Features

Numb Butt The Brave

patr — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 02:33:13 +0000

It was like a movie. A comedy, I think, now that I recall the decision to take the kids to Disneyland in the summer of 1955. With school out, we had to think fast on keeping the kids busy. Riding for thousands of miles in a 1951 Chrysler sedan was not our first choice.

Seattle to Los Angeles (remember, there was no freeway then!) is no small feat with four kids and their mother. Just imagine the number of things we had to take with every kid 13 or younger, down to age 4; all boys.

What was I thinking? Six blocks down the street, it had the makings of a tragi-comedy that sunny Saturday morning: We forgot to let the neighbors know we were leaving. We forgot to mention our lovable Cocker Spaniel Tiger, would need to be fed. We forgot to tell the paperboy to leave our daily paper in the box by the door. We forgot to tell the milkman to stop deliveries for two weeks. Back we went. I made the kids stay in the car while I tended to the aforementioned needs. That lasted not more than three minutes when two of them decided they had to "go". What? Now? What would they have done if we had made Highway 99 heading south just ten minutes before.

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I'm human. I "go", but 26 times before we hit the Oregon border!? "Honey, tell the kids to stop drinking up all the pop we stashed around their feet", I advised my wife. Since the trunk was full of every carry bag and suitcase we had, we had no space for incidentals unless we stuck them into the back seat legroom areas. Big mistake. We had 1200 miles to think about the wisdom of our choices. The thoughts left me numb.

I grew up in Portland, our first stop. We visited the relatives, showed off our brood and left the next ayem for the California border. We were towing a 12-foot camper/trailer with one full-sized sleeping area and floor space for two kids. The other two had to sleep outside, which was just as well for me. They usually did not smell good.

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In those days and I suspect even today the border guards stop you to check for fruit you might be bringing in to the state. California is very protective of its immense fruit growing industry and they want you to buy their fruit instate instead of bringing your own. Not really, it has something to do with contaminating the fruit with hellish little insects not native to the sweet California soil.

We stopped. Everyone piled out of the car while the guards inspected our vehicle. Patrick (age 4) wanted to rest inside the camper so we obliged him. Unwittingly, my wife shut the camper door after helping Patrick get comfortable. The door locked with the keys on the kitchen counter inside. It was against the law then as it is now to ride in a moving trailer. We were stuck until we could unstuck that camper door. It was our only key. Patrick was simply too young to understand our predicament...and he was sound asleep.

The guards were great. They carefully pried the simple lock without damage and we were back on the road. California weather is nice. Quite nice but we were prepared. We purchased a window mounted air-conditioning unit for the passenger side. It held a gallon of water in front of an air distribution box that filtered the cool breeze into the cabin of the car. My beautiful wife nicknamed it ‘old face full’ because every ten minutes or so, a build up of water would spritz her vigorously in the face.

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The Redwood forests of Northern California loomed in the distance. We stopped again to visit Babe the Blue Ox and Paul Bunyan at the Trees of Mystery. I was crazy about the cockeyed owl in the trees. The kids disappeared within minutes. I should have known; Every tourist trap has a candy stand. Good for me that they did not have any money. That did not prevent them from begging, of course. I relented only on the condition that they stay close and try to learn something about trees.

They nodded in acceptance. One particular tree in the Mystery Forest is so wide you can drive a car through it. A very exciting prospect for the kids. What I did not count on was the back and forth request from the backseat gang. "Do it again", they cried. "Now back", "now forward". If there had been another vehicle I'm certain the driver would have wanted to clobber me for my insensitivity to the flow of traffic.

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Cruising down the coast highway with its tidy little bends and turns we made it through to Pebble Beach. The 17-mile drive seemed like 30 because the wind howled causing our wimpy camper to sway like the Tacoma Narrows bridge in 1940.

Before long we pulled into Knott’s Berry Farm (not on our intinerary). The wife had heard it was quite a place for kids and grownups. She was right. We spent the day visiting the old west saloon (we had sarsaparilla) while the kids rode the rides and played games on the midway. An old White Center friend, Russ Hofdahl, later became the Train House proprietor at the Farm. Russ used to work with Gil Mjelde at the old White Center Garage.

Walt Disney had a great idea. Build a theme park in Anaheim, among the orange groves and invite the world to play. It was a sensation. Disneyland is considerably larger than Knott’s Berry Farm with many more people-friendly attractions. Or at least I think so. I have not been back to either one since 1955 but I know that it costs me $1 per person for the family to get through the gates at Walt’s park. Now I think it is $92 but of course there are no individual ticket prices for the rides. I guess things just cost less 58 years ago.

