excellent link between the board of OPG and the people who live and work here. She's the one with the picture in her head of what Port Gamble can and will be, never stuck on a static view, always willing to let things change when it's needed to make things better.

Those two are the paid staff. Willing to add his interest and considerable experience in live performances is Scott, having been involved in live theater across the years and the country. He is not going to let OPG end with anything but the best for the building, and has the ties to make sure the best people are using it once it is finished. And don't worry about his appearance ... he's dressed and made up for his appearance in A Christmas Carol as Scrooge, now showing in the facility to be remodeled.

I marvel at this project, knowing there is a lot to be done, it is a real challenge for OPG, but just another step in their efforts to make the most of this town.

Country Christmas - Day 1

2010-12-11T22:44:00.000-08:00

There is so much going on around this small town that it is getting hard to remember everything. But one thing happened I do NOT want to forget, and that is the comment from Margaret in Nelson, New Zealand, which showed it's face at the end of the last post, the end of "Christmas Lights, Part 2".

I don't know how many of you write blogs, but I can attest to the fact that those of us who do, like to hear from people just to remind us that someone is reading. Most of us subscribe to some kind of statistic service to make sure we are not simply spitting into the wind, but those are never accurate because anybody can put a cookie somewhere to block the statistic service.

So, Margaret, thanks very much for the thought!! Especially from someplace having summer right now.

Today was the first day of the "Country Christmas" and it was great fun!!!. I took lots of photos, but I'm told the more I put in of a reasonable size, the longer it takes some computers to open them. So I'll just put in a dozen or so with a few comments, and we will see about tomorrow for more.

This young lady was one of MANY cute kids who came to eat, color, make ginger bread houses, talk to Santa, and generally have a good time. I thought we could find Gene Kelly and they could do a duet of singing in the rain. I know, I know my age is showing. But I heard some woman talking to an older man and she asked, "Who is this Howdie Doodie you keep talking about?" Ouch! Time marches on.

And today I thought I finally found the real Santa. After all, who would wear this hat?

and this sweatshirt

Except the man himself !!

But then I went to a place where I found this (and PLEASE do not show this to your children).

But I know which one the REAL one is. He's the one I caught starting his speech to the elves about the hard economic times and increase in population, etc.

You can't tell me he's not the REAL S. Clause. I guess I could ask his wife ... she will be at the Tea Room at a later date.

But the people today were really fun. Renee was telling me that she enjoys this holiday so much because she was born on Christmas. But I couldn't get a non-blurry picture of her because she moves so fast working at the General Store. And you can tell how badly her co-workers did NOT want their photos taken (yeah, right!)

I promise to show you the people who came ... tomorrow.

Christmas Lights - part 2

2010-12-11T09:12:00.000-08:00

I'm continuing with the commercial side of town, since I have seen a few more lights coming up on the residential side, and I want to give them time to finish. So, continuing on our way ...

I noticed some of the reindeer must have gotten loose. These two in front of the quilt store should probably be
with ...

this one, which was in front of the pavilion. I tried to get a bunch of photos at the pavilions, since it is really lit up nicely, but I kept interrupting parties

I had a man ask me, while I was putting up more lights, if I had any idea how many lights are shining in Port Gamble. Whew! What a question!!! I would be overjoyed to know, but I wouldn't know where to start. This photo, for instance, shows white icicle lights for over a block on the right, and colored icicle lights for nearly the same distance on the left.

Let's see, maybe we can do this. A 300 light string of icicle lights is 14.5 feet long (and to confuse things even more, that varies). The blocks here are approximately 550 feet long. 36 strings to go one side of one block.....hmmm 72 strings to go both sides, which would be about 21,600 lights just to do one block of the lights on the fences. But wait, there's more. The people of Port Gamble manage to find icicle lights which are quite a bit longer on the part hanging down than us poor people. So for 2/3 of the distance I am going to add another 50% to the number of bulbs used, making a grand total of (drum roll, please):

For the lighting of the picket fence for approximately 2 blocks on both sides of the street and for approx. one block on one side of the street, it would take approximately 74,220. Now add all the other lights (rule of thumb, 100 lights per 1 foot of height for a tree, so add up the height of all the lit trees and multiply by 100, all the fencing going to the stores or houses from the picket fencing, and the other displays as well as the lights around the tennis courts, one can easily imagine using 100,000 lights in Port Gamble.

And when we use that many lights it brings to life such buildings as the Walker Amer house

or the event planning house or

the official Port Gamble tree or

the two nutcrackers guarding the entrance to the Post Office building.

I'll have more in another day or two.

New Addition To The Port Gamble Family

2010-12-07T09:01:00.000-08:00

If you live, work, or just visit Port Gamble, you know Lonnie (sorry, I never use last names on the internet). He lives here and he works here, and he is raising his family here. Meet his daughter, Lillian Grace:

When I took this photo a couple weeks ago, she was 19 days old, and like her father she appeared to be strong as an ox. She was looking all over, not raising much of a fuss, and looked to me like she would have her brother whipped into shape in no time. She seems to be a determined young lady, so for instance she stayed in her first "residence" much longer than was planned, but when she decided to join the rest of us, she put in maybe three hours labor and was here, all 8 pounds and small change of her.

And I would have had her photo here sooner, but it migrated around my CompactFlash card until I was sure I'd lost it. But it is found again, so I'm proud to be able to show you she has safely arrived!!

The lights of Port Gamble

2010-12-05T23:27:00.000-08:00

I keep saying it ... this little town is fun. Yes, I made a few wise cracks about a contest for lighting the town, yes I made it clear that the "King Of the Lights Is Dead", yes there were some people that jokingly told me that I should be strung up instead of the lights, but I'm also told that even though a lot of people still have plans for lights, we already have as bright a display as has been seen for quite some time. In fact just today Kris got this unsolicited note from one of her customers:

"Upon returning from the Seattle Symphony last Thursday our bus driver, Tom from Silver City buses, detoured through Port Gamble so we could enjoy the beautiful lights. Oh what a beautiful sight to see especially the Quilted Strait display. Thank you making the world a beautiful place to live in." (I haven't included her name because I didn't get permission.)

Since I'm told that many more lights are coming, I'm going to add a couple of houses or businesses each day to this post. So keep coming back to "The Lights of Port Gamble" to see the lights this town has put up. I'll keep adding them to this post.

We begin with the obvious, the place where the world of light at Christmas begins, at the church. As you can see, the lights don't have to be bright, glaring, or obtrusive. I was glad to see that the lights added a warmth to the picture, even though they are a cool white. They just add a dimension of depth that isn't otherwise there.

I've got no better name for this than "A River Runs Through It." Now I have not seen Greg's work before, since this is Kris and my first Christmas living here, but this warmed my heart when I went looking for photo ops. Greg out did himself, although there's some good work done on the commercial buildings, and some houses with no lights still to complete their work.

Greg has a way of taking just one element, then adding a bunch more to make the feeling you get

that if a person keeps staring, he will find so much more.

Thanks, Greg, you are an inspiration! That's this year. Next year? Your lights are HISTORY!!

I mentioned that I'm going to try adding some lights to this each day, especially in hopes that some of you will continue to add some lights each day. Why? Check out this picture.

A few lights around the porch, some down the fence, and what a nice setting we have. We could be doing this all over town. I'll show you more tomorrow.

Well, it's now "tomorrow", and I do indeed have some more buildings to show. First, I want to show you the low lit area of town, which unfortunately is our front door, the highway.

Fortunately, Sean and the Gable Coffee Co. put up some lights or a visitor might miss us. I guess next year I better do a better job of lighting up the entrance as well.

When you get closer you reealize Sean does indeed have some tasteful lighting. Speaking of tasteful lighting, check out this view of the Tea Room. They managed to put out enough lights that they should get a "Thank You" note from Puget Energy without overdoing it.

And it amazes me how one can add a little item like this:

and make the display so much more attractive. Attention to detail, I guess it's called.

And of course Tom, Bill, and Kathy have been digging into Shana's slush fund to help make us all look better.

One more look at the full effect one gets when everyone works together:

More again tomorrow or the next day.

Who Has the Power in a Small Town?

2010-11-23T22:14:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm back to my "small town vs. big city" discussion again, brought on by a couple incidents today and a discussion with a sheriff's deputy. You know I can usually find some humerus way to present such elements of this theme, but it finally occurred to me that I was dealing with a subject that involved fatalities, and perhaps should be taken seriously.

The incidents were of the same type ... two cars, about 12 hours apart, left the road at the 90 degree turn, leaving wreckage but no injuries, fortunately. As we all know, that is not always the case. The first accident I did not see happen, but I heard about it from Sean and watched the cleanup this morning.

It seems that a honeymooning couple from California was passing through when their car slipped on the ice at the 90 degree turn Monday night. The car spun around and headed for the cliff, and fortunately it stopped in plenty of time. (That is not always the case.) The couple soon met Sean and (I think) Wendy, who helped them get set up in one of the guest houses, hoping they could get a pull out of the ditch they were in the next morning. Unfortunately, the next morning I watched while a tow truck pulled the vehicle out of the ditch, and the couple was left trying to find which tow truck it was.

The second car off the road at the turn was one I got to watch fairly close up, since it happened in front of my house. A woman and her daughter travelled from Portland to here (heading for Chimacum), only to round the corner and as the driver left the corner, she straitened the wheels, and gave the car a little gas, and felt it slide, then spin, then go off the road onto its side, onto a sidewalk where I had been shoveling earlier in the morning and Kris had been walking five minutes earlier.

Five minutes before this happened,
Kris walked down the sidewalk.

This is from our house.

In watching the cleanup of this wreck, I was asked by a Sheriff's deputy how long I had lived in the house we are in. I answered about eight months, and he, in great seriousnesss said we must have seen a lot of accidents at that corner.

It made me stop and think. Yes, there were five accidents I could remember on that corner, and all five of them had involved tow trucks. Then the deputy added one more comment which really made me stop and think. "You'll see a lot more," he said, "this corner is considered to be one of the worst in the county for wrecks."

In Port Angeles the corner of SR101 and the road I lived on was one of the worst in Clallam County for accidents. Certainly monthly, and more often weekly, someone was being towed off the site and into a repair shop. The County was very much on the state's case about the redesigning needed to save the corner, and the residents of the road were more than audible about knowing when the commissioners would solve the problems. We had funds that various entities were regularly putting money into, always hoping the money would solve this problem.

So what is happening in small town Port Gamble to solve this problem? This is a question that begs many other questions. Whose responsibility is it, the state or the county? Who keeps a list of the worst intersections? Is it based on injuries or fatalities or the cost of the accidents? If we know which governmental agency should be solving this, do we know which department? And on and on it goes.

Does someone represent our interests in our safety? There is no crosswalk anywhere on the highway to help people cross SR104 from north to south and back again, yet we have encouraged people to make that trek by putting businesses on both sides of the street, and by putting trail heads on one side and parking lots on the other.

I think maybe our local people think the problems are solved some where else, and solutions are not their responsibility. But isn't the safety of our people (Kris or I could have been crushed by that car) as well as the people who come to visit us at our request our concern? So I ask again as I did when I started: Who has the Power in a Small Town to get changes made, to increase our safety? Or is our safety just at the whim of people we don't even know, who live in some other town?

These Two Deserve An Award

2010-11-23T12:01:00.000-08:00

Some of these boats have been fishing in this area for several months.

The Blizzard of '10 seems to be over

today, although quite a bit of the wind still lingers, and the temperatures should stay in the twenties or less until at least Thanksgiving.

I hope this looks as cold as it felt.

I ran around taking just a few photos this morning, mainly of any out door activity I could find.
In the process I found two people who deserve extra helpings of porridge for opening their businesses on a day where there clearly won't be any.

First is the Postmaster, Laura. She was telling me recently that she has a two hour commute home every day, and yesterday she mentioned that she was going to have to call her husband of three weeks and let him know she wouldn't be home. Last night would have been difficult traveling ten minutes, much less two hours.

So this morning I found her at the counter, with two containers of ice-melter, all ready to head out doors.

I reminded her that she had made a commitment to the head of all stamps, something about "rain, sleet, snow, or gloom of night" and remembering our conversation the night before, I asked her if she had made the same commitment with her husband of three weeks.

She smiled, tuned around and pointed, and there he sat behind her. HE had made the two hour trip in the blizzard.

Yesterday one of the four that stayed at their post till near the end was Kate from Gamble Coffee Co. Today it was her boss Sean who was one of the two who made it. Fortunately he lives a short walk away, so it was a little easier -- no 2 hour commute. But he may be staying at home a little later every day next year ... after all, we just received notice from he and Wendy that while Laura and Terry had married on Halloween, they were tying the knot on New Years Eve. Is this a tradition in Port Gamble? weddings on holidays. Hmmmm, it sounds like fun.

The Blizzard of '10

2010-11-22T21:51:00.000-08:00

In one of my very first posts to this blog, about 6 months ago, I said I was here in Port Gamble mainly for the stories to tell my grandchildren. I then told my first story, which was about the three people who simply walked into my house, thinking it was a business.

Now I finally have my second story, the story of the blizzard of 2010. I'm sure if you have been skiing much, or grew up in the midwest, or even got lost on a blustery day in winter then you feel like you've been through a blizzard ... or maybe have. But for me tonight was the first such occasion.

On the way to Poulsbo, Nov. 22, 2010 8 am

Your "average" winter morning in Port Gamble (I hope NOT). Cold, but not bone chilling, windy, but not overpowering, Kris and I went to Poulsbo to get some meds I had called in a week ago. The road was not slick, not covered with snow, but in spite of that the drivers here were being EXTRA cautious. I saw no particular reason for the incredible slow movement of the traffic until about 1/2 way to town. Then I saw it ... a huge vehicle, laying on its side, in the ditch. Suddenly the word "Slick" was given new permission to enter my thought waves, and it certainly did with a vengeance.

Port Gamble, Nov 22, 2010, 10 am.

Kris had planned to open the quilt store today, in spite of some quite strong winds and a little snow falling. We returned from our journey to Poulsbo around 10 am, and headed to the quilt store to check on its ability to hold heat (I'd give it a C-) as well as hoping for a few customers, although we both wondered who might wander out today. Very few people did wander out. I also took my snow shovel with me and after we got settled in, I shoveled my way to the post office to pick up our mail. Not much there

Port Gamble, Nov 22, 2010, mid afternoon.

My shoveling, although done to all known proper procedures, was not successful in keeping snow off the sidewalk or out of the front door. It is amazing what a little puff of wind will do in covering up a bald spot a person has put on the sidewalk. ALL my shoveling was gone:

This is my best shoveling job, done about an hour before this photo was taken. The snow is back!!!!!!

The day before, this dept. of transportation sign blew over, one of those sophisticated ones with flashing lights, even.

Have you ever seen the main street of Port Gamble this dead in the middle of the afternoon? I haven't either, so I decided to see who the dedicated people are that work here on a day as cold and windy as this.

