Morty Comix # 2351

Morty Comix # 2351 was left on the counter at of one those many places in Olympia where you wait 10 minutes for an overpriced cup of coffee. Getting a cup of coffee in that town is much more complicated than it needs to be. See my Bezango column in Olympia Power & Light, August 11-September 22, 2010 for an alternative.

Bezango: Overheard in Olympia

Olympia Power & Light # 50 (December 28-January 10, 2012)

You old Newave Comix folks will enjoy this domino effect. As I stated in this column, the whole idea for this piece came from our colleague Susan Catherine and her Overheard at America's Lunch Counters minicomix from the 1980s.

I see by the inset the editors of OP&L plan to co-opt this and use it as a mini-regular feature in the future. There's a lesson here for all us aging Newavers as we qualify for senior discounts at various fast food outlets. Something we did three decades ago when we were all on the cutting edge can still carry some clout in places today we could never have predicted. Funny how life works.

Susan drew a self-portrait I used on the cover of Outside In #7 and I'm posting it here to give her due credit.

OlyGhostBusters

Just stumbled across the OlyGhostBusters website. The focus is on the "Lady in White," the ghost who is alleged to roam the campus of South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia, Washington. The site reprints my "Ghosts and Love" article from Olympia Power and Light March 24-April 6, 2010 and includes a brief interview which was via email, as I recall.

The Legend of the McCleary Coulda-Been Crater

From Olympia Power & Light, September 7-20, 2011.

I still have the old fellow's fishing pole and a little stand he made.


The Legend of McCleary

Bezango: Ted Bundy-- Elected Official?

Olympia Power & Light # 39 (July 27-August 9, 2011).

Ted Bundy was not only politically active in Olympia, he was a rising star in the Washington State Republican Party. It is chilling to consider the potential of how far he could've gone in government policymaking if his campaign shenanigans had not been uncovered.

Bezango: Big Boom!

Olympia Power & Light, May 4-17, 2011.

A photo of my cousin, Patty, back in the 1960s. She was visiting us from Vancouver, Washington and we set her up on the tractor. In the background to the right is the hill where the dynamite was planted. Patty is sitting not far from where the huge piece of wood landed. This should give you an idea just how far that chunk of the stump sailed through the air.

Bezango: Oly High, 1970s

Olympia High School humanities faculty, ca. 1971-1972:

Hugh Moody, Jim Coomes, Gary Gerst, Art Lowman, Don Webster, Irene Kaufman, Dave Mesojednik, Don Martin, Tilford Gribble, and Ray Arnold as the dragon.

Olympia Power & Light, April 20-May 3, 2011.

Embedded Bezangos

Sasquatch (Olympia Power & Light, June 16-29, 2010) posted with Sasquatch Comix # 1

On Comics (Olympia Power & Light, June 2-15, 2010) posted as Bezango On Comics

On Top of the World (Olympia Power & Light, February 24-March 9, 2010) posted with Washington State Legislative Building

Isthmus Time (Olympia Power & Light, May 19-June 1, 2010) posted with Bezango WA 985 # 4

Bezango: The World's Fair and the Gayway

Olympia Power & Light, March 23-April 5, 2011

J.P. Patches and Gertrude are still around, I'm happy to say. There is a mistaken belief that Matt Groening based Krusty the Clown on J.P., but down in Portland they had their own live kid show host, another clown named Rusty Nails. I used to watch Rusty when I visited my cousins in Vancouver, across the Columbia River.

Matt and Lynda Barry and I used to talk about J.P. and Rusty quite a bit. It was during the time we were together in college that I interviewed J.P. in person, and both of my fellow cartoonists were hungry for the details. Lynda also grew up as a Patches Pal.

I must say having seen both J.P. and Rusty, there was no comparison. J.P. had the magic, Rusty did not. I'm convinced Krusty is Rusty.

Bezango: Local History in a Crossword, Oh Yeah!

Olympia Power & Light, March 9-22, 2011

Crosswords are a lot harder to create than I thought. Some day I want to try and make a crossword testing the player's knowledge of Newave comix trivia.

Bezango: A Love Story of Sorts

Olympia Power & Light, February 9-22, 2011

Isabella really exists, although she doesn't really announce the product out loud. Other than that detail, this is pretty much a true story.

OK, perhaps a few other points were, er, embellished for dramatic effect.

Bezango: Adventures in Time and Capitol Way (Pt. 2)

Olympia Power & Light, January 12-25, 2011

Bezango: Adventures in Time-- and on Capitol Way

Olympia Power & Light, December 1-14, 2010

I still miss Kay's Chop Suey.

Bezango: On Being Hairy in Olympia

Olympia Power & Light, sometime in late 2010.

To sidetrack here. That 1963 Studebaker Lark was less than a decade old when this Polaroid was snapped. Back then the speed on SR 8 was 70, which meant everyone bombed along at 80. The Lark had a V8 engine in a little body so that baby flew. Also, I loved the fact the ignition was on the left side for us southpaws!