13 going on 16, my oldest son, Micheal, wanted to drive the free-wheeling autopia cars. They were a small go-kart style chassis with a futuristic fiberglass body. It really seemed like we were on a California freeway, what with the traffic jams. Micheal caused the slow down because he neglected to release the parking brake as we started out.

We did the stuff families too. Frontier Land, Fantasy Land, Tomorrow Land, all in one day. We were pooped. We should have planned better and stayed longer. Alas, we had to go. We headed out onto West Katella Avenue. We hadn’t gone 1/4 mile when the camper began to wobble uncontrollably behind the car. A moment later it careened off the hitch and into a drainage ditch next to an orange grove. Miraculously it had only a few scrapes and some interior disarray. With help from fellow drivers, we got it back up on the road and re-hitched. I had forgotten to tighten the hitch crank when I left Seattle. How it stayed on through the entire distance was as puzzling to me as the Trees of Mystery. I had rented it from a friend in Kent. He was not happy about the exterior decorating on the side of the camper. I apologized and begged forgiveness for my transgressions. He was numb. So was I. Right out of a movie. A tragi-comedy.

Meeting an Activist Clone

patr — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 02:44:25 +0000

By Georgie Bright Kunkel

Recently a member of a group that I belong to e-mailed me to ask if I would agree to an interview about my early days in the woman’s movement. A high school junior from Woodinville was doing a paper on that period in HERstory as I call it. We touched base on e-mail and I was soon opening my front door to greet a lovely young person with tape recorder ready. She was well prepared with questions that she hoped would precipitate many stories about my being involved in women’s issues. Anyone who knows me realizes how many stories I have to tell.

Now as you know, people are of all sorts and inclinations. Some like to be on stage, as it were, while others prefer to stay in the background. That certainly adds to the diversity of life. If everyone was like me the world would tip on its axis I am sure. So here was this sweet young self-declared feminist seeking out a feminist from the early women’s movement of the late sixties and early seventies—yes the last century.
Her first query was, “What led you to become a feminist?” That was a no brainer for me.

I had been born to a widowed mother just a month or so after my father died. Instead of being coached to lower my eyes and give the come-on signal to a young fellow I was prepared to be independent and, after college, to make my own living. What a difference from the way other young women were brought up. Mothers in my day prepared a daughter to be attractive to a man who was expected to be the breadwinner in the family. Fathers often treated their daughters much differently from their sons. But there was none of that for me. I was groomed to finish college and get into a profession with retirement benefits.

As I sat with tape recorder eating up all my words it was like an aphrodisiac in a way. My role is to share my life learnings with younger people and here I had the chance to have my words preserved for a special paper my new friend would be preparing about me. She admitted that she was having difficulty persuading her young friends to shed sexist language. I immediately felt a strong connection to this 21st century trailblazer. After all, I had been through a lot of the same difficulty in my earlier life of being shot out of the cannon of feminism into a world not aware of the need for change.

It was a little like looking into my own past as I looked across the table at this eager young woman with a passion for bringing social awareness to her own generation.

I shared with her my awakening to the need for equality for females. It was like something came alive in my brain releasing new insights and letting go of outmoded patterns of thinking. How exciting it was for me to think of being a part of social change benefitting women. Here I was sitting with one of the new generation of activists—an intelligent, truth seeker who could take up the challenge where I had left off.

So many wonderful people have come into my life and I cherish the chance to interact with them and stay connected. Just the other day I returned to swim class after a few months of down time. It was great to be welcomed back. One younger woman said, “You are a beacon of living life fully.” I love being a beacon and hope that this new wave of women’s equality will open up even more avenues for my young women friends to freely travel on. It is great to pass on the torch to capable hands.

Georgie Bright Kunkel is a freelance writer who can be reached at gnkunkel@comcast.net or 206-935-8663.

Joe Sutter and the 747: A homegrown story that changed the way we fly

Ty Swenson — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 17:51:46 +0000

Joe Sutter was born on March 21, 1921 of modest means, the son of a first generation Slovenian immigrant who worked in the meat packing industry. Living directly under the flight path of planes in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of south Seattle, as he grew older he became fascinated with those flying objects high in the sky but, unlike most boys his age, he didn’t imagine himself inside the cockpit.

