Phone photo 1749

Guns and Hoses baseball game, where the police and firemen square off at the McCleary Bear Festival. During the game we had the worst lightning storm in recent memory, complete with torrential rain, hail, and thunderbolts directly above. And still they played. No real Grays Harbor County guy is going to be the first to admit they have enough sense to get out of the rain, much less potential lightning strikes.

And that is part of the reason I choose to live here in McCleary. This town, as the masthead of the old McCleary Stimulater newspaper used to declare, is as "Independent as a Hog on Ice." There is no logical reason why this village should be here, yet here we are. Bezango WA 985.

Bezango WA 985 #6

1st ed., September 1, 2002, 40 copies, blue cover.

Print-on-demand for a short period starting November 16, 2002.

1st Danger Room Reprint Ed., June 2005. 5 copies (1 red, 1 blue, 1 green, 1 yellow, 1 pink).

The "It's the Arts" themed issue.

Trivia. Page 4: Based on a real performer I witnessed at The Evergreen State College open mic night in the student center in the 1970s. Page 6: Those twin WPPSS towers are still standing today. Incredible. Page 9: Homer T. Bone was a real person, another colorful character who represented Washington State in that other Washington. Page 13: McCleary has had several newspapers in the history of the town. One of them was called, and I'm not kidding, The McCleary Stimulater. And the Capitol Theater in Olympia was the inspiration for this character. The place that is now the home of the Olympia Film Society (and where Peter Bagge and I held a panel discussion last summer) really did have a little plywood guy like the one described here. Page 14: Both of the real life examples of bulldozer art referenced here appear to be gone now.