This is what I found nearly everywhere I went. By this time it was closing in on 3:30, and the forecast which in the morning had been for clearing and warming by Tuesday, was now saying maybe Wednesday.

But first I found John from Olympic Sports, the Kayak store. The owner, dedicated, but I was certain that minutes after the FedEx man was there picking up John's shipment, he'd be gone.

Laura, the Postmaster was also still there, ready to re-wrap a package.

Kate, holding down the coffee pot at Gamble Coffee Co. was the only true "employee" I found, but it was also the only true "store" that I found with any business.

And Kris, dedicated owner of the quilt store, and like any other owner, lost in paper work.

And that was it, all the people still at their posts in the afternoon. Kris and I headed for home shortly after, and I thought I had seen all the bad weather I was going to see, although the weatherman was shifting his "OK to travel" date back to Thursday. And surprisingly enough he also was predicting that Port Angeles, which already had a half a foot on the ground (the score: Port Angeles 6 inches, Port Gamble 3 inches) was due for 12 more overnight!!

Port Gamble, Nov. 22, 2010, 8 pm

Ok, NOW I can say I have been in a blizzard. There was no reason to take a camera, it was too dark and blowing too hard. Kris and I live on the highway and decided to take a walk as far as the flagpole. You've seen storm movies where the rain or snow is blowing sideways? That was it at the flagpole. I've been sailing for 40 years and have been caught in a few windstorms, and based on my experience I'd say it was blowing 40+ which probably doesn't really rate as a "blizzard", but it certainly will next week when I see the granddaughters.

Even now, at 1am, the wind is howling, blowing the snow off some parking lots and throwing it into other back yards. Occasionally the house shakes, moans, creaks .... just now my desk shook. Yes, a person could get a little nervous, but I've been making things even more nerve racking; I've been reading Newt Gingrich's new book "Valley Forge" about G. Washington, the winter in Pennsylvania, and politics ... lots of politics, even then. But when one reads about the soldiers who had no shoes, who would look at their feet and feel good if they were red, but know they would always walk with a limp if they were black, well, it makes me embarrassed to think I would call this an "blizzard." How about "a really windy day."

Like a fire that wouldn't take ...

2010-11-20T06:52:00.000-08:00

Well, sometimes a person has a good idea that takes off, sometimes a person has an idea that sounds good, but has not depth, and sometimes a person has a guy idea in a girl town. Take your pick. Yes, I got the notion of lighting up the town talked about, but I can't see that Port Gamble is going to be particularly over lit. I hope I'm wrong.

We won't really know until the Monday after Thanksgiving when the lights throughout the commercial area put up by the maintenance crew will go on their electric eyes and come on at dusk. I'm told that the "city" has been buying and buying and buying, but we don't know if they are adding to the collection or just replacing. And they aren't talking, so we won't know until Nov. 29.

Of course mine are all new, since the last house we lived in (for nearly 20 years) was down a road a piece and no one could see it, so there was no point in lighting. And I don't dare put in writing how much I've spent so far this year, but in the scheme of things it may not be much. But at least two buildings, our house and the quilt store have lights this year.

And I know that Greg added some, but when I went by to say hello he was taking them off as fast as he was putting them on. So I think he put on LED and took off old ones, so his display should at least be brighter. He has the perfect spot for someone who likes to "over decorate" as much as he does. It's the first house one sees when coming to town from the East, and through the Christmas season it says "Welcome to Port Gamble" in a big way.

And I'm told, but no one mentions any names, that there are some people adding to their collections. But I know of at least one shop owner who has no intention of putting lights up outside, since she has lights up inside and she doesn't care for lights outside. But she got those lights inside to show, so I'm not complaining.

But there is a feeling of anticipation that I'm told wasn't there in the past. And there is more to come. On Monday, Nov. 22, a man with a "bucket" truck will be here to help put up lights where people can't normally reach, like on roofs, for instance. He'll be here about 2 pm and is being scheduled by Tom, so if you want to use him, call Tom Monday morning. The guy is free, but a gratuity is always nice. After all, he is a volunteer.

And then we will wait. Many of the people who live here will be gone for Thanksgiving, so the Monday after will be fun. I know I will be walking the streets that evening, around dusk, with my few lights on, looking for others. On Tuesday, Nov. 30, I hope to have lots of photos of lots of lights, although there is really nothing like seeing them in person.

The Battle of the Bulbs, part 2. "In the Beginning"

2010-11-15T22:35:00.000-08:00

I had a quick discussion today with a gentleman who, in his gruffest voice asked, "What are you trying to do, start something?" something like a parent might ask a 10 year old who was trying to stir up the town bully. He was talking about my efforts to stir up the town in getting some more Christms lights on the street.

My response? "Guilty as charged". I tend to be one of those who keeps his light under a basket, but let me show you why I like lots of lights at Christmas....

It's called the light of the Gospel, it's the first lights to shine at Christmas in Port Gamble (on the lawn of the church) and it shows the true meaning of Christmas, and all the lights we put up are just a reflection of the true light.

Now that we have that out of the way, let's get back to stirring up some brighter lights. The one I heard was willing to brake the bank with brightness is Greg, who must have his routine down to the point that he can get the strings out of the attic and in the trees in no time. This evening I checked a t his house, and this is what I found:

Even Charlie Brown would be embarrassed. But I think he is holding back and is going to nail us bad.

I checked some other houses, ones I didn't know were going to put some pressure on (but I'm glad to see they are) and I found

some very tasteful starts. Even Steffi at Mike's BBQ, who had said that Mike's is going to be closed over Christmas so much that it wasn't worth putting any up, added her's to the start.

And mine? Well, it's a start, but the girls at Second Spring still need to put Snoopy on the roof so I can add a landing strip for Santa to come down across the roof of the quilt store ... You think I'm kidding? Just wait. But this is it so far. Tasteful ...... but not for long!!

Even Kim and Eric have lights in the General Store windows,

but I'm told by the maintenance crew that this scene (the picket fences)

will be a blaze of lights. At least then I ought to be able to get a good photo.

So this is the beginning. I can't wait to see all the regular lights of town go dim when the rest of these are put up!!

The Battle of the Bulbs, part one. "The Set up"

2010-11-11T04:14:00.000-08:00

Attention America!!!!!

Not since the days of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison with the help of their new invention (the assembly line) has man had the ability to make thousands of an item and make them all exactly the same, and not since the days of Chevy Chase and Tim Allen has man had the ability to destroy thousands of an item in exactly the same way.

Yes. Folks, looking at the calendar it appears we are once again in that time in history known as light wars, or Chistmas lights, or as we call it in Port Gamble, "The Battle of the Bulbs."

I'm not sure how the masses in Port Gamble through the years have had Christmas lights without a competition, but that has got to come to an end. Why, now that all we have to deal with is LED bulbs (light emitting diodes) instead of the old tungston style, burns are a thing of the past and all we have left to avoid is ladders, (and an occasional burned out transformer!)

So at various locations today, men of many of the households of Port Gamble discussed who might want to be involved and what the chances are of winning the Battle might be.

First, of course, we decided early on that we would not set criterea for beating your neighbor until we knew what everyone's strengths are. So those are probably to be discussed over coffee or a beer later, perhaps after everyone has flipped his last switch. And we also dicussed finding an impartial way of judging, which could involve such things as comparing electric bills for December, or even comparing the heat emission of lights shown on satelight photos. But why worry about that yet? First we need to identify some of the players. What follows is not a list of all the people who can win, only the ones who's egos would make sure they were willing to get involved.

Me) I'm new at this which gives me an advantage ... you don't know how good I am at this, so you won't feel threatened and thus won't keep watching. I have two venues at stake, Quilted Strait and our house.

ERIC), also new this year. He took me on a tour of the General Store today and does he have an armament! The entire third floor is full of lights and trees, and he has a full complement of employees and friends coming over on Friday night to help decorate. A top contender.

GREG), the "old timer" at this in this town, having done a "solo" battle for years so we assume he is ready for the real thing. Normally I would fear him the most, but if he's been doing solo, then I would expect him to drop out early, probably with a case of no-staying-power.

JANICE), a top contender if "class" is a criteria. But I don't think girls really know how to compete in this game. No, I shouldn't say that. I don't think girls really know how to win in this game. No, I shouldn't say that either. How about "I don't think guys really know how to let a girl play this game" Yeah. That's it.

SHIELA), another contender with class, but the additional burder of moving soon might make it more difficult to play. On the other hand, that might make it more rewarding.

SEAN), would be a rough candidate, but his venue lacks space to really stack the deck. Only one coffee stand is a terrible handicap.

Mike), especially since Steffi will probably be helping. If she puts her mind to it, look out.

SCOTT). Now there is a man with no time. He's playing Scrooge here at Port Gamble (7 performances, on the stage in the top floor of the post office), so he might not have enough time to play. However, he does have a full complement of kids and has a huge playing field (house) so with his direction they might do well.

Anyone may enter at any time. If we see you with more than two ladders out at a time, we will assume you are in it for the rewards.

Just add Snoopy to the roof .....

And we will be watching and making reports, so don't let down!!! And remember, Tom and his crew of maintenance people will take care of holes in the roof, doors broken, etc.

Halloween slideshow

2010-11-09T04:10:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm trying something new, thanks to the trick-or-treaters. Let's see if this works. It's a slide show, which will fill the screen if you click on the box in the lower right hand corner. (If that works, and you want to get out of it again, hit escape.) To move faster, hit the arrows on either side. It has about half the kids that showed up at Port Gamble. Since it's 4:19 am, I'll try the rest of the kids another day. I think if I pay them something, the company will even take their name off the show.

But seriously folks, this is a testimonial which gets me nothing...this slide show was easy to learn, seems to work good, and has several options I haven't used. As my daughters and wife will tell you, I'm no computer geek, so it has to be easy to learn for me to use it.

Three events - one weekend

2010-11-05T13:26:00.000-07:00

I’m going to repeat myself, but once again it appears that some events in really small towns can be more personal, more meaningful, and at times more fun to experience than events in big cities. To explain what I mean, let me tell you about three events that happened in Port Gamble over the weekend. Nothing unusual, nothing special, just a wedding, a halloween trick or treating day, and a seance. Well, alright. It’s not too often one talks about a seance.

1) THE WEDDING

This was a cute evening in an unusual setting. Let me explain. The postmaster of the Port Gamble Post Office got married in Port Gamble on Sunday. Nothing unusual about that, right? A Postmaster gets married, somehow you expect a “formal” wedding, especially in Port Gamble which hosts nearly a hundred weddings a year, many in a church built not in the last century, but rather the one before that, in a style with the narrow building and tall steeple to match the formal churches of New England. Or the weddings are held in “The Vista Pavilion”, a building built just for such occasions, with a special tent along side for the reception. The receptions often include string quartets to provide that formal atmosphere, (although karaokie is also known to break out). People really do come from other states just to have their weddings here and they do appear to be fun. I had never been to one here before last Sunday.

The Postmaster, Laura, married her beau, Terry, in Port Gamble Sunday. Now let me add some fun elements to that which made a whole different wedding out of it. The Postmaster, Laura, married her beau, Terry, who she met through an electronic dating service, and had the wedding in Mike’s BBQ Restaurant, on Halloween, which was held as a costume party by all who wanted to come in costume. So many elements were different from a “typical” wedding, each one making it more personal and meaningful than a “typical” Port Gamble wedding.

Informal!! Those of us in attendance were asked to stand in a circle around the bride and groom at the start of the service and we went around the room, each of us giving one word which said something meaningful about marriage. The words came out like “joyful, dedicated, love, commitment, gamble...” (“gamble”? that was my word. Well, we were in Port Gamble, and let’s face it, some marriages are indeed a gamble...)

After we all sat down the bride and groom lit candles together, gave each other a ring, and voila! suddenly were married.

Like at all weddings, they had a “first dance”, we ate (BBQ style), and there were many pictures taken, and in no time at all Kris and I were on our way home. We talked about the changes the economy has brought about for newlyweds since we filled that roll thirty plus years ago. We had one house to share, they have at least one extra they are having trouble getting rid of. Kris and I had virtually no commute. Laura has been commuting two hours EACH WAY to work and home, and now they will share that drive, each going the extra time three days a week. It must be tough being a newlywed these days, even for those who are old enough to have gone through it before. But I figure anyone who gets married at a costume party on Halloween, who laughs at “gamble” as a word to describe marriage, and meets his or her life partner through an internet site has got a leg up on having a successful and long term marriage. Kris and I wish the absolute best for the most recent couple to tie the knot in Port Gamble ... although they won't have that distinction for long.

2) THE HALLOWEEN VISITORS

A week or so ago my entry into this blog was a description of what the merchants here wanted to do for some of the kids in the area, wanting to show them the fun of Halloween, not just the greed, and hoping the whole families would join in. That’s exactly what happened and it was a delight!! Last year, as in previous years, the number of visitors was up (to 75 last year) and once again this year we had more, over a hundred this time, all appearing to have a good time. I mentioned in the last entry that Kris' quilt store, until we moved to Port Gamble, resided in a town which had 2500 or more trick-or-treaters and they trolled through the downtown area looking for handouts, like tunnel drilling machines under the streets of Seattle.

2500 is too many for anyone to have a good time. But a hundred was just right. And even those weren’t all just kids. I was nervous when the first visitors showed up, when Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson appeared, middle school aged and unaccompanied, but I learned in an instant from their comments and behavior that they were extremely polite, appreciative, and they left us glad to have seen them. If I'm not mistaken, they were the only treaters who arrived without a parent or two.

In our store (the quilt shop) we were giving away photos of all the kids (more for the benefit of the parents), with a candy bar for the kids. And it was fun.

(I’ve included some of those photos so you can see. But I've been having a terrible time posting photos, so my apologies to parents of kids who came but don't have a child here. As the Seattle ball teams always say, "Wait till next year.")

Afraid of a little blue spider? Never!

This young man was torn between the camera,
which he didn't like and the candy. He finally
came in.

I'm not sure what her costume was,
but she was having fun.

The spider won out.

Well, I did ask him to squeeze in tighter.

But could it have been like this in a larger city? Only if it was limited somehow. The kids played games to get their treats wherever they went, and that takes time. At one stop they had to throw a fishing line over a curtain. At another, they had to throw a bean bag through a hole. And at our stop they had to stand still for a minute. Maybe that’s the lesson to be learned; any part of raising kids takes time and should not be rushed for everyone to get the most out of it. When the parents stick with their kids and the whole family is having a fun time together, there's a whole different kind of "growing up" going on. Those become the kids that can't wait to come home at Chistmas, the kind that don't move far from home when they move out of the house, the kind that will raise their kids pretty much the way they were ... with respect and a touch of discipline. And in a neighborhood.

3) GHOST CONFERENCE

I still have comments to make on the Ghost Conference which was here this weekend. In the meantime I got some photos of the trick or treaters I'm including. They are here under the title "Photos To Go With Halloween." I'll have the ghost conference comments soon; I'm not sure what to make of it (ghosts) after what happened to me when we moved here, and after what happened to some good friends here this weekend.