“I wanted to build them more than I wanted to fly them,” Sutter, now 92 and living on Fauntleroy Way S.W. in West Seattle, said in an interview with the Herald at his home on June 11.

Sutter is known these days as the “Father of the 747,” dubbed so by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. He was the chief engineer and leader of a group collectively known as “The Incredibles” who made high-capacity passenger travel a reality in the late 1960s by designing the unmistakable wide-berth jet with a bulbous hump on top and four engines under the wings commonly referred to at the Jumbo Jet or Queen of Skies. They rolled out their first 747 in just 29 months, a record turnaround time.

He’s been a West Seattle resident ever since he returned from World War II, a Boeing employee for 67 years (even working as a consultant to this day), and is credited with changing the way people fly forever.

From looking up at planes to designing them
Sutter’s fascination with planes took hold early and never let go. He started building model airplanes – even designing a few himself – and decided once he was of age he was going to study aeronautical engineering at the University of Washington. He paid for the first semester, which by the way ran you $32.50 in the 1940s, by saving up money from his paper route, and worked part time bucking rivets at the Boeing plant to pay for the rest.

World War II was in full swing by the time Sutter graduated in 1943, and he was part of the Navy ROTC program. He’d met and married his college sweetheart Nancy, a West Seattle native, as well.

“The trouble is when I graduated the war was humping along and I wanted to be a pilot like all young guys, but they needed deck officers for destroyers so I ended up … on a new destroyer escort chasing submarines.”

For two years Sutter chased enemy subs on the USS Edward H. Allen, but with the war coming to an end in 1945 he found himself back on dry land and going to the Navy’s aviation engineering school. He soon received two letters offering him a job – one from Douglas in California and the other from Boeing.

“I almost took the Douglas job because they offered me a little more money, but Nancy was pregnant with that gal (pointing to his daughter, Gabrielle) and so when I got home she decided she’d like to stay here,” he said, explaining further, “I married a West Seattle girl, and those West Seattle girls wouldn’t leave West Seattle.”

It’s safe to say Nancy and Gabrielle played a critical role in the Boeing 747’s creation.

“I took a job at Boeing temporarily, and stayed there for 40 years,” said Sutter.

Working through the ranks to the big gig
Although Sutter had aeronautical knowhow under his belt from school, he’s the first to admit he still had plenty to learn, and his first job at Boeing provided that opportunity to really dig into a plane and step away from the textbooks. Boeing was getting ready for the “jet age,” he said, and “All the hot shots that were there got those choice assignments and my first job was to clean up the (Boeing 377) Stratocruiser.”

It had a lot of problems and as Sutter fixed them one by one, he said he learned a lot. His higher-ups also took notice, keying in on Sutter’s knack for aerodynamic designs and ability to work within the certification rules of the CA (the FAA of the time).

Sutter became a go-to-guy to get things done at Boeing and worked on several planes over the next handful of years, including the 367-80, 727, and 737 - with its engine-under-the-wing design that would play an important role in his next project: the 747.

It was the mid 1960s and airplane travel was booming, but Pan Am leader Juan Trippe wanted it to boom even louder. He told the three big manufacturers at the time – Douglas, Lockheed and Boeing – to present him with a prototype for a much larger plane than the predominantly flow 707 and an order would follow. Trippe said he wanted 350 passengers, two and a half times the capacity of the 707.

“And so they gave me a few engineers and we started studying how the hell to build a big airplane and that was what resulted in the 747 concept, the concept of the wide body that has been copied now by a lot of people,” Sutter said. While others thought the only way to get that many seats into a jet was to build a double-decker, Sutter and his team went a different direction and created the wide body that would not only fit 350 passengers, but could also double as a freighter large enough to carry several containers. Sutter said he knew they would have to move the engines from the tail of the plane to under the wings. Pan Am liked the design and the project was given the go.

At the same time, Sutter explained, Boeing had a government contract to develop supersonic transports, planes that would break the sound barrier and were thought to be the next big thing in passenger travel. The supersonic Concorde had been developed in Europe, and the U.S. government was eager to prove we could do it too.

There was no government money backing the 747 project, so Boeing had to finance it themselves with massive bank loans. “It was a big gamble, and I think the only reason that it happened is that Bill Allen (Boeing president) was a forward seeking guy, and Juan Trippe from Pan-Am also had that characteristic, so the two of them said, ‘We are going to do it,’” Sutter recalled.