Bezango: Rutherford B. Hayes Slept Here, Oct. 1880

Olympia Power & Light, sometime in October, 2010

It's a big deal whenever a President visits the Oly area. The last sitting President to come to these parts was Harry Truman, although Gerald Ford visited Lacey when he was Vice-President in 1974.

The only President to visit McCleary was Franklin Roosevelt. He drove slowly through here waving at citizens in an open car while passing through to visit the Coast. All the schoolchildren lined up to cheer, but anti-union Henry McCleary ordered his workers to stay away.

Bezango: Revisiting Woody

Olympia Power & Light, August 11-September 22, 2010

My second column featuring Woodrow "Woody" Barker. One of my all time favorite columnists was Chicago's Mike Royko. He created a character called "Slats Grobnik" as a foil for the old days compared to the modern. Woody is the Slats for my corner of the world.

Bezango: Technicolor in Olympia

Olympia Power & Light, July 28-August 10, 2010

Clarence Chesterfield Howerton, otherwise known as Major Mite, is McCleary's closest claim to Hollywood fame.

Bezango: Still Life With Woody at the Head Loader

Olympia Power & Light, July 14-27, 2010

My salute to the Washington State I knew and loved, now almost all gone.

State Route 9 (now 8) between Mud bay and McCleary was actually still under construction as late as 1964. As I remember the very last part of that stretch where all four lanes were completed was around the neighborhood of the current Ranch House BBQ.

There were parts of the obsolete old Highway 410 that were still very visible after SR 9 opened. Today some of those ribbons of concrete are hard to see.

Looking for the Head Loader on the Old Highway 410

Part of the Old Highway 410 is still called Old Highway 410. Later down the way different surviving chunks of it have new names. Here is part of 410 at Mud Bay, with Highway 101 in the background.


This old 410 bridge, built in 1937, crosses Mud Bay at low tide. This little area is one of the very southern tips of Puget Sound.


After Mud Bay (originally called Shitpoke Flats in the pioneer days, or so I'm told) Old 410 climbs very quickly above sea level into the Black Hills. I should add the entire time I was on this stretch, I did not see a single car on the road other than mine.

Old Highway 410 crosses SR 8 and then dead ends

That's 410 below on the left, SR 8 above on the right. When I was a kid the concrete surface of 410 was still clearly visible.

In the Summit Lake area 410 is known as Wilson Road. SR 8 looms above the old highway.

The Summit Lake Grocery still stands as a relic of the past. The gas pumps are the old style without digital readouts. I bet if you went in and asked where the Head Loader was, someone would be around who could tell you.

410 collides with SR 8 and 410 loses.

Winslow Road. My school bus went down this stretch.

For a short while this particular part of 410 was used as a rest stop. I think it was blocked off and closed before the 1970s.

SR 8 above left, 410 below middle and right. I can remember when this part of 410 was clearly visible from the 4-laner. Today a big Douglas fir is growing in the middle of it.

A vehicle on SR 8 leaves a spray trail of Washington rain as it drives east over the forgotten and covered up 410, called Kennedy Creek Rd. at this point.

Note the moss on the edge of 410.

410 crosses a creek at the Ranch House BBQ, a true survivor. This place was known as the Ranch Kitchen in the old days. It has burned at least a couple times and was almost totally destroyed by flooding a few years ago when that little trickle of water became a raging river and even closed SR 8 for a week. One building that used to be on the right of this phone photo was carried about 100 feet to the shoulder of 8 when that flood hit. I suspect recent clearcut logging with unchecked runoff was to blame.

Dead End signs are a frequent sight on the Old 410.

A bit of 410 near the second Summit Lake exit, part of it leading to a park and ride lot.

This grassy knoll was once a part of 410 that had been converted to Pioneer Rock Park. But in the 1990s the rock was moved to a Boy Scout camp and the rest stop was obliterated. This was the place where the dedication ceremony took place in December 1961.


After you cross the county line from Thurston to Grays Harbor County, 410 is renamed McCleary Rd. It used to be called William McCleary Rd. in honor of Henry McCleary's brother, but I guess that took up too many letters on the street signs. Henry, of course, was the timber baron who ran a one-man principality named after himself.

Old time McClearyites tell me back when 410 was the main road, this corner was called "Dead Man's Turn" and was thick with white crosses for all the drivers who died as a result of crashing at this spot.

410 on the left, SR 8 on the right, running parallel just outside of McCleary. That giant recreational behemoth heading to the Coast (an hour away) would've had difficulty navigating the old 410's twists and dips back in the 1950s.

410 arrives at the main intersection of McCleary, the end of our journey.

"Head Loader" is also known as an occupation in the logging world. This particular head loader was a well loved McCleary figure and the tool of his trade was welded to his headstone in the McCleary Cemetery. In fact, this fellow formerly lived in my house and even died just about where I am now sitting and typing this.

I liked the wordplay in naming a bar the "Head Loader." Well, we never did find that bar on this trip. Maybe next time.