I also want to tell about some of the plans for adding to the events and use of the buildings here. It amazes me!!! I should have that in a day or two.

Photos to go with Halloween

2010-11-04T17:02:00.000-07:00

Finally, I have some photos of the Halloween Visitors!! A lot of kids, but a lot of Moms and Dads, too. I found only one girl who I would say was unhappy (make that "cranky"). She looked ready to have a tantrum, ran over by the spider, whipped around with a phony smile on her face only to have the flash go off at the same time. She had thought she could ruin my day by giving me a big smile which I would miss, and she would never give it again. But I beat her to the punch, and her's is one of the best photos here. But I'll protect her ... I won't tell you which one she is.

"Who's the Fairest In the Land?" (Sorry, that's a cell phone, not a mirror.)

One of many happy families.

Personally, I think the families were happier with their photos more than just the kids.

Halloween at Port Gamble

2010-10-19T05:11:00.000-07:00

It would seem that more and more commercial areas are providing "safe and sane" Halloween visiting areas, those spots where parents can send their kids and feel confident that trick or treating will not result in razor blades in apples, although it's been years since I've heard of anyone dong that. Most of those commercial areas, though, have become so overrun that what many of us grandparents remember from our youth is no longer taking place, and instead the goblins are running from store to store, grabbing what they can get and heading on home in a short time.

Port Angeles, for instance, has been doing this for so many years that it has grown to the point that a business needs over 2500 pieces of candy (or whatever else is being given out) to still be able to pass the gifts to the last visitor. I saw a sign at the Silverdale Mall yesterday which said they are no longer carrying on the tradition. No explanation, but having been the owner of a downtown business I can see the frustration of trying to preserve a tradition which seems to be out of hand.

So what does all this have to do with the small town of Port Gamble? A lot!! I mentioned earlier that most places are no longer having the events that we grandparents remember from our youth. You are probably a grandparent if you remember "dunking for apples" (especially if you actually did it), or pressing cider, or even hay rides. Small towns did those sorts of things, and as I've said just a few times, Port Gamble is certainly a small town. There are fewer and fewer such places, but this one is proud to stand and invite kids and parents from throughout the area to join in on the fun and visit us on Halloween for fun as much as for candy.

Don't get me wrong, this "tradition" of inviting goblins on Halloween is just a few years old for Port Gamble, but it is growing, and plans are to keep it going. So on Halloween, from 1pm to 5pm, parents and young kids (there is no age limit, but you can tell from the "1 pm to 5 pm" that we are dealing with fairly young kids rather than middle schoolers) are invited to come to Port Gamble and join in the fun. Each business will not only have a gift for each visitor, but it will have to be earned through a game of some kind. Maybe it will be a mask that has to be painted; or maybe a "fish" caught from the other side of a screen, or maybe a photograph to be taken home and shown to the rest of the family, or maybe a crank on a cider press to get real, fresh cider. We won't tell; you will just have to find out for yourself.

Yes, it's always a lot easier to give kids a ride to the nearest shopping center and turn them loose for a couple of hours to fill their bags with sugar. But while those kids of yours are still with you why not come and watch them having fun. Why, we might even have a treat for you!!!!

Is street repair easy to get in your town?

2010-10-15T03:19:00.000-07:00

This is one of those quick posts which could easily be replace with a photo, but it happened so fast that I nearly blinked and missed it.

I awoke yesterday am (yes, brother, it was still am) to the awful noise of buildings being torn down, or maybe it was Mike cleaning his bbq cooker with a new kind of scraper, or perhaps it was the sound of yet another car missing the 15 mph turn and scraping its way over the cliff (2 since we moved here seven months ago, but that's another post).

The worst of the noise soon quit and I forgot about it until I got to the post office, when Laura (the postmaster, and she is indeed a master with the post office, but that too is another story) asked me what that noise was coming from the quilt store. I might have panicked, matching some horrible grinding noises with the quilt store, but since I have found no cause for panic yet at Port Gamble, I wasn't going to start now. So I promised her a full report, and headed toward the noise and the quilts.

I soon found what the noise was. Half the street was torn up and being loaded into a truck to be hauled away. For what reason? I assumed because of faulty underground wiring or septic system, or some part of the grid work under the street that was failing. I've been told that the streets belong to the county, so I assumed that the failure was near catastrophic. And then I saw Tom, our chief of maintenance, and as always I expected a full and accurate report, and I got it.

Have you ever noticed that every once in a while a slab of asphalt will get some cracking in it, perhaps from some soft dirt underneath, or perhaps some heavy trucks from above? The asphalt is still good, can be driven on for years, and no one replaces the street because it LOOKS bad. No, but they do replace the street at Port Gamble when it is becoming rough in an area heavily frequented by wheel chairs, like in front of the pavilion where many of the weddings are held.

This is soooo typical Port Gamble. Streets are a problem? Fix them. Don't haggle with some agency about whose responsibility it is, just do it. Do it right, of course, and do it when the problem is small, of course, but take care of it. And so the problems are small because they are taken care of ... early. As a future user of a wheel chair, I appreciate that attitude.

Sorry you can't move here quite yet, my friends, but the rentals are full ... not one house rental available. Is it any wonder that is the case when they take care of the buildings as well as they take care of the streets? And speaking of rentals, the only commercial building available above the waterfront is the Walker/Ames Building, the largest of the business buildings. All other commercial buildings are full. You ought to come by and check out this place ... full WINTER and summer.

Staying a lady in a man's world.

2010-10-06T10:30:00.000-07:00

Early on I said that one of the things I most wanted to do with this blog was talk about some of the people who work here; they seem so unique to me in their attitude about work, in their enthusiasm, in their work ethic, that it seems (as many people tell me) that I'm living in an amusement park, or maybe in a TV show.

I've also noticed what appears to be a bit of a bias in hiring. Most (but not all) employees of the shops here are female. Most (but not all) employees of the maintenance crew (hired by the people who own everything, and thus maintain everything) are male. I'm not going to even try to explain why so many of the shops seem to hire only females, but I can sort of undersand why the crew that repairs buildings, mows huge fields, builds fences, etc. are male ... it's physically challenging work! But there is one exception. And I've figured out how this lady keeps up with the men -- she works smart, as well as hard.

Her name is Kathy. Several years ago she was settled into a job she liked, lived in a place she liked (Grapevine) and as she was preparing to move into her 40's, she felt pretty good about things. Until the company she work for discovered what many others before it had .. the cheap labor of China. What a dilemma, from having it made to having to start over in no time at all.

So back to college it seemed would make sense, facing that system 20 years later than most. And what to take for a subject? Her interest was in horticulture, but where was a school and where were the jobs? She was advised to consider carpentry, where she could see the possibilities, where a college was waiting (Olympic College), but she couldn't see the future.

So into it she went, full speed ahead, not looking back, and now, if you want to see someone who landed on her feet, check Kathy. Three years ago, which must have been about the time she was through school, she got employment right where she lived, at Port Gamble. And it is rarely that I have seen someone fit her job and fit with her fellow employees as well as she does..

Her hoticulture interest? Have you seen the planter box in the front of the quilt store? The one I get credit for? Not so. Since she came to work here she has been "just cramming flowers in as I find them." CRAMMING!!! With such attention to color, size, season?

And working "smart" as well as hard? Have you ever seen sheets of "slotwall" (not drywall) that are sheets of a hardwood with slots across the face to hold display cases on. I don't know what they weigh, but I would never manage to hoist them on regular basis. I watched Bill and Kathy in the quilt store one day when it was under construction. I watched as Bill hoisted one of the slotwall 4x8 sheets from a pile to the wall, and held it while Kathy leveled it, pushed it into place, then hit it with the nail gun while Bill finally wiped his brow. I could see it was not going to be Bill's favorite day that week.

But then, what a surprise. Kathy walked over to the pile, with the same difficulty lifted the next sheet, walked it over to its place and held it while Bill leveled it, pushed it into place, and hit it with the nail gun. And don't kid yourself. If its true that men sweat and women glow, she glowed as much as Bill sweated. When I asked her what the trick was to getting the board up, she gave me the oldest answer in the book, "You have to work smart, not hard."

So what is this woman among men like when she's not at work? One of the guys going out for a beer? No way. She says she goes home to her "girl cave" with all the girlie frills that a lady could want. I haven't seen her house, but I can only picture the pinks she painted it, the flowered print wall paper, the smell of lavender, and of course the cookies in the cookie jar.

And those would not just be any cookies. She attended a potluck a few weeks ago, and about the time she arrived there the word was out that Kathy had brought her cheesecake. Never mind that she had brought a dessert and the appetizers weren't even out yet. No, as soon as someone mentioned Kathy's cheesecake it was half gone. I arrived a few short minutes later to see people scraping the last of it off the plate she brought it on.

And one other thing. This last weekend included a "Chili Cook off" which Port Gamble has never been involved in. This is the first heat of a cook-off, which means the winner here goes onto face some other winners, the winner of that goes on... you get the picture. But for me the real event was the apple pie making contest which (only for Port Gamble) faced some of the louder claimers of quality against each other, people like Steffi from Mike's BBQ and I who had been claiming easy victories all year, claiming that we were the BEST apple pie makers in the city of Port Gamble if not in the suburbs as well.

And who won that apple pie making contest? The contest which hits the heart of every man with the thought of "Mom" and "Chevrolet" and perfect pie crusts? Was it Steffi who claimed her secret weapon was the apple tree she has at home? No. Was it me, who claimed I didn't need a secret weapon since I just happen to be a perfect pie maker? No.

No, it was Kathy who beat us all, the lady who is just as agile in the kitchen as she is behind the blade of a saw. "I've never met a nicer person," claims Bill, who works with her as much as anyone. "And if I lived with her I'd weigh 500 pounds."

On smelling the coffee

2010-10-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

It's as easy as just about anywhere to stay busy in Port Gamble, busy enough that one starts to loose sight of what one values. Take this last weekend, for instance, and I'm still having trouble getting photos to come up, so please bare with me. Last weekend was as busy a weekend as I have seen in Port Gamble, evidenced by the number of businesses (new ones especially) who claimed to have had their "best weekend ever", an admirable goal, I am sure.

What was going on? It was called "Old Mill Days" to celebrate the days when Port Gamble had a mill, I am sure, but it might have been called "four ring circus days" for what went on. For those of you who (like me) have not been here for many of these event weekends, this is the one not to miss in the future. For spectators it is the laid back weekend of being entertained and fed, and not having to think or work at what's going on.

The "four" events of the four ring circus? First was the Hotcake Breakfast which was delicious, hot, complete, and all you could eat, served early in the morning on Saturday and Sunday, to a crowd on Saturday and basically to themselves on Sunday (due to the bad weather). Don't eat at home next year, eat here. well worth it.

While I was having breakfast I was also watching the cars for the Car Show (the second ring) show up, as well as the crowds who were arriving by hay ride. The cars, all different types, filled "The Bowl" (the name for the area behind the retail businesses), and they were spruced up to shine like always. There must have been close to 200 cars, and for someone like me, who grew up on cars, again it was grand entertainment. Fortunately they were there most of the day.

The third ring? THE CIRCUS. Now I'm not sure that anyone between 12 and adult felt totally entertained, but the 10 rides or so kept our twin grandchildren fully entertained, as they had never been down a five story slide, been on a ferris wheel, or some of the "tamer" rides. But come to think of it some of those teenagers who I said might have felt left out were probably the source of the screaming coming from the fun house and the octopus. Again, an easy way to forget your cares and just be entertained.

And finally the logging show. I grew up in a logging town but I don't recall having seen a better show. These guys, most of them professional loggers (the ones with the faded and torn flannel shirts), were excellant, chopping through two foot thick chunks of wood in less than a minute. And the star attractions for me were the races up the standing poles (they must have been a hundred feet tall) to get to the top, ring the bell, and get back down, and the noisy "chain saw art" which you could buy at the end. What a show, and what a way to end the four ring circus.

So what did I mean when I said that one could be so busy here last weekend that one starts to miss what he values? I mean that for me I almost missed talking with the people who came here. There were so many of them that a person could fail to see the trees for the forest. I did get to meet one woman at the breakfast on Sunday who most of her life had wanted to move to the northwest and finally, only a month or so ago, had moved her family, but not yet her husband who is overseas and will be shipped here soon. And in only the month she was here was already helping a civic group put on the breakfkast. Impressive!

But finally yesterday I had the kind of time I enjoy here the most. Kris and I went for a walk around town which she often doesn't have time to do because of the quilt store; we both had grabbed a snack at the general store, and we were sitting at a bench by the flagpole enjoying the warm fall breeze off the water, and talking about this fun new place where we live.

There was only one other couple in sight, not far from us, and he was taking her photo with exactly the view we had been eyeing. Now I was never one with the quick pick up lines in my formative years, but I have a good one I use in times like this: "That picture would be a lot better if both of you were in it. Can I take one for you with both of you?" I have only been turned down once, by a married man whose wife would not have been the woman in the photo.

And, as so often happens, we found out a lot about this couple, they had been to Buckley, he had retired from a career teaching junior high, they were here lookng for the quilt store, on and on. A unique couple as you will find, they all are fascinating with their stories to tell if you have time to smell that coffee before you gulp it down.

The Best of Kitsap's West, North of Central

2010-09-25T02:11:00.000-07:00

I'm sure by now that everyone has seen "The Best of North Kitsap" which is put out by one of the TONS of "local" newspapers which we all receive. Of course we all wonder how objective this is, can't someone really stuff the ballot box? Can a winner really just be someone who does a lot of advertising with the paper? To make sure that such blatant wrong-doing doesn't always happen, I decided to give my own "The Best Of..." awards, finding a geographical area which I felt comfortable saying that I have experience in.

That area, to specifically define it, I decided to call Kitsap's West side, but it doesn't include the north end , but it is the northerly end, so I'm going to call this "The Best of Kitsap's West, North of Central". And just to be totally fair, I am going to define the area as East Of Hood Canal, West of Gamble Bay, North of the Hood Canal Bridge, and South of Water. Got that?

The business had to have been opened at least 1 week. Some businesses are so excited from just having opened that their reading is sometimes off, so we required a little time.

The business had to thank us profusely and show us how thankful they were by providing us with a lot of whatever they won with.

And are you afraid I'm going to cheat. Hey! You've been reading my stuff for how long and you think I'm a cheater?

So here, without further ado are the 2010 winners of The Best of Kitsap's West, North of Central, along with a little bit about why they won:

The Best Bookstore
The Dauntless Bookstore
Located in Port Gamble. Have you seen the Dauntless' tourist center, with more maps and postcards than any other business in the area. That's in addition to their many fine books.

The Best General Store
Port Gamble General Store
I don't remember a general store with a better selection of cards (although Kim needs to look at some from Paper Clip Art), and have you seen the TWO museums in their facility, the Port Gamble and the Shell Museums, two of the reasons kids like this place too.

The Best Yarn
The Artful Ewe
How many businesses do you know of anywhere in Kitsap County that are only OPEN three days a week because the owner has so much to do to and with her yarn before she can sell it that she barely has it ready for sale as it is.