“Everybody thought the 747 was going to be an interim airplane that wouldn’t last very long (once the supersonic technology took off), so it was a struggle to get people and wind tunnel time and budgets and we had to do it in a hell of a hurry.”

The design team was gathered: a few hundred at first to do concept work, then up to 400 to start writing requirements, and then Pan Am signed a contract for the 747 and Sutter suddenly had a team of 4,500 amassed.

Designing the 747 dominated Sutter’s life. He worked six to seven days a week and 10 to 12 hour days. Nancy supported him through it all, and his three children (Gabrielle, Jonathan and Adrienne) supported her.

In Sutter’s 2006 memoir entitled 747: Creating the World’s First Jumbo Jet and Other Adventures from a Life in Aviation, he wrote of his love: “I couldn't have done it without my late wife, Nancy. When I'd come home beaten down with problems for which there seemed no solution, Nancy was always there to help lift me out of the dumps. Intelligent, beautiful, full of humor and life, she shared the burden of the 747's development.”

He figures he almost got fired only once during that tumultuous time. As the project moved along more and more funding was needed, Allen went off to the banks once again to ask for a loan. The bankers were getting weary and it was proposed that Sutter’s team might need to get rid of 1,000 engineers to reduce costs. Sutter knew he couldn’t afford to lose a single guy if they were going to build that plane on time in a very tight 29 month window, and when asked by Allen how the cuts were coming along he said, “Hey, we need 800 more engineers!.”

“I figured that was the day I lost my job at Boeing because I made the presentation under pressure and nobody would talk to me, but I went to work the next day and nobody said anything, so I kept working,” he joked.

The moment of truth
“My wife Nancy would go to the grocery store around here and her friends would say, ‘Does your husband know what he’s doing, will that thing even fly?’” Sutter recalled.

Boeing was the dominant industry and talk of the town at that time, long before Microsoft and Starbucks made their mark in Seattle. Everyone had heard about the big plane Sutter and his team was attempting to create. Sutter said others in the industry were suspect of the 747 as well, concerned that Pan Am was pushing too hard and too fast for a bigger plane. But his team had done their due diligence, building redundancies into every aspect of the design so that if one piece of equipment failed there were three more to back it up.

“It was a February day (Feb. 9, 1969) and there was snow on the edge of the runway, colder than hell,” Sutter said. “Nancy and Gabrielle went up with me to Everett and I had to go up to the radio room to listen to what the pilots were saying and so I took them out to the runway and I took them out to a position … and told Nancy, ‘The airplane’s wheels will leave the ground right here,’ which they did.”

With the whole world watching, the first Boeing 747 left earth.

“I was awestruck, because here was this huge airplane and it very slowly lifted up, it was so majestic,” Sutter’s daughter Gabrielle, who was in college at the time, said. “I was so happy for my dad and mom, of course, and it was so overwhelming.”

When Sutter got back to his wife and daughter, Nancy’s eyes were welling up with tears. “This will show all the doubters,” she said.

The easy part out of the way (“I knew the takeoff would be fine,” Sutter said), next came the landing. Sutter knew the engineering was sound, but the massive plane put pilots 29 feet above the ground as they came in, which was a new experience. “A lot of airline people, pilots were saying, ‘How is anyone ever going to get that airplane on the ground without putting it all over in pieces?’”

It turns out the pilots had no problems at all. “In fact, the 747 is one of the easiest Boeing airplanes to land because of superior engineering by brilliant engineers,” Sutter said with pride.

The 747 was all systems go, and with supersonic technology going by the wayside, the plane became a dominant player in air travel for decades to come. The Incredibles had pulled it off.

The aftermath: Presidents, awards and grandkids
Sutter ran the 747 program for 10 years and then went on to become Boeing’s chief of engineering and product development for the remainder of his career. After retiring, he worked (and still does ) as a consultant for the company. He also served on the Rogers Commission, helping investigate what went wrong in the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

The accolades for Sutter’s accomplishments have been many, including a United States Medal of Technology from President Reagan in 1985, and just a few weeks ago, a lifetime achievement award from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

Nowadays, at 92, Sutter said his golfing days are over and most of his time is spent traveling for Boeing meetings and the occasional award reception, keeping in contact with other members of the Incredibles team and supporting the dreams and direction of his five grandkids and three great grandchildren.

About once a week, he’ll get a call from a random pilot who just wants to meet and thank the Father of the 747, their favorite plane to fly.

