By Suzanna Leigh In Oatman, Arizona, the gold-mining ghost town where we were living when the boys were small, there were no malls, no blaring of tired old Christmas Carols, no Salvation Army Santa’s jingling bells on the street corners. Actually, there were no street corners to speak of, unless you count where the pot-holed…
By Pam (aka Gates) Johnson One of the great things about aging on Vashon is Tuesday at the local IGA. If you are on the south side of 50 – or is it 55 – you get a 10% discount on your entire order every Tuesday. This is a serious bonus if you, like me,…
By Bernie O’Malley, Vashon Mayor 2016 Rural Vashon Town has great charm in its own unique Island way. Yes, rain, shine, chilly, or all of those, just see the hundreds of “visitors” on ordinary Fall and Winter weekends. Five thousand people in September to see Stupid Bikes, 2,500 for October’s CiderFest, 3,000 to see Santa…
By Seán C. Malone and John Sweetman “And let’s try a wee dram of Laphroaig,” I said to Seán. A rare bottle of this peaty, rare single-malt came about as the result of a trade between us. The trade details are obscure but somehow involved a battery for his vintage Ford for a bottle of whisky…
By Michael Shook Though I fancy myself a modern-enough person – apart from my animus toward cell phones, which has nothing to do with modernity and more to do with a desire to be nominally present, at least, to what is going on around me – I have nonetheless always felt drawn to other ages,…
By Suzanna Leigh July 15, Sunday Terns were diving for fish as we passed the red nun buoy at the mouth of Quartermaster Harbor. We motored into the teeth of the wind, hoping to get through the Narrows before the current was so strong against us we wouldn’t be able to make headway. We raised…
By Pam (aka Gates) Johnson It got me. After these many months of dodging the COVID bullet, the vaccines, the masks, the keeping my distance … it finally got me. It all started the night before my birthday. I was enjoying a warm, cozy sleep when my nose faucet turned on at warp speed. Wha?…
By Andy Valencia Vashon is awake and very, very interested in what the upcoming zoning changes for our Island will mean. One of our leading citizens helped the Vashon Loop highlight some important questions in our previous issue, and follows that with more commentary in this issue. Our Community Council has also spoken clearly to…
By Michael Shook And so, here we are, barely a month away from the BIG DAY. I speak, of course, of November 5th. In a season that (so far) has seen two assassination attempts on one candidate, and the sitting President firmly, actively running, then dropping out (or being forced out) over concerns he’s dotty…
In August, our front page featured an eye-catching visual by Anne Gordon regarding undergrounding Vashon-Maury power lines for fire safety. When we pondered how we might depict Island concerns regarding the potential zoning changes, we thought immediately of Anne. As you can see on the front page, Anne has a wonderful ability to create art…