Showing posts with label Olympia Power and Light. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Olympia Power and Light. Show all posts
Saturday, June 4, 2011
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.
Labels:
Bezango column,
Clarence Howerton,
Liberty Theater (Olympia Wash.),
Olympia,
Olympia Power and Light,
Ronald Reagan,
Wizard of Oz,
World War II
Friday, June 3, 2011
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
Labels:
Albert D. Rosellini,
Bezango column,
Elma Chronicle,
McCleary,
Mud Bay,
Olympia Power and Light,
Ranch House BBQ,
State Route 8,
Summit Lake,
Woody Barker
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Bezango: Oh, It's Just Goose
Olympia Power & Light, June 30-July 13, 2010
The Thurston County Coroner never did answer my many calls. So much for public service.
Morty the Blog readers have seen Goose Kaler's handiwork here before, in the What's My Line project. He drew the initial line on the back of an envelope.
Labels:
Bezango column,
Goose Kaler,
Olympia Power and Light,
Thurston County Coroner,
What's My Line
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Bezango: Driving
Olympia Power & Light, May 5-19, 2010
As it turned out I was never unemployed. I was indeed "bumped" by someone with more seniority but I had a part-time job the next day. And in a weird twist of fate, I was hired back to my old employer within a month.
The drawing of Morty dates back to 1981, in Cranium Frenzy # 1. Notice I cropped out the "Outta my way, ya peckerheads!" word balloon from the original. They trained us to curse like that when I drove a taxicab in Burlington, Vermont.
Jack's Shoe Repair still exists in the same storefront in Olympia. I often wonder where that little girl is today and if she has any inkling of how she scarred me for life.
No one has taken me up on investing in the thermotropic mood car idea yet. But you'll see. You'll see.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Bezango: Ghosts and Love
Olympia Power & Light March 24-April 6, 2010.
Typo alert: "Washington State Academy" is supposed to read "Washington State academic."
The illustration was originally on the cover of one of Max Traffic's issues of Buzzizyk and reprinted in Retreads 14. Is that heart flying away, or, coming in for a landing?
If you are into ghost hunting and sightings in the Olympia area, the colleges seem to be the places to start. I understand that in addition to The Evergreen State College and South Puget Sound Community College, there is another ghost (a monk who committed suicide? Did I get that story right?) over at Saint Martins University in Lacey.
Labels:
Bezango column,
Buzzizyk,
ghosts,
Lady in White,
Maximum Traffic,
Olympia Power and Light,
Retreads,
Saint Martins University,
South Puget Sound Community College,
The Evergreen State College
Bezango: Fallout? Aliens!? Or Worse-- ?
Olympia Power & Light March 9-23, 2010.
The windshield pit panic is a true and hilarious event in the history of the Pacific Northwest.
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