As Sutter and I sat in his Fauntleroy home that doubles as an ever-expanding museum of his life, taking in the Sound view he worked so hard to obtain, I asked – of all that has happened in his career – what he looks back on most fondly.

“Well I tell you, the thing that I enjoyed is that I worked with one hell of a lot of good people and I still get to see them once in a while, and the thing I enjoy is communication with the guys,” he said.

“I think we did something pretty damn good.”

Joe Sutter’s book, 747: Creating the World’s First Jumbo Jet and Other Adventures from a Life in Aviation, takes this preview to an exponentially deeper level. Beyond the engrossing tale of his life and career, the book has also been picked up by several college professors around the world as a management teaching tool.

Although the details are still being finalized, Hollywood is looking to make a film about Sutter and the 747 as well.

POEM: A Barne-Cut Above!

patr — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 19:00:16 +0000

By Carol Smith

Service is a fickle thing
That can both joy and heartache bring
It gives and also takes away
For it can either go or stay

Warm or sometimes very cool
The product of a sage or fool
Too smothering or not enough
Silky smooth or far too rough

Dark as night or clear as glass
High on style or low on class
Young at heart or long in tooth
Accompanied by a lie or truth

But service was at Barnecut’s
Amidst the rows of brakes and struts
Just like their oil, so well refined
It was by excellence defined!

Editor's Note: Barnecut's Admiral Way Service has been sold.

Demolition of former Petco building will be complete next week

patr — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 07:45:44 +0000

Why are these windows the top photo lit?

IT'S THE SUN!

The building that was Petco in the West Seattle Junction will be completely gone by next week and become a 7 story building for apartments and retail space built by Compass Construction.

The demolition began earlier this week and will be completed soon.

Maggie's Field Notes

patr — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 23:45:25 +0000

The West Seattle Herald is pleased to announce a new advice column entitled ‘Maggie's Field Notes.’ The Herald is looking to you guys to help make this work. We want to hear from you. Is your mind churning over a work-related decision? Are you wondering how to deal with a personal situation at home or starting up a new relationship? Ask Maggie completely anonymously for any advice, at maggiesfieldnotes@gmail.com. We look forward to it!

Dear Maggie:

Throughout the years, I've taken on the role of mediator between my parents and siblings. Everyone comes to me with gripes and complaints, and they’re always asking for my opinion on their situations. I am the middle child and have been playing the "listener" of my family forever. After I give them my opinion on what's happening, they use what I say against me as a base in their arguments with the other family members. How do I get out of this terrible family role?

-Mother's Mediator, West Seattle

Dear Mother's Mediator:

First of all, no one becomes "listener" of the family without providing consistently valuable attention and insight. Investigate what initially drove you to provide in this way for your family members. Did you at one time find the role rewarding? The position of "listener" was bestowed upon you because you have excelled within it over the years. You have become a window your loved ones can either gaze out of or blow smoke through. There is deep honor in being capable of providing an engaged ear. What is not fair and needs to change is the behavior of your family members post-venting.

Evaluate whether or not you want to continue providing an outlet for your loved ones. If you do [and it is a very valuable service], next time they wobble toward you with a suitcase of trouble behind them, put your hands in front of you and lay down some ground rules. Tell them clearly and in person that you will continue to provide an ear and insight only if they reflect upon the advice and make their own decision afterward. They are not allowed to put liability on your input. Their decisions after reflection are theirs and theirs alone. If they’re not capable of understanding that and continue to draw upon your words while justifying what they have decided to do, then it's time for you to turn your ear the other way.

'The first duty of love is to listen.' -Paul Tillich

That goes both ways.

-Maggie

Dear Maggie:

My boyfriend and I are moving in together. I’ve never lived with anyone in this way and am really nervous. Do you have any tips?

-Shaky Knees, Burien

Dear Shaky Knees:

Don't be nervous. Be smart about it. Make sure you trust he has your best interest at heart and ensure you are both independently financially stable. If possible, go on a month-to-month lease. You are taking a major step forward. Be calmed by the knowledge that no matter what happens, the step will bring you closer together. In the end, you're either going to work out as a couple or you're not. Moving in together expedites the process of syncopation or separation.

