Category: Seattle and Beyond

I love Seattle. At one point, in my blogging career, I thought it grand to use the web, my accumulated knowledge, writing prowess and free-time to explore Seattle. As a writer, putting these explorations into text, editing them, and crafting something remotely readable seemed the best way to proceed. With my mind’s propensity towards wandering, and the recklessness of the use of my time, the effectiveness of that aspiration has been rather questionable at best.

As the site’s host was clamoring for their next payment, I wondered about this crazy project. What the hell am I doing? And why am I paying for it? Weighing many options: rebooting as a real estate site, just killing the whole thing….all kinds of options on the table, so to speak. At one point, my desk was an actual table, so I guess that’s apt. But now I’m much more high-class, with a desk from Goodwill, or ValueVillage, or one of their kin. But I digress.

So, the site’s still up (hope you noticed). Now I have something of a vision, of a plan for my quirky little homestead on the web (thinking of singing “home for the strange” to “Home, Home on the Range”). “Something” leaves a great deal to the imagination. Probably a good thing.

Upon the deepest reflection, and a few cups of coffee, and perhaps a deep lack of creativity, I return to the original notion: exploring Seattle…and more. Or do I mean “beyond”? Well, what do I mean?

Though my life intersects with Seattle extensively, I’ve lived far longer in the suburbs to the north. Also, a few other places in the “greater Northwest”. And, of course, my insider-outsider status. And, of courser, I like to  write. And, even more of coursing, this being the web and all, I should drop in imagery (photos, videos, drawings and all that sort of thing). Multi-modes of communication and all that. Better creation of a narrative. Ah, communication analysis and strategic language. Some of us love it, even it runs drier than the Scablands in August.

Choosing to dive back into Seattle’s history, and, by extension I guess, the Pacific Northwest’s, I opted to jump back into books. Growing up, Emmett Watson’s columns were a delight. His understanding of Seattle, having lived through key parts of it’s history (we really aren’t that old of a City), captivated me. He’s one of the first names that comes to mind when I think of Seattle, especially understanding it’s culture before the birth of the tech sector, before the glass, steel and scraping of skies. Before the Space Needle, Emmett lived in this city.

My favorite library had a copy of Watson’s book Emmett Watson: “My Life In Print”, a compendium of his columns (writing for the Seattle PI, Times and venerable Star). And off I return, hearing a voice I haven’t heard in years, perhaps decades). Already I’m seeing names I haven’t considered in ages: Fred Hutchinson, Weisfield, Bill Boeing, and Schoenfeld. Also reminded of many juxtapositions of Seattle then and now. For instance, once, the houseboating life was not one of glamour and elegance. Rather, the lifestyle of want and struggling to survive. It wasn’t “Sleepless in Seattle”, but rather “jobless and foodless in Seattle”. Again, I digress, yet promise to explore that further. This transition echoes in my family.

I love Seattle, I love this region: western Washington and the Pacific Northwest. From the skies mottled with infinite variations of grey, mists strung out, cotton-candy-like by fir-boughs, to the fascinating characters that have been birthed picking fir needles and pine sap from their hair, this is home. Thank God!