The Best Place For Tea and Ivar's Clam Chowder
The Tea Room At Port Gamble
We chose the eatery with the most eclectic or disparate choices of food to show that they could entertain just about anyone with their cooking, providing as well an entertaining location.

The Best Place to Find Antiques
Best Friends Antiques
I like this place for a lot of different reasons, but it is so rare that one will find so many antiques placed so carefully in a garage out back of a store, that it makes searching for antiques more of a treasure hunt.

The Best Salon and Spa
Salon and Spa on Gamble Bay
This place MUST be good, since it is so common for a customer to immediately head out of town when they are done so they can show off the "do" they received. Don't take this comment too casually, since I'm serious, they are good.

The Best Kayaks
Olympic Outdoor Center
These folks have an incredible summer program, especially their evening cruises to help get you started in your  hobby. They are second to none in helping you get started whether you own a boat or want to borrow one of theirs.

The Best Greeting Cards
Paper Clip Art
Very new to the area, the owner (me) uses the photos of his daughter, his own graphics skills, and cheap equipment to carry on a hobby/profession he had begun in his last town. As his schedule becomes more open, you will see more of his posters, brochures, greeting cards, and other creations.

The Best Place to Rent a Room For The Night
No question, The Port Gamble Guest Houses
Leaning toward the style of a boutique hotel, they certainly have the style of any older, comfortable, classic facility. Try sleeping there one night. Talk about plush comfort!!

The Best Place To Get a Coffee
Gamble Bay Coffee
Not a surprise here, Sean has been dispensing his ware for years, and even finding new delights. Have you heard of a Tropical Jerry? It will cool you down quick.

Best Barbecue
Mike's Four Star Barbecue
Mike has some delicious choices. He recently made the bbq sauces so you can order them the way you want them, mild, normal, or explosive!

Best Fruit and Vegetable Stand
Terrapin Farms
Where do they find so much fresh fruit and vegetables? When out of town Kris and I have tried to do what the locals do, buy locally. But it is never quite as fresh as what we see here  as "the real thing".

Best Art Studio
         And
Best Store Helping a Neighbor
Beverly Hooks Fine Art Studio
A winner in two categories, she was picked because of the way she helps The Artful Ewe with weaving. My understanding is that the Artful Ewe developed the notion of renting looms by the hour, it was Beverly who should be given the credit both for helping get the system started and for keeping it going.

The best place to buy a basket
Tango Zulu Imports
Need two reasons to buy a basket at a particular place? I've got them. First is the selection. Incredible. Second to none because of where they came from which is all over the world. And the other reason? The baskets are fair traided. You know the people making them are getting a living wage.

The best quilt store
Quilted Strait
I suppose you think I picked this one because I'm married to the owner. NOT SO. With over 3500 bolts of fabric, employees that are sharp as a tack, and a bunch of other stuff (cross stitch, wool, notions, classes, new AND USED books, and an internet site that lets you shop from your own home), who wouldn't pick it?

The best little store
Second Spring
While I've joked with these two about the size of their building (have you seen it? It's just across the street from the quilt store. Don't blink or you really will miss it.), they cram an amazing selection of home-made articles inside, like aprons, kids dresses, shirts, etc. If you drop by and see something you like, BUY IT because it won't be there tomorrow. And ask to see their fifth floor ... you've never seen one like it.

There you have it. As honest and fair a report on The Best Of ... that you will find. You know, by golly, I just noticed a real coincidence... I'm not surprised though .... every one of these places just happens to be in Port Gamble. How strange.

The change in seasons has brought ....

2010-09-24T21:27:00.000-07:00

First, as is sooooo common among "bloggers", I must apologize for the month that has passed with no comment. THANK YOU to those of you who commented and claimed you missed my material. As usual with me, the words will no doubt fall gracefully from my lips once I get started, (yeach!!!) but please let me blame the passage of time on trying to cram some fun in the last of summer.

Now that I'm done writing this post and am trying to put photos in it, I find that the photos won't go in. So I'm going to do the only thing I can do, send it with no photos, and keep trying to add them. Maybe someday I'll figure out what I'm doing wrong.

So, as I said in the title of this piece, "The change in seasons has brought" .... lots of things to Port Gamble. Lets try a few.

RAIN!!!! Not torrential, not even steady, just often. If you've been to Lake Ozette on the other side of the Olympic Peninsula then you know about torrential. They have a rain gauge on the front of the Lake Ozette Lodge that has a measuring stick that goes to 12 and hits it just about every year. What's so special about that? The 12 is FEET. No, here we have the rain that truly keeps the grass green, and (unfortunately for the grounds crew) growing.

But the pot holes come out too, as evidenced by this one at the 15 mph curve. Watch it!!!!

Tree peeps!!!! Whhhaaaaa??? "Tree peeps?" "What is a tree peep?"

OK, in this day of text messaging I'm told by anyone two generations younger than me that words usually get shortened when a person texts. So, for instance, "people" becomes "peeps". So your real question should be "what are tree people?" To answer that, let me back up a hundred and fifty years or so, when Port Gamble was just a wide spot in the road. All the founding paps (fathers) had come from New England where you have seen or heard about the incredible fall colors. Blazing red, brilliant amber, juicy orange (no wait, that was what they were eating), but in this neck of the woods they found green spruce, green fir, green cedar. .. lots of color, just one of them.

So the founding fathers called back east and said "How about if your peeps call our peeps and we get some color out here." How do you get fall color out here? You get those maples that never fail you with their fall show. And who comes to see them? Those fall peeps that go running into the middle of the road to get the world's best photo op (opportunity, but you knew that one) which is the old church, with a couple of houses, all hidden by the blazing maple show of the trees.

So what is wrong with that? Nothing if the tree peeps would follow the laws written by the highway peeps, laws which preclude any peeps from sauntering from between two parked cars onto the highway, without looking. A recent day left me shaking because I had missed one photographer by inches ... and believe me I saw the brand of camera he had and I would have been very sick if the camera had been hurt.

END OF THE YEAR COMPETITIONS
I'm sure it's the staff that puts these together. Now you know I only use first names lest someone might identify themselves and be upset with me, so I will only use the names Shanna and Tom, but I think those two have planned at least one competition (an apple pie bake-off) just to get another (free) piece of what must be described as the most delightfully flavorful piece of apple pie one can find this side of.... well I don't know where, but it's the best for a long way around. And modest though I am at times, I will admit that the pie in question is made by me. You would think that asking me for a piece of pie might be what most peeps, I mean people, would do to get one. But no, they have to make a competition out of it, claiming Shanna is going to enter a pie, forcing me to enter just to prove that while she is good at a lot of things, cooking is not her strong suit. Cooking isn't even a suit that shows up in her hand. Cooking isn't even a suit she has seen before.

So I'll enter the contest and see if she can take the loss.

OLD MILL DAYS
I should have written about this weeks ago, when I wasn't writing (duh). I'm writing this on Friday night when the carnival is set up and running, and it looks fun, skateboard competition was held tonight, and from overhearing some of the comments, it sounds like the old adage is still true "What do they call someone who finishes in second place? Loser."

Tomorrow I am really looking forward to the logging competitions. It looks like they will have the old fashioned kind., like when two guys climb a standing log, cut a notch for the board they are going to stand on, then saw the top off the timber. And I heard they will have a log rolling contest with the loser ending up in Gamble Bay. Check their website www.oldmilldays.com for more detailed times and events.

Saturday, behind Quilted Strait (www.quiltedstrait.com) (sorry, Folks, but I get paid for these ads) will be the car show. I'm hoping this will be one of the better ones in the area, since Port Gamble lost out on their own show around the 4th of July. If you are reading this and have not been to the car show, but are planning to go, would you do me one whopping big flavor? Thank the guys who brought their cars for doing just that. For many of these owners coming to the show means early hours, having to pay to let people look at their cars, having to listen to the spectators tell about THEIR cars which were stock and not tricked out like these will be at the show. and a long drive home when it is over.

SHORTER BUSINESS HOURS

If ever I was going to say something that would get me in trouble with business owners in Port Gamble, this is the subject. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a business owner. I used to be when we lived in Port Angeles, but now Kris owns the business and I help out now and then.

Some businesses plan to have shorter hours, or actually what is more common, be open fewer days during the winter. I don't get it. By closing Wednesday do they think those Wednesday people will come on Thursday instead? It won't happen. Those Wednesday people will eat somewhere else, and that customer's visit will probably not happen.

So let me assure you that there are some stores open 7 days a week year round. I'll tell you which they are, and I hope others will tell me if I miss some. The ones I am sure of are:

(in alphabetical order)
GAMBLE BAY COFFEE
PORT GAMBLE GENERAL STORE
QUILTED STRAIT
TANGO ZULU IMPORTS
THE TEA ROOM

Coming event

2010-08-10T23:48:00.000-07:00

Boy, once I start writing I sure make up for taking a few weeks off. But there is so much coming up in the next couple of months that I want to tell you about, that it is hard to keep quiet. Let's start with next weekend. How can you turn down an invitation that starts like this:

"Imagine sitting in a natural amphitheater overlooking picturesque Gamble Bay on a warm August afternoon in the Pacific Northwest and looking out where once the oldest operating sawmill in the United States processed and shipped lumber all over the West Coast. Steeped in history, Port Gamble is the perfect place to have one of the West's few maritime music festivals. Now in our fifth year, we've played host to the cream of the Northwest maritime music community and continue to have much fun doing it!"

This is the opening paragraph from the "Port Gamble Maritime Music Festival" page on the internet (http://www.portgamblemaritimemusic.com/) where the writer is describing what it will be like to be here on Saturday, Aug. 14th, from noon to 5 pm. to participate in the festival.

I must admit to being a bit partial to this kind of music which seems like it is hanging on by a thread in those few "seafaring communities" (like Port Townsend, for instance) where stories are told through music of shipwrecks and collisions, calms and storms, where the heroes were often those who went down to the sea.

And what better place to tell some of those stories (and hear them) than in a place like Port Gamble, where men have been going to sea (and often coming home) since the middle of the century before last. The venue is the grass field between the Port Gamble General Store and what we "locals" call the Walker Ames house, maybe a hundred feet away.

If the weather is good and people show up in town the way they have been doing this summer, there may not be room for everyone, and you may miss the likes of Pint and Dale or Shifty Sailors or Watch the Sky or even Sanger and Diddle.

This is my kind of Port Gamble fun ... no noisy cannons going off, no running till you collapse, no rain, just listening, singing, visiting a few stores and eating an ice cream cone on a pleasant Sunday afternoon.. If you haven't been here for awhile, come this Saturday and you will get a taste of what this place is about.

Summer help

2010-08-10T14:10:00.000-07:00

I debated long and hard before I decided to call this entry "summer help." Those words seem to convey a somewhat lazy attitude, one held by a teenager who knows he can get away with murder since no one really expects much. There's other phrases that indicate that attitude, like "Maui Time," for instance, a reference point often appropriate to the speed of college students during spring break.

But I have been woefully inadequate in finding anyone who I would refer to as "summer help" in a negative sense here in Port Gamble. The summer workers must be paid well, supervised well, and held accountable to a high standard of behavior, because when I see them they are dressed well, always working, and interuptable only long enough to make sure they are friendly.

Take this mower, for instance. I'm sorry to say that I have yet to get his name, even though I have stopped him on several occasions tring to get his permission to use that machine. I've wanted to ever since I saw those machine, must be close to 10 years now.

No, he will stop, smile, turn off the engine, and let me know without saying anything the least bit bothersome, that I am not going to be running that machine while HE is responsible for it. So a couple minutes later off he goes as always, having brightened my day and taken a short break.

I said they must be paid well. They must also have a chance to come back again next year, a chance to get a letter of reference in case there is no work here next year, and from seeing some of them in "action", a chance to spend a few off hours with a person of the opposite sex.

Having worked one summer in college in a small town (only slightly bigger than Port Gamble), I know the influence of "being watched." It's a healthy way for kids to learn to be careful in what they say or do, knowing that if their words or actions aren't viewed properly it might make a difference in what they do in the future. And believe me, while I wasn't the "class cutup", I'm having fun trying to put some of them on the spot. It's a game we play. It's fun and it works, and they stick to their jobs like only "summer help" can in a place like Port Gamble.

I'm also amazed by how many of those "summer help kids" are now balding, full time, and still working as hard as ever to make the most of this place. One in particular (who is not balding) was very active in the crew that moved a "disheveled stable" into a "beautiful quilt store" and in the many days I watched, not once did she take advantage of being a woman to do less work. I hope to corner her in the next day or two to get her story.

One other item. Yes, I am back on the "job." (This is a "job"? Wow! I didn't even know there was a pay day.) I took a little time off to work on getting my meds to respond to me instead of me having to respond to them. I'm back and will try to add posts a couple of days a week. This place is crawling with things to talk about, a whole different perspective on life on the planet earth.

A Town With A Split Personality

2010-08-10T08:11:00.000-07:00

When I first started hearing about explorers in school, I had strange ideas of what it might be like to be one of them. They had names like cars (DeSoto, Pontiac ... oh wait, was he a native?), got around the world a lot, and came home rich from being given so many things by the people they discovered. It wasn't until reading about people like James Swan that I found these discoverers weren't the good guys who were given presents. But that's another story for another author.

But I always wanted to be the first to "find" a small town which no one knew about, where people were always good to each other, where everyone was happy and no one complained, "and everybody knows your name."

I think I may have found it, but I'm thinking I might be too late.

Kris re-opened her quilt store here in Port Gamble on April 20th, about four months ago. Then she had her "grand opening" on May 1, and let me tell you it was grand!! A lot of people came, a lot she knew, but even more she didn't know, but wanted to get to know. It was so busy that day that she hauled me in from taking photos to run a cash register, which I did reluctantly, because I thought it was more important just to find out more about this area and this town.

So to do that, one of the things I did with just about each customer I ran into was ask them where they lived. Expecting "Bremerton" or "Port Townsend", I got instead an incredible number of the same answers: "Hi, where are you from?" "Hansville." "Hi, where do you live?" "Hansville" "How about you?" "Hansville." "And you?" "Hansville"

"Did you folks all come from Hansville together?" "No, we don't even know each other." And so the day went. By dinner time I was convinced that "Hansville" was a nickname for "Seattle" and most of the quilters from there had come by ferry to see us.

I really didn't want to wait too long before I saw this "town" call "Hansville", although I had been there years before on vacation with our family at a place called the Last Resort. But finally Kris and I took our quick "tour" through the area ... and I guarantee you it won't be our last.

Now I was on the City of Port Angeles' Planning Committee for many years, even the chairman once, and like so many other cities we felt our job was to organize the place. "OK, all the really nice houses go over here, the single lot houses over here, businesses here, doctors' offices here," until we got to the point that you could not get lost in our city, because it was just like yours. (Did you know the streets of Port Angeles are laid out just like Cinncinatti (I think it is) EVEN DOWN TO THE NAMES?)