You learn all the small details about each other. You brush your teeth together, watch the morning sun ooze over the blankets like butter, dance in the kitchen to The Temptations while cooking, come home from work and rest together. There is strife, as with all living situations. Before you move in with someone you know only their outline. Living together fills in those empty spaces. You see freckles appear on their shoulders out of thin air. You learn things that you don't like about each other. That's part of it. That's part of love. Love is not complete without this. Don't be scared about turning into a human in front of him. Either he’ll love you even more for the blemishes he finds or he wasn't the right one for you anyway. You'll be surprised by how many of your blemishes don't matter to him at all.

Go into this with flat feet and do not tiptoe around him. Not tiptoeing is the hardest part. Moving in together is an adventure. Everyone's story is different, but in the end it's always worth it. You'll either discover a deep and real love waiting inside you like a plump fruit, or you'll learn about yourself and him, separate and cast off to find the orchard. Living together is work, but it's worth it. Practice patience, empathy and compassion toward each other [especially when it's hardest], and you'll do great.

'We need, in love, to practice only this: letting each other go. For holding on comes easily; we do not need to learn it.’ -Rainer Maria Rilke

-Maggie

SLIDESHOW: Cuteness overload as Bunny Bonanza comes to Alki Community Center

patr — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 06:31:09 +0000

You'd expect that if you encountered a room full of rabbits it would be pretty adorable. That's an understatement. The Alki Community Center was host to Bunny Bonanza on Friday June 14 and Kirstie Lee with Bunnies for Birthdays (www.bunniesforbirthdays.com) was there with somewhere around 25 rabbits. "I think there are more now than when I started out," she joked," they are prolific."

But the point of the visit was to literally hold and visit and pet and enjoy these gentle creatures. Kids and adults both held, fed and petted the little fur balls with cuteness factor going way past overload.

The business is located in Kenmore but she travels all over for birthday parties and other events where bunnies are welcome. "It's not just for birthdays," she said.

UPDATE: Dormant Chuck and Sally’s Tavern coming back to life as The Bridge

Ty Swenson — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 23:11:46 +0000

Update for June 12
Deb Barker, president of the Morgan Community Association, shared her take on The Bridge taking over the Chuck and Sally's Tavern building in the Morgan Junction. Here's what she had to say:

"The Morgan Community Association (MoCA) is always glad to have new businesses coming into Morgan Junction and we know that residents always enjoy new dining options. This is an important corner location in Morgan Junction and we know that The Bridge will provide a well-known vibrancy.

"In addition we’re excited to announce that although they will still be under construction, The Bridge will participate in the June 22, 2013 Morgan Junction Community Festival by hosting a 'Cornhole Derby' in their new parking lot off of S.W. Graham Street. They also plan to hand out coupons for the existing and new The Bridge, according to owner Rita Dixson.

"The Bridge will be a welcome addition to Morgan Junction."

Original story
Six years of closure have taken their toll on the façade of the old Chuck and Sally’s Tavern building on the north end of Morgan Junction along California Ave. S.W., with soiled paint, the occasional marring of graffiti and windows frosted by time and dust, rather than holiday snow sprayed from a can.

In what is starting to look like a trend, the owners of The Bridge bar and restaurant at Avalon and 35th are packing up in the coming months and moving in to Chuck and Sally’s, with plans to revitalize the building just as they did with the dilapidated ex-Redline. This time, however, they hope to stay for good.

If all goes as planned, The Bridge partners and longtime West Seattle service industry gurus Rita Dixson, Trevor Garand and husband-wife culinary team Jenny and Ahmed Almukhtar (who just came on as partners) will be moving into the Morgan Junction in late October to early November.

Fully aware of what season that represents, Garand said their plan is to pull the move off in only a few days, in between all-important Seahawk games.

Dixson and Garand said the decision is hinged primarily upon their understanding that the current lot at Avalon and 35th is primed for mixed-use apartment development and, although there are no specific plans they know of yet, they wanted to find a long-term location – both for the sake of the business and the stability of their employees.

“We don’t even want to play with it,” Dixson said of the development guessing game. “We’re just going to go someplace that has a long lease for us and make a home out of it.”

The Bridge crew is keeping most of their Chuck and Sally revamp plans under wraps for now, but Dixson’s preview included basic repairs to the building, a centrally-located circular to horshoe-shaped bar, outdoor seating and opening up windows for oodles of natural light (a far cry from their current location).

They will likely keep the name the same, based on the brand they’ve built and loyal customer following already in place, but Dixson said there could be slight logo changes.

For those who enjoyed Chuck and Sally’s during its run and have a nostalgic connection, good news, then, that they plan to bring the iconic (if a bit weathered) tavern sign indoors to keep it on display.

