By Cynthia Delgado While one may imagine that the Vashon of yesteryear was an innocent and bucolic existence marked by wholesome and simple endeavors, the truth is our little green Island has always been eccentric and touched by controversy. Why, just a glance at these headlines from 1905, 1922, and 1908, respectively hints at just…
By Pam (Gates) Johnson Sometimes, living in an apartment doesn’t seem like a bad idea. Let me give you a little backstory. I’ve been living on my little farm since 1975. It has a house (duh), a barn, an orchard, a garden, a big lawn, and fenced pastures. My life-long dream was to live on…
Seán Malone & John Sweetman Seán and I grew up on different islands, but shared so much of the same experiences. We always knew the “warning signs” of summer, which arrived in July, not June, which was typically a gloomy month. The signs of summer were not merely longer daylight hours, warm days, and the…
By Suzanna Leigh It was the summer of 1999, and we had just set the anchor in Longbranch, a little bay in the South Sound. We hadn’t taken the sails down yet when a gust of wind caught the mainsail and nearly sailed us into an odd collection of boats rafted together. The anchor held,…
By Pam (aka Gates) Johnson Oh yeah, everybody says it’s better than the alternative, but I’m not sure. Nobody I know has tried the alternative enough to give me a firm evaluation on the pros and cons. I’m not saying that I am ready to shuffle off this mortal coil just yet, but again, getting…
By Seán C. Malone and John Sweetman Seán and I have always had dogs of one kind or another in our lives, and we have a lot of “dog” stories to relate. Getting older, it would appear that we have “downsized” a bit, as we now both have members of the Terrier clan. Seán’s little…
By Suzanna Leigh During the dark days of winter, my boat sits alone at the dock, the leak I neglected to fix last summer dripping enough moisture into the cabin to encourage mold on the walls and rust on the stove. Her keel sports a beard of sea algae. She needs some work to get…
By Dave B Here is one we all find troublesome. The famous, or infamous, four-way stop sign. Prominently displayed from the bar seats at the Hardware Store where people drink, eat, and watch headstrong or unconcerned drivers navigate into downtown alongside 200 other drivers, all coming off the ferry to discover the Island, and trying…
By Steve Lane I don’t disagree with the President: we should rein in consumption. But that is certainly a departure from the new era of prosperity that he campaigned on. And it demonstrates the disconnection of Privilege from what normal people experience. Yes indeed, there is a lot of fat to be trimmed. But is…
By Scott Harvey In a recent issue of The Loop, a January 17th Seattle Times article was quoted by author Michael Shook. According to Rev. Leslie Braxton, “[America’s] reality was enslavement and injustice and discrimination. America was founded and grounded in racism. And anybody who says differently is being intellectually dishonest.” In the present day, I believe most…