Hansville, it seems, is just the opposite. On the waterfront might be a 3 zillion dollar home next to a beach cabin owned by a hermit. Somewhere inland may be a 4000 square foot Cape Cod home on three acres of property that has not been mowed in years next to a half acre lot you can't see the house in, because of all the incredible landscaping. Hansville has defined the word "eclectic".

On the map it appears there is a "hub" of a city quite a ways north of where we stopped, but we had started north from Albertsons and the signs seemed to indicate that we were in Hansville all the time. If that's the case, Hansville must be huge, at least 15 miles by 6 miles, by appearance all full of residential property of a wide variety of types and sizes, with many of the "residents" being the four legged kind.

A day or two later I finally made my trek north to the end of the town, at least the end according to the map, and I think I got to the "city center". Recently I talked about Kingston and their incredible amount of parking stalls used by all their businesses (see the July 4th blog .. not to be bragging too mmuch, but it was a hit in Kingston). There were signs up for the celebration of "Hansville Days", I think it was called, but I could locate ... ready for this? ... only one business. ONE business. A kind of downsized, but efficient, Seven Eleven.

I mention all this because I honestly think Hansville has more residents in its borders than just about any town on the Kitsap Peninsula, certainly more than Poulsbo, which claims to have only 8860, a claim I remember it having on its "Welcome to Poulsbo" signs when I played basketball against them in high school. I don't want to tell you how long ago that was, but I'll just tell you the Hood Canal Bridge was still a pipe dream.

But those people in Hansville are spread out just the way they want to be, each one on a spot of property that was probably worked out with the former owner ("Now your north corner is that bend where the creek goes around that tree, except if you don't mind I'd like to keep my garden, so maybe we can bend the East line by twenty feet to take it in...." I'm sure they worked it out years ago and still know in their head, but not on paper, just how much property they have. And that's probably the smart way to do it. Kris and I recently sold our house in Port Angeles (after having it on the market for seven days, but that's another story) and the new owner wanted our 6.3 acres surveyed. Mind you it's perfectly rectangular, two adjacent properties had already been surveyed, but still it cost $3600 to have it done. I like the apparent Hansville system better.

So my hat is off to another unique town in this county, one that has got to be seen for all kinds of reasons, its beauty, its eclectic houses, its unique farms, and the even more unique ways some of them sell their goods, but most of all, you've got to meet the people, although I don't know where you got to do that. Maybe the quilt store, or the general store in Port Gamble. After all, they don't have many stores of their own.

A few thoughts for the week

2010-07-26T01:45:00.000-07:00

I understand that a few of you have been following my ramblings for quite a bit of the five months Kris and I have lived here, so you know that I have been spending a fair amount of my time comparing Port Gamble to other towns (especially Port Angeles, where we came from), comparing big cities to small towns, and describing the "ultimate" small town, Port Gamble. This week I had some incidents that touched on all three, and ultimately proved what a difficult chore I have before me, convincing you that I live in the best place for all.

First, early in the week I met a man who could only be referred to as a "master craftsman", one of those individuals who must be doing what he likes to be doing, because only someone who loves his work would do it so well. He was truly a professional in his field, highly skilled, well educated in his work, and frankly proud of his exploits, proud of the many people he has worked for who thank him profusely.

Is he a highly skilled surgeon? No. A carpenter who crafts some of those buildings which seem so beautiful to those of us who can't afford them? No. Well what then, a car mechanic who can fine tune an engine to get the most horsepower and least emission from it, while stirring up more horsepower than it was ever designed to produce? No, but that would be good. No, this man delivers gravel.

I've really done it now, Ollie.

"He delivers gravel?" I hear you say as you reach for the mouse that's been waiting to be pounced on.

You may have to hear me out, because it's people like this that are changing my perspective. This gentleman works in one of the large towns that surround our suburb of a small town, and because it's a large town, he delivers gravel ... and nothing else. No, the company is big enough to have their own cement truck drivers, their own bark deliverers, but he delivers gravel.

You and I would be bored, right? Climbing the walls from our third load on. So why not him? Because he has taken it upon himself to be the BEST at what he does, and I believe him. The gravel he was bringing was to help build a parking lot, which someday might get paved, but not now. You should have seen him.

He backed the truck up (I can hear Tim, the Toolman Taylor, saying that to Al, finishing with his "Whoh! Whoh! Whoh!" to signify this guy is good.), he raised the bed to just the right angle to get the most pressure he could on the gravel without "spitting" it out, and then the real tricky part. In one motion he popped the clutch to get the truck immediately up to speed, he opened the gate on the bed so the gravel would come flying out, and he kept that truck at exactly the same speed the whole length of the new parking lot to make sure the thickness of the final product was the same from one end to the other ... and that was what was so glorious... it was exactly the same thickness in every load he brought, front to back, side to side.

And when he jumped out of the drivers seat and I said "Wow, that was incredible", he beamed with pride, because HE knew it, but wasn't sure anyone else did.

What's this got to do with anything? So what if he's a good truck driver? Give a thought to this. Because he worked for a big outfit in a big town, there was no time for him to be doing anything else. Sure, there was bark to be delivered, but there was one man to do that too. If he worked in a small town he might have other things to do, other deliveries to make, other floors to sweep, but he didn't. He worked in a big town so he had one job to do, and did it better than you or I could imagine it could be done.

So the conclusion. Can we just say that some people flourish better than others under the pressures of a big city? So let's not go too far and claim that big cities provide an opportunity for ALL people to do their best, just some people ... including at least one gravel truck driver.

Incident number two.

I've developed a wonderful relationship with the director of the Kingston Chamber of Commerce after she flattered me with some nice thoughts about my "Fourth of July" blog, which she sent to all her board members, as well as a local newspaper. The "good relationship" means that she sends me (just about every day) announcements about coming events in the thriving metropolis of Kingston. And I reciprocate in this warm relationship by ... reading them.

Last night (Saturday) I knew was concert on the waterfront night,because it was Saturday and we were near the waterfront, and we heard The King. Yes, just as I might be accused of seeing ghosts in Port Gamble, you could accuse me of seeing The King, Elvis, in Kingston. As we were nearing the driveway that seems to loop around the stage, you could have seen me nearly falling out of our car as Elvis looked my way and I made a fool of myself by waving at him. I didn't notice (Kris did) but we never made eye contact so I'm not sure he knew his biggest fan was there. I'm sure a lot of the girls there thought he saw THEM, but I doubt that he did, since he didn't notice me.

But how does Kingston do it? The place was packed, but not uncomfortably so, we could stand at the back and see with no problem, the weather was WARM, the beers were being served without yelling, and I'm sure every grandparent in the county was there to see that man who has been hiding away while their kids have been growing up.

I like my Port Gamble, but this Kingston is starting to look nicer ... and cleaner ... than it did when I saw it on the fourth. Kris and I are thinking of going to The Oak Table for breakfast tomorrow. That's a restaurant that started in Sequim and now has a branch in Kingston, one which we visit when we feel just a touch of homesickness...

And finally. There's a lot to do here. I've told you that. And frankly I haven't had time to do everything, but there is one event that I hope I'll have time for. Sean came back last Tuesday evening from a kayak sunset cruise around the area, which he said he totally enjoyed. It provided a look at a fish hatchery, loads of otters following them, a gorgeous sunset and new friends to go with another time. I had planned to go, but had to beg off at the last minute. Next time I won't!!! Sponsored by the Olympic Outdoor Center, other evenings start in other locations, but I'm partial to the one in Port Gamble (every Tuesday). No experience necessary! And they provide EVERYTHING you need. Call them at 360-297-4659. What did they pay me to say this? NOTHING. It's one of those things the locals do and we have so much fun we forget to tell others. But I'm telling you ... it's a kick (and John makes sure it's safe).

"Are There Really Six New Stores In Port Gamble This Year?"

2010-07-19T01:48:00.000-07:00

That was the first (and I must admit, the only) question in today's mailbag when I got home this evening. The individual had only seen three new ones and assumed I had lost my glasses and was not able to count.

Well all right, in order, in the last year:
.

At least I think these are in order. After all, I was not here when John moved his kayak store (Olympic Outdoor Center) to the old fire hall directly across the street from the General Store. I must correct myself. I said "kayak store", but saying "Olympic Outdoor Center" is just a kayak store, is like saying "Quilted Strait" is just a quilt store (there, I snuck that one in, didn't I). John and one of his able assistants are so busy planning events (races, cruises, classes, camps, rentals) that the rest of the crew barely has time to sell kayaks and parts to people throughout the world, which they do. Visit them and check out their kayaks, rent one, or repair one. And check out the "Events" section of the Port Gamble web site (http://www.portgamble.com/) where they contribute nearly monthly to the long list of outdoor activities in the area. Open every day. http://www.olympicoutdoorcenter.com/
.

In November, if my memory serves me right, Mike and Stephi opened the best BBQ lunch and dinner place this side of the "Welcome to Port Gamble" sign, and actually a lot further than that. It is Mike's Four Star BBQ in the former auto repair building in the middle of town on SR 104, and for that reason is decorated in automotive "stuff," a small amount of which was donated from the auto parts store I once owned. Mike started his business with a trailer in the Sunday Market, but soon found demand for his food was greater than that. The flavor is to my liking, fairly mild, but a stronger seasoning can be added with very little extra work. Good food, beer, and wine are all available Wednesday through Sunday. http://www.mikesfourstarbbq.com/contents/
.

I think the next store was the re-opening of the Port Gamble General Store last spring, which many would say is the hub of Port Gamble. Any opening now of that store is obviously a "re-opening", since the original opening was in 1916 when they sold clothes more than food. Now they (Kim and Eric) include a sit-down breakfast and lunch menu in their work, and a front section FULL (to overflowing) with candy, cards, and cones (ahhhh, I'm still able to keep up my alliteration) as well as employees able to help you find anything from a quilt store to a shop owner. The menu, by the way, has been developed by Kim, a vegetarian, but one who willingly serves a meat meal, but flavored with herbs usually saved for a vegetarian meal. What a combination of flavors!!! Upstairs is the ever popular shell museum, which has been there longer than I've been coming here (since 1950), and downstairs is the ever popular museum. Open every day. http://www.portgamble.com/default.asp?ID=54
.

Next, on April 20th, was my favorite, Quilted Strait, which I am quite biased about since my wife owns the business and she, the maintenance crew, and I planned and remodeled the facility. From last August when we signed papers committing ourselves to moving her business and ourselves to a new community until April 20th when we opened the doors to the public, we lived between fear and excitement, mostly close to the latter, but never far from the former.

When Kris moved the store she had a fine collection of batiks, flannels, reproductions, and all the kits and classes that go with them. But since that time she has added more classes to a busy schedule, added more backings (extra wide fabric), added cross stitch, added more wool, and added many bolts and displays in a facility I constantly hear is "second to none" in Western Washington, with huge quilts displayed on walls twenty feet off the floor. She even added used quilt books which neither she nor I have seen in a quilt store before now. Come and see for yourself. Distance or the flu got you down? Order on line. http://www.quiltedstrait.com/. Open every day.
.

Beverly Hooks Fine Art Studio (http://www.beverlyhooks.com/) and The Artful Ewe II (http://www.theartfulewe.com/) may have opened before Quilted Strait, I have to admit. Some of the days are blurs, but I list the two together because they share the same space. Beverly's Romantic Impressionistic work can be seen or ordered at the studio in Port Gamble from Friday to Sunday, or her work can be seen or ordered online at http://www.beverlyhooks.com/.

Heidi opened the Artful Ewe II with weaving looms to rent in the same building as Beverly Hooks, hoping that by allowing potential weavers to rent her machines they might grow in the art and the fiber arts might be a stronger concern. Looms may be rented at The Artful Ewe Two from Friday to Sunday.
.

I'm sure that Terrapin Farm Stand (photo coming) www.terrapinfarms.com/ was next, putting their "circus tent" onto their permanent building later this spring. They gather their harvest from as local a spot as they can find, bring it to their stand on their own truck, and have it ready to be eaten the next morning. This spring, as we all know, has not been the best for "fresh fruit" to be as "fresh" as we would like it, but Terrapin Farms on the other hand will not serve fruits and vegetables that aren't. How they come up with such fresh food so consistently is beyond me, but it is.To mix it up, they also have healthy snack items such as peanuts, smoked fish, smoked cheeses, healthy (and tasty) bagels, but they won't tell me where they come from. Open all week.

We have been filling in the commercial end of the town back and forth from one side to the other. Back we go to near Olympic Sports where Tango Zulu Imports www.tangozuluimports.com/ has located, in the "blue building" as it is sometimes called. Owner Tracy had wanted to put an import shop in that location since she had traveled the world, both for pleasure and to find unique items for her store. And once it was available, she grabbed it. One of the truly "unique items" is her attitude toward fair traded goods, which are goods that are registered in such a way that they will provide the producers of the goods with a reasonable profit which gives them an income enough to live on. Too many crafters in the world are cheated out of a fair living, she says, and the fair trade movement provides a way to avoid that. I'm sure the producers of the baskets from throughout the world, the handbags from Nepal, the beeswax earrings from Tibet or the batik clothing from India appreciate that attitude every much as those who shop at Tango Zulu Imports appreciate the craftsmanship they find there. Open all week.

And finally (back across town) is the newest of the new, in the smallest store of its kind (it's worth a visit just to see the place .... but please don't blink), Second Spring (photo coming). Once a "scale shack" for the loads of logs entering the mill site, the building (and its close surroundings) are now the site for the two industrious owners who showcase their own handcrafted, hand made items of all kinds. On one hanger may be a couple of aprons, on another kids clothes. But I guarantee they will be gone next time you are there and replaced by something new. "Second" does not mean second hand, and "Spring" does not mean open only in the early months of the year. But "Second Spring" together means some of the finest handmade products you will find.

And that should be the "newest of the new" at Port Gamble, joining several shops which have been here quite a bit longer. They would include:

                   The Dauntless Bookstore
                   The Tearoom at Port Gamble
                   Best Friends Antiques
                   Salon and Spa On Gamble Bay
                   Port Gamble Guest Houses
                   Gamble Bay Coffee

Yes, you could make a day of it here. You could make SEVERAL days of it here.

Summer travels on

2010-07-18T07:09:00.000-07:00

Wow! Has anyone else noticed how fast this summer has been traveling through the northwest? I had hoped that by the end of the first half of summer I would be caught up, have a routine, and be able to enjoy all the events at Port Gamble and even let you know before things happened as to what was coming.

Did I mention the Medieval Faire? Did I tell you about the grumpy people at the Civil War Re-enactment? NO TIME! I was too busy getting our house ready to go on the market, so I wasn't even here. Grumpy people? It had to do with Civil War folks having to sleep in tents in the rain ... not pleasant ... and locals having to listen to Reveille before 6am, also not pleasant. And our house ready to sell? After Kris and I signed the papers to sell, a week went by before THE offer came through.

I've always noticed one thing about time. When you look at time past us, it has gone by incredibly fast. I remember giving our grandchildren their first ice cream and it must have been a year or two ago, but it seems like only yesterday. Now they are into licorice.