Live music is out, however, as Dixson said, “We want to be good neighbors.”

Fan favorite menu items will continue on (burgers and bacon-wrapped dates were mentioned), but husband and wife chefs Jenny and Ahmed Alnukhtar said they plan to experiment and expand at the new location.

“I think we are going to find some other fun stuff to play around with and have an opportunity for people to come in and check us out for the first time,” Ahmed said.

When we met with the owners at the Morgan Starbuck’s they were busy brainstorming new ideas for their brunch menu, so know brunch is coming to the Junction.

The biggest challenge Dixson and Garand met in opening The Bridge was overcoming the stigma of their location. Luckily, they said, they were able to do just that.

“We have been in the service industry in the West Seattle area, all of us, for so long that we’ve touched hands with so many people who gave us a shot and then word of mouth – that’s why I love West Seattle so much - the word of mouth just kept us afloat when a lot of people were hitting hard times in this industry,” Dixson said.

Their goal in becoming business owners when The Bridge opened two and a half years ago was to create a neighborhood bar with “good food, good service” where the staff works hard to remember customers' names and say hello to everyone who walks in the door. They believe that philosophy has paid off, and it’s well evidenced by their financial ability to move over to the Morgan Junction.

Now they have a neighborhood to go along with the concept.

“We are going to have neighbors!,” Dixson exclaimed. “We are so excited to become part of the Morgan Junction.”

Garand said he is also looking forward to joining the Morgan food and bar scene already in place, with Zeek’s Pizza, Feedback Lounge and Beveridge Place(to name a few) just down the road.

Matt Johnson with Feedback shared that sentiment in a blog post on their website, stating, “Trevor and Rita are great people, and we’re looking forward to having them in the neighborhood.”

While it might be hard to find a Morgan Junction resident against the revival of a gathering spot at Chuck and Sally’s, there may be concerns about parking spilling over into the neighborhood streets with another coming in.

Dixson said their parking lot will hold 18 vehicles and a RapidRide bus stop just down the road will help, but they are also considering the possibility of working with other business owners to buy a lot collectively and create 3-hour parking, similar to the Alaska Junction.

If people have overindulged, she said they want to make sure customers have the option to leave their car overnight and let someone else do the driving.

As the new owners stood below the Chuck and Sally’s Tavern sign and a building on the precipice of major changes, Garand said “I think with the history behind Chuck and Sally’s too, with so many people who used to go there, who’s parents used to go there, everyone is like, ‘Wow, I wonder what it’s going to be like now.’”

For a sneak preview, you could always visit The Bridge at their current location. Just imagine more windows.

West Seattle and beyond, Apple “kill switch” might reduce iProduct robberies

Ty Swenson — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 18:48:14 +0000

Just as Apple products prove irresistible to many consumers, they have a similar draw for would-be robbers by easily fetching hundreds of dollars on the black market. As Seattle Police Lt. Daniel Whalen discussed with the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council in April of this year, robberies on West Seattle soil are predominantly targeting those exhibiting an Apple device, be it an iPhone, iPod or iPad.

Good news on that front emerged at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, June 10, when the company announced a “kill switch” option will be part of their next operating system update coming out this fall to all mobile devices.

As tech reporter Jaxon Van Derbeken with the San Francisco Chronicle explained from the conference, “The switch will enable a user to deactivate a stolen cell phone via a website. It will prevent a thief from erasing the owner’s data from the phone, even if the SIM card – the integrated circuit that includes an owner’s password and other identifying information – is removed, Apple said.”

Law enforcement agencies nationwide have been critical of cell phone technology (from all manufacturers) that allows thieves to erase data from a stolen phone and starting it up fresh, ready for a new owner.

Critics have said cell phone manufacturers and service providers have been resistant to kill switch technology because reactivated phones, whether they change hands through theft or legitimate means, mean a new contract and more money.

While the threat of Apple theft will never fully go away, the kill switch could potentially reduce iProduct robberies, a public safety issue across the world.

Lt. Whalen suggested people keep their telltale white Apple headphones out of sight in public places, as they are a dead giveaway that an Apple product is connected on the other end. The problem, of course, is that many use their iProduct for music and other entertainment while in commute, whether walking or taking public transportation.

Pet of the Week: Tucker is a star and true family dog

patr — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 01:48:06 +0000

Nikki Turpen got Tucker the family dog, a yellow lab, from a breeder in Granite Falls a little over 8 years ago prior to marrying Mark.