But time ahead? It seems like it will take forever. Like the time from getting that offer on the house to the date with the title company. It's only a month, but it is draggggging on.

But now I have a weekend off and I can at least tell you about the MudPACK (Muddy Paws Agility Club of Kitsap). Annually, this wonderful group of dogs and their owners swarm the south field at Port Gamble to ... I'm not sure exactly what they do, but almost everyone has a wonderful time. There are vendors selling everything from biscuits to dog collars, people getting in the way of dogs, and dogs EVERYWHERE.

I'm sure I offended almost everyone here when I came to people with camera in hand and told them I was hoping to get a picture of an owner and a dog who looked like each other. Apparently it is not considered pleasant to look like your dog.

No, this "owner" doesn't look like his dog. But if we took off the beard ... hmmm.

I did find some "mutts" that I liked, though.

This one was "dog" tired after having roped sheep all day. He was looking forward to a "cat" nap I'm sure.

How this monkey got in, disguised as a dog, is beyond me.

This little tyke looked like he was caught in a ball of yarn some cat left on the field, and unlike the cat, he was enjoying himself in it.

But for three days each dog and its master would run around a course with the person barking the names of obstacles for the dog to miss.

No wait, the person was mentioning obstacles the dog had told him or her to miss. Or maybe they work as a team and both try to miss them all. It looked like it could have been all three, but I can tell you this: It sure seemed to me that all the people and the dogs were having more fun then the medieval folks or the Civil War soldiers were having on their weekends.

And not a cat in sight!!!

And for the stores in Port Gamble? With six new stores here this summer, there have been a lot of nervous shop owners doing their own agility trials. But it seems to me that the nervousness of the beginning of summer has transformed into the joy of meeting new people from all over the country, and the world, for that matter, and offering a pleasant glimpse into why so many of us enjoy having so many come here.
So with the rough edges smoothed to a pleasant surface, I highly recommend you take some time and make a day of Port Gamble. I know it sounds like a sales pitch, but with time in the future coming so quickly, you better get here while you can!!

And speaking of the future, you might want to check Port Gambles' web site's calendar (http://www.portgamble.com/)
for August where scheduled are races in kayaks http://www.paddlekitsap.com/ ,
races on foot http://www.rootsrockrun.com/ ,
and races trying to get to the treasures in the Port Gamble Garage Sale (write to portgamble@orminc.com for info).

Also in August is the fifth annual maritime music festival, featuring the likes of The Whateverly Brothers, Broadside, Tugboat Bromberg, Wendy Joseph, and Spanaway Bay http://www.portgamblemaritimemusic.com/.

As near as I can tell, Port Gamble has "G" rated events only, so don't leave anybody at home. (And do us a favor...don't leave them here, either)

Do we need a list of ALL Port Gamble websites?

2010-07-12T09:47:00.000-07:00

I notice when Googling "Port Gamble" from time to time that there is a fair number of blogs and websites dealing with this area. They seem to fit in a limited number of categories:

Life In PG
Events at PG
Visiting PG
Businesses at PG
People's Blogs About PG
And a Few Others

Since I'm up for a challenge, I have been considering putting together as complete a list as I can of sites related to Port Gamble, in hopes that individuals can find this town quicker than if no such site existed.

Is it worth my time? Would you refer to it? See the "comment" button below? Push it, please, or send a note to ottopart@comcast.ne* (use a "t" instead of the "*"). Thanks.

I'm a broken man

2010-07-09T11:11:00.000-07:00

Why do those of us in "small towns" still have to deal with the "big city corporations?" They always seem to have a little different way of dealing with problems, always making life easier for themselves, it seems, while not conerning themselves with us and our needs. Why do we rarely feel like we got a break, but rather feel that WE had to clean up OUR act or we would have been the "bad guy."

Yesterday I was a happy-go-lucky guy, feeling great about myself, my abilities, my life in Port Gamble. I somehow felt good enough to leap giant buildings in a single bound, stop locomotives with a .... with a..... with a....

Yes, that was yesterday. Today I'm reminded (harshly, I might add) that my memory is about as long as the half life of a sub-atomic particle, and my patience exists only in my imagination. What happened? did I suffer a stroke? No, worse than that. Worse than leaving my keys in my locked truck, worse than forgetting which brand of ice cream I should have ready for the grand daughters when they get here, yes even worse than finding yet another sock eaten by the dryer. I'm ashamed to admit, I forgot (oh, give me time, this is embarrassing) I forgot the password to my computer's mail program. There I said it.

Now it isn't too bad yet because I had checked the box which allowed my computer to remember my password, so this computer that I'm using right now remembers, and every time I use that particular computer it laughs at me but it gets the mail for me. But if I ever try to get my mail in some other computer, THAT computer will forbid my attempts, will hide my mail, and will probably call my computer at home and tell it to do the same.

What to do? The mail program is part of my contract with... wait, let me show you their name the way they show people my bank number: they are Com**st. You don't recognize their name, do you? Good thing, or else they might try to get even with me for some of the things I'm going to write.

So I decided I was going to get my password and write it down somewhere. I got on-line to see what I had to do to have someone at Com**st tell me what it is. The few choices they gave me to recover it included such things as "touch here for your password hint." I did. Does anyone remember where my first job was? I thought I did, but I never got it right. So no password. Last four of my social? (How about ****?). No help there (even with the real number). On and on. So the next thing to try was "speak to a representative." That's what I love. A business with real people.

Oops, I spoke too soon. I got a "person" typing in a back room somewhere, responding as though she (well, she has a girl's name)is a real person. Even though she typed instead of spoke, I must admit to my prejudice that English was not her first language. She told me she needed proof that I was myself, and so I got question after question about me, pets, dogs, relatives until finally it was settled. She could help me. "I've sent you your password. Please check your e-mail" she typed.

I choked. Did I hear her right? "Say again" I typed. "I said I've sent you your password." she said again. "You should receive it in 2 or 3 minutes in your e-mail. Is there anything else Com**st can do for you?"

How many times in your life have you thought the next day, "I wish I had said ..." instead of what you really did say? I was on the spot. "Can you explain to me how I'm going to retrieve my password when I need a password to get into the program to find what you sent me?" I thought she wouldn't understand these rushed thoughts of a man who just wasted a half hour's time telling about family secrets, trying to recover HIS OWN password, which HE had lost. (Notice how guilty these big companies make you feel?)

But she understood. She typed "Let me talk to my supervisor." After 10 minutes I suddenly realized both my blood pressure and my patience had taken a blow, and reacting together, they had hung up on a person they had never met. But I had watched the "Friends" episode where the blond had more and more time INVESTED in a hold button the longer she waited, even into the next day, and I wasn't going to let that happen to me.

Having brought my blood pressure down and my patience up by taking a walk down both streets in this town, telling my story to all I saw, I decided to try it again. After all, some day I will need the cure for this predicament. So to make a legitimately long story a tad shorter, I can report that I called Com**st again, ran through several of the strange questions all over again, but this time with a more positive reply. "You obviously are the person you say you are," Oh happy days! She believed me! "So please just send me the five digit code you were given at the time we connected the Internet for you, and I'll send you your password."

My reply? "You gotta be kidding." The next day I thought of twenty things I wish I had said instead.

A "conversation" With the Director

2010-07-06T15:33:00.000-07:00

After the last blog, in which I came down fairly heavy as one who totally enjoyed Kingston's Fourth of July Celebration, I decided that the people in charge should hear when one is pleased, not just someone who is reading.

I sent a link to my blog to the head of the Chamber of Commerce (oops, I just started a fight. Who is the head, the director or the president?) who sent me back a VERY pleasant response, commenting on how much she liked what I wrote, in spite of some negatives I had written in the first paragraph ... something to the effect that the town looks so boring that perhaps it was incapable of planning some joyous and exciting events.

Since reading her response, it occurs to me that many of us look so hard at whether a town LOOKS good, that often we miss the subject of whether it WORKS good or PLAYS good. Downtown Port Angeles last year had a "Paint the Town" rally that worked so well that the owners and area supporters put hundreds of thousands of $ into the project, but it never really broght them the appreciation they hoped for.

Kingston, on the other hand, WHILE KEEPING THE TOWN CLEAN, seems to be so much more concerned with what people WILL do (especially the kids) rather than what they are wanted to NOT do (don't ride your bikes, don't ride your skateboards, don't J-walk, etc.) I can see my grandchildren enjoying the shell museum in Port Gamble much longer than they will enjoy trying not to spill their cokes on a fancy car downtown.

So keep up the work, Kingston. Give yuourself a pat on the back, maybe a day off and give me something as exciting to do again next year.

And to you citizens who came out and enjoyed the evening, the socializing, the good food, and the fireworks I have something else to say. Remember, I am not with the Chamber of Commerce and I have not been asked to say this, but I will: Did you remember to say "Thank you" like your parents did years ago? A good time is not something you are ENTITLED to, it is something TO BE THANKFUL FOR. Kris and I went all through Kitsap County looking for people really enjoying The Fourth, and we found them at YOUR DOORSTEP. The leaders in KINGSTON did it better than enyone else. THANK THEM FOR IT!!

The small town Fourth of July award goes to .......?

2010-07-04T23:13:00.000-07:00

I'm, sorry, but I have no photos for today's blog. After all, the "winner" of this week's "exciting" city is not my usual new adopted home, but rather one I thought had no chance of doing well, one which LOOKS so boring as to be impossible to arrange a truly exciting and unique day for its population. I've grown so used to Port Gamble providing me with something to write about, something new and different, that I was totally taken by surprise when I found that it takes a much larger city to pull off a truly fun and wholesome celebration. I'm specifically asking myself, "Is Port Gamble a large enough town to have a July 4th celebration and do it right?" Strike me with lightening for saying it, but it appears to me it is not.

Here's what happened today. Kris and I late this morning (the fourth) went driving around, seeing what the various municipalities of the area do for July 4th. We were hoping to get a comparison between Port Angeles and Port Gamble, but any other comparison might also work, since we assumed we knew which city would come out on top.

First we went to Poulsbo, which HAD its fireworks display on July 3rd, and we found no other activities on their schedule. It's a town about the size of Port Angeles, and thus getting a large percentage of the population organized to come out and be together is difficult. Towns like that can put something on FOR its population, but rarely WITH its population. Its people have too many things they would like to be doing to settle on one good time.

Other towns in Kitsap County had the same problem. If a town can be too big to organize its people, one would have to include Bremerton and Silverdale as well. But we had breakfast in one small town (Kingston) and had watched the citizenry prepare for their fourth of July parade, watched a carnival setting up and taking place, watched the kids riding on ponys, watched the local insurance man set up a cover for his clients in case of rain, and watched the local polititions pack their pockets full of brochures and candy. I had the feeling that if someone lived in Kingston, they were either in the parade or watching it. There was no other choice.

We headed back to Port Gamble, where the town was ... what else can I call it ... deserted. I'd never seen it so dead. The people were gone, perhaps to other events, but gone. There were no illegal firecrackers going off, no kids with burns on their hands going to the hospital, in fact no kids at all.

Thinking back, we could remember seeing lots of people at Kingston, but no where else had we seen crowds. So off we went again, this time to see what the post-parade crowd was doing there. By this time it was 8:30 pm or so, and driving all the way to the city's waterfront we finally saw a surprising spectacle. The downtown, with its face looking at the waterfront, was filled with people, apparently waiting for the official fireworks display. Now this area is huge, able at other times in the week to hold, it would seem, the entire car population of the area ... HUGE parking lots, all running together, all giving the population an enjoyable place to visit people they hadn't seen for most of the year.

It was like something that only Norman Rockwell could show. Everyone excited, everyone stopping and talking to friends they had know for years, many with SUV'S with the hatch open and either a sleeping child, a cooler full of hamburgers ready to be cooked, or a couple of dogs inside. THIS was small town fourth of July. THIS was clearly fun, and THIS might not necessarily be the best fireworks the town had ever had, but would at lease be memorable.

We left, hoping to catch the display in Port Gamble, and even when leaving we saw countless people still heading (walking) toward the waterfront. But we should have stayed. We saw one other couple in Port Gamble that night while we watched the home displays some people across the bay had put on. We weren't disappointed, but we certainly could have seen better elsewhere, especially if that elsewhere had been Kingston.

Is Port Gamble now our No. 2 most favorite place to be? Certainly not, but I can tell you that if I want to see an exciting fireworks display, or families being close like they were fifty years ago, or a parade filled with local politicians making impossible promises, then I'll be at Kingston next year on the fourth of July. It truly was exactly what you would like your children to be doing on the fourth, whether they are ten or eighty. We heard their fireworks display from at least eight miles away, the "thump..... thump" of the rockets exploding reminding me of the "thump ... thump" of the rockets that won us our first fourth of July. And the smiles on the faces of the kids that day had reminded me that it had all been worthwhile, no matter which of the wars we had fought. After all, that's the purpose of Fourth of July celebrations isn't it?

Who thanks the car guys?

2010-06-30T00:04:00.000-07:00

All right, I admit it. I have an "issue". What is it? It's this: This weekend (July 2&3) this town should be crawling with cars ... hot rods, old cars, new cars, fast cars, race cars, test cars, antique cars... on and on the list will go. But that's not my problem. I'm a car nut, so I plan to enjoy that.

Most of you who know me, know I used to own an auto parts store and I sold these folks a lot of material. I only mention this to note that these car buffs have AN INCREDIBLE amount of time and money invested in these cars. Five years to restore one of these? Try ten or more to do it right. Remember when you could pick up a hot rod for 5 grand? You can pay that much for a stinkin' MANIFOLD nowdays.

They have pride in their cars. You can't blame them. And if this show is like most of the others, they will pay more to show their cars than you will to see them. Can you imagine calling up Larry, the Cable Guy and saying "Will you come to Port Gamble and pay us to put on a show that we will all watch for nothin'?" That's what happens at almost every car show. The people that pay to register (enter) are the guys that spent thousands to build the cars, not the many more who came to see them.

What is wrong with this picture? Here's something that might be wrong: at the last car show you went to, did you say "Thanks for bringing your car" to these guys? Are you going to put money in the donation basket for their cause? (Susan G Komen For the Cure For Breast Cancer.) Please do. If they can spend 50 grand on building a rod (and they spend that much or more) can you spend $20 on their cause?

You are going to get as much, or more, entertainment out of this show than they are. Help them get their "feel good" today by knowing that you showed your appreciation to them for bringing their cars and were willing to help their cause. Remember that they will be at Port Gamble from 10 am to 3 pm July 2nd and 3rd and their cause will be Susan G. Komen For the Cure For Breast Cancer. The last time this group got tegether there were over 400 cars!! Now THAT will be a pleasant sight.

For more info try: portgamblecarshow.com

Diane, a confident woman.

2010-06-27T21:00:00.000-07:00

Let me begin "Part 2" of "Life is a Gamble" by briefly mentioning once again what intrigues me about Port Gamble. With only 50 people or so, it is truly a small town, like no other I've ever seen, although it is located close to others much larger, which always leaves one ready to compare lives lead in each. Are the results of living in large or small towns REALLY different? It didn't take me long to say "yes" and in telling about some of the people here, I hope to show you those differences.

This post is about a lady living five miles or so away from Port Gamble, but certainly one who qualifies as a small town girl. Diane (sorry, I don't use last names) and her husband Will spent many years moving away from Seattle, with Will fighting greater and greater commutes to be able to live in Kitsap county while working in the big city. With four children to raise, "where you live" becomes an important ingredient in that process for some, certainly for them.

In the mid to late 60's the commute lengthened to the point that the family was living in Kitsap County and Will was working in Woodenville. And those were the days when "commuters" were unheard of. At one time he and two others were the only regular commuters on the ferry. All this because of their four kids? Their commitment to "quality of life" must have been stronger than for most. They could have easily spent more time together in the crowded city with their children lost in huge schools rather than experience the time spent on the road just to be able to live a better kind of life.

Diane and I met soon after Kris and I arrived here. She was clearly a person who knew her way around, helping us learn the ins and outs of surviving in this town. About my age, she was pleasant, helpful, and experienced enough to know the people and enjoy spending time here. Even though they lived a few miles out of town, nearly every day they could be seen walking the dog here and drinking their brew at the Gamble Bay Coffee Co. Diane admits that bribing the dog to get it to walk with them is a daily routine.

One one occasion recently, I had been taking photos of one of the festivals when I saw her in a perfectly relaxed position, one that someone who enjoyed a special kind of comfort in her life would take.

Look at this photo. Isn't this a person who enjoys this world rather than fearing it? Doesn't it evoke some kind of peace, like knowing that you've done what you wanted to do and now you can relax and enjoy it?

After snapping her picture I asked her to stay at Gamble Bay Coffee 15 minutes and I would have something for her. I did. Not a 4x6, not a 5x7, not even an 8x10, but rather a 13x19 copy of the picture I had taken. She was speechless. Now I'm not going to insult her by telling you that she talks alot, but I will tell you that this was a rare occasion.

Since then she and I have joked many times about where she is keeping the photo, always, it sounds, at a place of honor in their house and always she makes me feel better that I took a good shot and that she appreciates it. Yes, "warm and fuzzy feelings" are a delight even at the ripe old age of "mid sixties", and it's always nice to feel something you have done is appreciated. It's one way of giving your kids a positive feeling about themselves, one of the tricks of raising confident children, but it works on us old guys as well, allowing us to walk away from a conversation with that day's "feel good" firmly in place. Not everyone has the ability to do that. Diane does.

And having met two of her children, both of whom have that same confident air about themselves, I am sure they will sit back, relax, and maintain that same "I'm going to enjoy this world, it's not going to conquer me" attitude their mother has.

"Life's a Gamble, Part Two"

2010-06-21T23:48:00.000-07:00

All right, I admit to being a little overwealmed by the comments of "more, more" which I heard when I said I was through writing. Some of you even thought I was making a fair description of this lovely place.

I had turned my activities towards helping Kris get her quilt store up and running, as well as spending what seems like months getting our house prepared to sell, the former done very sucessfully, the latter still a couple of gallons of paint from being finished.

But I still want to tell you what holds a town like this together and functioning so smoothly. Things and people like the maintenance crew, the one woman who meets and courts every business owner and individual who locate here, the people who plan the "big events", but most of all I want to tell you about the people who live and work here. They are the ones who keep the engine running. They are the ones that have more enthusiasm and a better work ethic than I've seen anywhere else.

I'm still waiting to see my first "goof off." You know, the summer help who is more interested in appearing good rather than being good. I'm sure they are here ... somewhere. I'll dig them out. And we will start this blog in "part two", which will show up sometime around the beginning of July.

We're Going Off the Air

2010-04-09T07:57:00.000-07:00

Friends:

With the impending move of Kris' quilt store to Port Gamble, and with the opening date racing towards us (April 20, 10am http://www.quiltedstrait.com/), I find myself with less and less time to write about life in this small town (Port Gamble).

As much as I have enjoyed doing this, I find that I need to commit myself to the move, so I am closing this very brief chapter and going forward with the chapter which we came here to do. Thanks very much to those of you who read, and even more thanks to those who commented. It's always rewarding to know that someone is interested, and I do appreciate your interest ... both of you.

Jerry

The Cashier

2010-04-01T10:22:00.000-07:00

In a perfect world, people would live in the kind of setting they want to be in ... some would live in a forest, some in a condo in a big city, some in a small town, but it seems rare indeed that you find someone who lives in the exact spot where they want to be. I told you early on that I wanted to introduce some of the people I have met in this city of 75 or so, and Renee has got to be on the top of my list of people wanting to live right where they do.

(And I must admit to harboring a feeling that finding such a person is easier in a small town, where people are living where they want to more often than big city people. Of course my wife's sisters will probably try to correct me on that.)

Her name is Renee, and currently she has a job of her choice, she is a cashier in the General Store here in Port Gamble. Having grown up in California, living in the "big cities", she was introduced to small towns early on, being most impressed with a Cal town called Anchor Bay (pop. 200) which was so small you could hear the sea lions barking. It had a cemetery smack in the middle of town, along with that "Americana" feeling one gets in such a place.

Her husband came from a similar background, although his was from living in New Zealand, but there, like in Port Gamble, the water is an ever present view.

After 30 years of marriage, they left California on a camping trip, in an updated, remodeled, 60's, camping trailer, heading north where they hoped to see something a little more rugged and uncivilised. They found it. They now live on 5 acres of farm, south of the Hood Canal bridge, with a view toward the Olympic Mountains with all the accoutrements (ahhh, I love that word) of such a place: the red and white barn, the older house in some disrepair, the flag pole that flies a flag which belonged to her father who got it in the military, and on the list goes. She's hoping by the next visit from her granddaughter, that chickens will be included, with eventually much more livestock.

I mentioned to her that Kris and I, in the early days of our life together, had said that we were either going to have to buy a bookstore in Vermont, or retire to Port Gamble to get the life style we wanted, and she laughed and said they visited Vermont and might live there now if it weren't for the winters.

But is she happy spending much of her day reminding people like me to "pull" the door when leaving (note the photo ... it says "pull" twice, but I still push)? She's overjoyed. She's glad there are "big city" people who put Seattle together so she has a place to go for a concert or a show, but she's even happier that she has her 5 acres, with her mother living in a bungalow behind her. (I might add, when she brought her mother to Washington the first time, parked under the flag at Port Gamble, and told her mother "we're home", her mother cried and cried -- tears of joy.)

Yes, there are a few people living exactly where they want, and Renee is clearly one of them. You can't miss her ... she's a cashier at the General Store, and you will rarely (if ever) catch her without a smile. How could you not smile when living the life of a dream?

More Odds and Ends

2010-03-25T19:55:00.000-07:00

There are TWO blogs this week, along with this first "odds and ends" which is simply a compilation of things which happened this week that said to me "Wake up, smell the coffee. THIS is small town like you hoped for."

Take for instance the comment from Shana that Stephi (of Mike's BBQ) had claimed her apple pie is better than mine. (She's GOT to be kidding.) This led to a challenge. On October 2nd, at Mike's BBQ, Stephi and I will have an Apple pie bake off. We don't have the details worked out yet, but it may cost you a little to be a "taster" (judge) but all proceeds are going to the winner's charity of choice (so your donations will be going to The Michael J. Fox Foundation, since that's my choice. Yes, I can be a bit overly competitive, but when you are the youngest of four you get that way.) That date is also my Mother's 98th birthday, and I can't think of a better way to celebrate it than for her to watch me beat you.

Over dinner this evening, Ann said she gleaned from my blog that I was perhaps reluctant to come to Port Gamble and that I was surprised by what I found here. Guilty as charged!

I mentioned to one of the "in charge" people that I had been considering doing a page on the Flag as Port Gamble's "symbol" (EVERYBODY in the area knows about the flag!), but that I didn't feel comfortable being such a new-comer making an issue out of the flag flying at night and not being lit. By sunset that day (today) the flag is lit and can be proudly seen for miles around (or would be if the rain didn't having it sticking to the pole), no requisition, no triplicate paperwork, no excuses, just a simple, small town, "get it done" attitude.

Yes, Ann, I might have been reluctant, but I'm a firm believer now!

The Sign Lady

2010-03-25T15:43:00.000-07:00

I'm trying not to rush through the stories of the unique individuals who live here and what they have to bring to the world, but one stands out for the effect it's had on me much more than any other. And I must admit I'm so sensitive to the person's situation that I'm going to ask her if I can have her permission to mention it before I "publish" this. If you are reading this, I got it.

I call her the sign lady. Kris and I were given two names of sign makers who would be helpful to use for Kris' business in Port Gamble (she's moving her quilt store to the old Stables building, but that is MANY stories, to be told later). Not a-typically the lady chose the lady, and we went to visit the business she shares with her husband.

She began the session by astounding me with her candor. "Hi. I'm Mollie. I sound like I have an accent, but I really don't. It's because I have MS. Now lets look at some sign possibilities for you." I think of myself as being sensitive to people with disabilities (which some diseases or conditions are) because I suffer from one myself, Parkinson's Disease. (Why do they call it a "disease"? I'm not contagious.) But I've never met anyone who would state their situation as bluntly as Mollie did, not to gain sympathy, not to make herself stand out because of it, but simply to state in her own way "I have a disability, but it's not going to get in our way, so get used to it, because that's just the way I am."

I wanted to express my gratitude for showing a new attitude, but I was so taken aback that it was a few weeks before I returned to thank her for showing me a new way to approach my increasingly visible condition. How should I approach people in public to let them know that I have a condition that they may think makes me a "weakling?" since I no doubt will end up in a wheel chair … or worse. I've been proud of thinking I've been hiding it for 13 years, only to be told by a young, vibrant lady through her demeanor "Why hide it? It's what you are. Don't be ashamed; don't be proud. Just let the world know that it is part of what you are and get on with your life."

Thirteen years of living in a quandary, settled by thirteen seconds of demonstration from Mollie.
Now I'm not sure, but I think if Mollie lived in the big city she might have a different attitude. When you have to compete HARD and RUTHLESS for your business it is difficult to admit there is anything "weak" in your existence. But in a town as small as Port Gamble, you can't hide what you are, you can only BE what you are. And I'm finding this to be incredibly refreshing. The lack of pretense here is healthy and seems universally to be the case among those who are a part of this place.

Mollie and her husband live a block away in Port Gamble. I'm hoping the four of us will be good friends. Like so many others here, they have a lot to offer, if you let them.

The visitors

2010-03-25T10:18:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a fun time for Kris and I. It was the first visit of our daughter, son-in-law, and twin almost-3 year old granddaughters to our new home. We weren't sure how it would go. After all, our last town is still called a "small town", but it has more stores, more parks, in addition to the non-small town items of more traffic, more congestion, more crime, etc.

Our "routine" every morning was just what I hoped it would be. We would leave the house shortly after breakfast (except the day we planned our meal to be at the General Store ) and across the street to The Gamble Bay Coffee Co. http://gamblebaycoffee.com/ for hot chocolate. Yes, the girls needed help getting across the street (that should read "the highway"), but apart from the two times crossing, they were free to roam as they wanted, something they could NEVER do at our last house.

Down to visit the workers at Grandma's new quilt store (http://www.quiltedstrait.com/), in to see Laura and pick up the mail at the Post Office, across to see the friends they had made at the General Store, then home again. On nice days the girls had a park to play in.

Today they left. What an amazing five days can be had in a small town with kids that age. "The nicest things here?" my daughter repeated my question over cocoa this morning. "Probably the back yards," she said, surprising me, "Since everyone shares them, it's like a huge playground." It is true. There are no fences and everyone keeps their personal items off the yards, so when the crew at Port Gamble mows, it is like a huge back yard. The residents have grown accustomed to seeing strangers in their yards, so when local kids come through there are no complaints, no yelling, and no suspicion.

"And," she added, "there's an amazing amount to do here." Of course girls that age don't take much entertaining, but even so, they were easier to keep busy than they had been on our ten acres, where we had to watch them constantly lest they wander into our 10 acres of trees. A person might not notice these things without the benefit of 3 year olds to take care of, but little things like the shell museum in the General Store being a block away makes a big difference. As I've said time and time again, "No where else but Port Gamble is quite like this place."

We are looking forward to the years ahead when the girls will have even more freedom to wander through town, even walking across the highway to get to the BIG playground, then later, when the event weekends take up Grandma and Grandpa's time, I'll feel comfortable that they are safe, having fun, and enjoying the experiences of "small town life." I can only hope THEIR children will too.

Q and A's or FAQ's

2010-03-22T05:40:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted someone to send me questions. (ottopart@comcast.net) The "ottopart" is left from when I owned an "auto parts" store. Tricky, eh? My next door neighbor at the time had a business refinishing furniture and selling unfinished furniture. We called him "Woody," and me "Otto." Only in a small town would we concern ourselves with such trivia.

It makes a person feel so important when he thinks he has knowledge other people want. And what a joy to have FREQUENTLY ASKED questions. Without them one starts wondering if anyone is even out there. Well, I know that some of you are. You give me enough flack when you see me on the streets (I keep forgetting ... on the "street") of Port Gamble. Maybe I should put a counter on here to see how many of you there are. No, there are some questions even I know not to ask.

Q.What is your schedule for these writings?
A. I've decided to limit myself (and you) to one a week, which will come out on Fridays.

Q. What are you trying to do with this?
A. Just tell a little of the fun of living in a small town, the unique things that happen, that either can't or rarely do occur in the big city. Beyond that, although I am NOT a Chamber of Commerce representative, I think there are even more whimsical things happening in this little wide spot in the road in North Kitsap, called Port Gamble, as well as organized activities that can be shared.

Q. Any plans for the future?
A. None for me, thanks. I'm having too much fun with the present.

Q. Any disclaimers?
A. Yes, my wife (Kris) is moving her quilt store to Port Gamble and re-opening it April 20th, so we are tied to the success of the town.

Q. Why did you pick Port Gamble?
A. Are you kidding? Go back and read these blogs. The people here are fun to spend time with and have interesting stories to tell (I've barely gotten started with them). I love small towns. This one is recovering from a possible collapse, and the proper leadership has been brought in to keep it going. Living in a successful small town? All is right with the world.

MURDER??? MAYHEM???

2010-03-18T13:15:00.000-07:00

I was told recently, by one of the people who I thought was a supporter of this town, that in March the town is full of murder and mayhem. Now I've seen people walking into my house without knocking, but that's far cry from murder, and if murder is common in March then either Kris and I are going on vacation for a spring month every year or .... I don't know what, but I don't want to move.

Well, I talked to two of the MANY people who put events together for this town (Lyn and Shana) and feel better now. At least THEY think it is "play acting". They think the Kiwanis club in Kingston (I love alliteration, it makes me sound so poetic) brings people into Port Gamble to reenact a murder from the "old days" of the town.

You can come to town on March 27th (Saturday), around 2pm and for $15 you can get a ticket which will give you permission to interview folks around town that MIGHT have been involved in the murder at Andrew Pope's house, or maybe that's a red herring and the murder happened elsewhere. Or maybe it never happened at all. (Know what a "red herring" is? No? Then Google it. You need the exercise.)

The $15 will also get you something to drink (wine, pop, etc.) when you return to the Post Office building around 6pm to make your accusation. They will give you a little more information at the 6 pm meeting, but not enough that you can solve it without having done your homework the rest of the day. If you do solve it they promise to give you a prize, but the only prize I would like is a promise that no ghosts would visit me. (I shouldn't joke about ghosts. There are a lot of people here that take them VERY seriously, as I will explain in the future.) Your chances of winning a prize are good, since EVERYONE who gets it right wins a prize.)

It sounds like fun to me, but it makes me wonder if this is about a REAL murder, and if so, is the victim one of the ghosts here. What's worse, who are these "Zombies" that are showing up here the next night? Lyn (who used to live in the house that we plan to stay in for 10 years, although I'm now having my doubts) says that there is a red stain on our back door from one of the Zombies. Rats. I thought someone had just spilled some paint.

I could have gone all day without hearing about blood on my back porch.

Spring in a small town

2010-03-18T07:39:00.000-07:00

Spring is obviously a beautiful time for everyone, the temperature is warming up, the flowers are out, the grass is growing, things are are coming back to life from the drudgery of winter. Who could possibly not like spring? How about the crew that cuts the grass, the folks that plant the flowers, that pressure wash the place, all those people in a small town that try to make theirs look better than others? They must hate to come to work knowing the "relaxation" of winter is over.

I know this is going to sound like I'm with the Chamber of Commerce (which I'm not, in fact I don't think Port Gamble has one), but the employees of this "company town" must be pulling the wool over my eyes, because it always looks like they are overjoyed to be here. The boss commutes 45 minutes each way to work and he says he enjoys it, some live here, but everyone has a smile, but no time to talk.

They've been incredibly quick on reconstructing the old Stables building to make it into a quilt store, in fact they are a month ahead of schedule. And now they are mowing, pressure washing, weeding, too, but still ahead of schedule.

Yesterday I tried to talk one of the leaders into a break in the afternoon to have a piece of apple pie with some of us commercial renters to let her know how much we appreciate her and her staff, but she wouldn't have anything to do with it. She sent me a note apologizing, but she was on the phone all afternoon and didn't have time for a break. Is that dedication or what?

Another element that amazes me is how much is done by how few. I have identified, I think, four people in the mainenance crew. They keep up every building (EVERY building. This is a company town and the company owns EVERY building. They mow every blade of grass (I sold my lawn mower when I moved here). The only thing they don't take care of is weeding around flowers the residents put in themselves.

I think a person can go through a neighborhood, any neighborhood in the world, and look and see the amount of dedication people have toward where they live, or where they work, by looking at their surroundings. Are the buildings kept clean? Does the grass look green and watered, are the sidewalks safe?

The next time you drive by Port Gamble, or come here for an event once they get started, (don't worry, I'll tell you all about the events, once they get started) you will see a town where the employees who take care of it and the people who live here have as much pride in a town as you could ask for. I know I'm repeating myself, but I think that's unique to a small town. Or perhaps it's unique to Port Gamble.

"Small world, isn't it?"

2010-03-16T09:12:00.000-07:00

"Everyone is connected to everyone else in the world by (fill in the number 5, 6, 7, ?) people." You know the routine. My brother (1) in Saudi Arabia knows a tour guide (2) who gave a tour that included a woman (3) whose daughter (4) was caretaker for a man (5) who once worked for Ronald Reagan (6).

Sometimes you feel like everyone is that far removed. I've been walking the streets (excuse me, it's a small town. That should read "street") now for a couple of weeks, and I long ago gave up the idea that I would see anybody I knew in my previous life in Port Angeles. I'm getting to know the people who live here, trying to remember their names, and enjoying the new personalities that come with the new faces.

The last time I settled in a new town was after graduation from grad school, although it was in the same town I had been raised in, but I had been gone for eight years, so there too I quickly gave up looking for anyone I knew, hoping to find new friends to replace them.

One of the ways I found to meet new friends was to help start a children's theater group (adults acting for kids) which I had done in college, and in Port Angeles I directed the first play (Alice in Wonderland). We had a thrilling time. Casting was our most fun part, especially after we found the perfect Alice (she must have been 18, but looked and sounded like 10. A perfect voice that carried well but sounded like a child) and the perfect Queen of Hearts ("Off with her head!!!" she would shout and we all felt the hairs on our neck raise) who was, by coincidence, in real life Alice's mother. She also was an outstanding artist, and I had to fight off the crowd and claim my rights as director to be able to keep this painting that was used in the play.

Those people welcomed me into their circle like a rising river welcomes a sand bar.

But now we jump 35 years to 2010, where once again I don't know ANYONE. Remember Sean who I mentioned in an earlier blog is going to marry Wendy, the Sean that was so helpful in giving me the "who's who" in the community, the Sean that is part owner in the Gamble Bay Coffee Co.?" www.gamblebaycoffee.com/ I was going to e-mail him to help him find this blog when I noticed his last name was part of his address. And I noticed his last name was the same as "Alice" and "The Queen of Hearts". I asked him if he had any relatives in Port Angeles and he said his mother used to live there and he had lived there as a kid. I suddenly realized he was part of that family. His mother was the Queen of Hearts, his sister was Alice, and HE had been the pest on stage for every rehersal and nearly every performance.

I guess those of us uncomfortable with life in the big city tend to congregate together in these small towns, which is one of the reasons I was given as an explanation for why this happens so often. Perhaps it's because (and I think this is true) people living in the masses find it more difficult to get involved in the community, they are more fearful of the "outside" (meaning outside their own home) and thus they tend to meet fewer people. I don't know. But I wonder what Sean and I would have guessed the number of people that separated us would have been. I certainly would have never guessed "1".

Yesterday I also noticed upstairs in the Post Office building there is a perfect stage facing a perfect auditorium, where a perfect redition of Alice in Wonderland could be performed. Perhaps this fall (certainly not this summer) I might suggest we form a children's theater group to light up the eyes of some kids from the area. Perhaps that will give me a way of meeting more people. Perhaps we could broaden everyone's "fun" quota. That's how it's done in this small town. And I love it.

2010-03-15T12:14:00.000-07:00

In my first writing on this blog I said, "The thrill of seeing a business through to its opening day, no matter how big or small the business, still provides the owner a "rush" that is greater than a narcotic." This is especially true for a small town. EVERYONE'S eyes are on you and your building, at no time more than just before you open. (Once you are open the eyes go looking elsewhere and then you are down to the matter of running your business, much less colorful than starting it.

I hope that opening Quilted Strait (Kris' business which she is moving from Port Angeles) is done at least half as successfully as Eric and Kim's re-opening of The General Store. I say "re-opening" because they are not the first owners of a business in that location using that name. A week before they opened I walked by and talked with Eric, who I had just met, about such mundane issues as "What do you do with the cardboard to be recycled?"

Have you ever thought about that? We live in a society of double packages, wrapping a good in plastic, then re-wrapping everything in cardboard for shipping. So the plastic goes in the trash at home, but what about all that cardboard. Eric said he took three TRUCKLOADS of it to the recycling center, but it was tiresome, costly, and frankly was cheaper to just throw it in the trash dumpster (which he was not going to do).

But a town like Port Gamble is unlike most in that there is no "alley" where one can hide the ugly dumpsters, no place to keep them "out of sight, out of mind." There is the waterfront, where no one dares to tread (except during festivals when that is the ONLY place to park). So the solution from Tom, the head of maintenance, is to hide the dumpsters close to the water and ask the store owners to walk their cardboard to them. Sound like extra work? You bet. Something to complain about? Not here. Many of the shop owners, like Kris and I, also live in the same block and we don't want dumpsters in our yards any more than you do.

So next time you are in Port Gamble look and see how many dumpsters are in sight. Yet another advantage I've found in the way small towns solve problems. Cooperation. This town is dealing with employees cars, trash containers, yard debris (I started to prune a tree here and the clippings quickly disappeared) like you can't do in a big city ... by asking everyone to pitch in. It works here.

Spring is here.

2010-03-14T04:11:00.000-07:00

Spring came early this year, as everyone in the northwest knows. We are talking spring in January. And what happens in spring in Port Gamble? "Spring is warm up to summer" I've been told. True everywhere? Not like here. Summer is FULL of events, FULL of people. This town of maybe 75 people (that includes cousins staying over night) will be host to five thousand for a Civil War Re-enactment in June (I wonder who wins THIS time) It's on Father's Day, $7 will get you in. I live here so I won't have to pay, so I think I'll bet my $7 on the south. And nearly that many for a Renaisance Fair a few weeks earlier. All summer long this town will be crawling wih tourists here for events each weekend, events like car shows, foot races, dog agility competitions, music festivals, red hat days, etc . (To see a bigger list of the events planned, go to http://www.portgamble.com/ and click on "events." Believe me, there really is "something for everyone.")

And do the locals plan to get rich off hordes of visitors? I have yet to hear anyone say they are living in the smallest of small towns for the money, but rather for the challenge of serving so many, for the excitement of activity, for the fun of being a participant rather than leader. "I'm here for the stories I'm going to tell my grandchildren," I overheard one waitress tell the visitors at her table. After seeing the tips she got from some VERY satisfied eaters, that surprises me.

But let me tell you one of those stories. When Kris and I moved here we had our choice of three homes to rent. (ALL homes are for rent. Pope Resources, the owner of the property here OWNS everything, except the people, of course), every building, every street, even the sewer and water departments are owned by Pope. The only reasonable home was right on the 15 mph corner, the busiest spot in town, the last house in "commercial row" and the first house in "residential row." Quite a change for someone who lived on 10 acres of tranquility before coming here.

Anyway, not having listened to a realistic voice which had told me "Lock your door, even when you are home," I had been reading a paper when I heard footsteps on my front porch. I was waiting for a knock when three elderly (I have to watch how I describe their age, given my own) people walked in unannounced. "Where's your rest room?" the only female of the three asked. Assuming some kind of emergency, I pointed to the closest and she headed for it.

She left behind two gentlemen of similar age to herself who looked around the room and discussed ... who knows what, maybe me ... in unusually hushed tones ... until the lady returned. She was clearly in control. "What did you find?" she asked one. "Anything here of interst?" she asked the other. The volume of her speech was matched only by the silence of theirs.

After a confused look around she barked "What do you sell here?" as if to say "What a lousy job of marketing." Now I admit I'm not yet "small town" oriented, at least not this small a town. I've been told my response was a little rude. (And her entrance without knocking was not?) But my response was simply "Nothing. This is a private residence."

I apologize, Madam, whoever you are, for the embarrassment I caused you, but it has been a long time since I have had such a chuckle from someone else's misfortune. The bright red washed over their faces like a summer sunset and I'm not sure but I think they may have left without first opening the door. But the waitress is right. I'm here for the stories to tell my grandchildren, and that will be the first.

I will never understand "blogs"

2010-03-13T18:27:00.000-08:00

I might have mentioned some of the people in small towns are "quirky", but what can be quirkier than a book that starts on the last page. See what you are reading? It's part 2. Part 1 is down below this. Strange.

I was told before I moved here (by someone who didn't know) that small towns can fulfill the needs of small fish who want to be big fish in a small pond. In my two weeks here I haven't met any of those, only people who don't know if they are big shots or small shots, they just enjoy living in a community where they can know who needs help, who needs to be comforted, who needs information, and who wants to hear a ghost story (more of that in another writing.) Let me tell you a little about some of them without telling you their last names. (Are you kidding? I don't even have permission to use their pictures, much less give you their names.)

Let's start with Sean and Wendy. Sean is part owner (with his sister Kris and a friend named Kat) in the Gable Coffee Company (sound like an overseas trader in exotic beverages? I won't tell you how many employees they have ... you can guess). My first day here I met Sean and no one has given me more information about who lives where, who moved which business for what reason, and which ghosts he's met in which house he has lived in (he's even lived in the house I live in). Ghosts? YES. They are part of life here, as we will get to see in the future.

Sean and Wendy got engaged last weekend. I barely know Sean and I don't know Wendy at all, but you can tell by the way they talk to each other that they both know this is "the one." You don't get that kind of non-verbal communication in the big city.

Another of my "first meets" is Mike, who with his wife Stephani owns Mike's Four Star BBQ, graduating from the farmer's market circuit to a building which years ago served as an auto repair shop for Port Gamble.

One can easily see that taking the step to a "legitimate" business was a tough one for Mike, running the risk of loosing it all, yet being sure enough of himself, his wife, and his own abilities that he could make it. And they will. They have the "work ethic" that sees them there seven days a week, (they are open five) and the customer relations which had them accept a sign from me (see the photo) for their display of automotive oddities even though it doesn't quite fit. But they certainly know how to keep a customer happy. And as you should be beginning to notice, that attitude is common here. "Schmoozing" is not just a duty, it's what these people do because they love their customers, love their work, and love the people in this little town. Kris and I had dinner at Mike's tonight and he mentioned he's tired. "But it's a good tired," he said. Do you suppose someone coming out of a Seattle office building at 3:30, facing a 1 1/2 hour commute would have any idea what a "good tired" is? I hope so, but I doubt it.

(Mike's BBQ's website is at http://www.mikesfourstarbbq.com/ )

Next week, a few more people and "getting close to spring".

We begin in Port Gamble

2010-03-13T17:21:00.000-08:00

Almost everyone who lives in Western Washington knows where Port Gamble is (just a mile north of the Hood Canal Bridge), and everyone who has gone through it learns to hate the 15 mph corner it represents, and a few even know someone who lives there. But now there's a blog (and this is it) about life in this "quaint", "spooky", "unusual", "quiet" (take your pick of words... there's a lot more) town that is nothing like any town I've ever seen.

Port Gamble defines the words "small town". There can't be more than 20 commercial buildings or more than forty residences, but the people here remind me of snowflakes (no two are alike), the buildings here remind me of my youth (when our family raced from ferry to ferry through this burg), and the staff remind me of the staff in the last business I owned (hard working, but everyone quirky enough to make the job not just enjoyable, but downright fun.)

I can see, after living here for a grand total of two weeks, that some one needs to let the world know that towns like this still exist, that the thrill of seeing a business through to its opening day, no matter how big or small the business, still provides the owner a "rush" that is greater than a narcotic.

But as you can tell if you are still reading this, I am not the master of verbage needed for this chore, but I think I take a respectable photo now and then and hope that on the basis of what they say about pictures and words, that I might save you a lot of time reading.

So here goes my first venture into "blogdom", which will quit when I get tired of this town. Kris and I figure we are good for 10 years here, so we will see how long I last.

(Port Gamble has its own website at http://www.portgamble.com/ )