Their sons Peyton, Riley and Logan, collectively under the age of 6 all get along very well with Tucker.

While he's normally quite a good guard dog, protects the boys and fearless in those situations, "He's afraid of stairs, especially if you can see through them," Nikki said,"He's got a stair phobia."

When they brought their son Riley home from the hospital, Tucker took one look at him and gave him a giant dog lick.

They feed him Costco dry dog food and he loves pig ears as treats. He doesn't like beer but does love ice cream from McDonalds.

Tucker enjoys his toys, and generally favors those that squeak. But he really loves tennis balls, going a little dog crazy at the sound of the pop when a new can of them is opened.

The Turpen family had a unusual opportunity though to get him featured in a commercial for Bissell specifically the BISSELL® SpotClean Complete™ Pet. The commercial was filmed at their home in West Seattle over the course of about four days, and Tucker is the star of the show.

You can see that video here: http://www.bissell.com/VideoRating.aspx?id=28280

Tucker, when he's not walking around Alki with the family, has canine friends Dixie and Molly (a Britney and a PomaPoo) up in Lake Stevens and Max and Indy (yellow and black Labs) down in Austin, Texas.

"He's a very good swimmer," said Mark, and "He's annoying," said Nikki. "He will not stop going in the lake for the ball, so you have to keep throwing it all day long. He will actually pull the kids in with his tail too."

Tucker did have some health issues at one point.

"We call him 'Sub-Zero' because we had to spend $7,000 on him, on his back legs. All the x-rays went to the school of veterinarians and they came back all perfect but they concluded it was stress related. So he's normal but it cost us. He had MRI's and more but he's fine."

Nikki summed Tucker up as, "He is loyal, kind, and a good companion. He has his quirks which makes him even better. Mark said, "I never really grew up with dogs but he's the best dog ever. I work from home so he's my office mate. I talk to him. He's a great companion, looks out for the kids and he's a good puppy."

Instant Gratification

patr — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 16:33:43 +0000

By Georgie Bright Kunkel

Occasionally I tap into Dr. Phil’s taking on the extremely disturbed segment of society and I cannot believe the family disorientation that exists. Even though in my school counseling career I was confronted with some fairly serious family problems I could not imagine a 24 year old son who was holding his parents hostage while his brother feared for his own life. Here was certainly a case of extreme behavior brought on by parents who did not know how to set limits and require their children to learn restraint.

Television has exacerbated the problem of children insisting on instant gratification. How can younger people begin to sort out the enticements that break into programming four times an hour? Although cigarettes are no longer marketed on TV, sugar certainly has not been outlawed. Breakfast cereal laced with it is being touted as healthy for youngsters. In an attempt to curb the hype to drink caffeine we now are trying to limit the size of such marketed drinks. What a helpless attempt that is. I sometimes feel like my early life was really pristine compared to the complicated and sugar laced lives of young people today. I never tasted Coca Cola until I was twelve and then didn’t really like it. Yes, I know you have heard me brag about not having drunk liquor, not ever. As for smoking, I detested my brother’s smoking since I was super sensitive to my environment even in my younger years. When people react to my complaining about my environment I come back with, “I am a barometer of what is cluttering up the air.”

I must admit that I was a little spoiled when I had my babysitter all to myself until I went off to school. Close attention to a young child’s needs before school age is beneficial if a child learns boundaries as well. It is only when a child’s every whim is catered to that the trouble starts. As I found when teaching and then counseling students there is no substitute for a balance between catering to a child’s needs and teaching a child responsibility so that each child can have successful interactions with the outside world. A parent once warned me that her child threw tantrums at home. I let the parent know that in the school environment her child did not have temper tantrums. Then I helped the parent with ways to deal with this situation in the home environment. Human beings are flexible and soon learn what behavior is acceptable and in what environment they can express certain behaviors.

This is why parents must go out of their way to provide an environment for preschool children that helps them learn to give and take. The farm family of the past raised many children who all had farm chores early in life. They learned in the community of the large family a lot about community interaction.

Home chores of today provide limited opportunity to gain skill training. No more Walton family lifestyle these days.

In our society the individual is given more freedom than in many other cultures. But no matter how free society seems to be, people have always had to balance their individual needs with the needs of the greater community. Instant gratification is certainly not to be expected, no matter where you grow up.

We individuals learn many coping skills to get what we want out of life. People who demand what society denies them are the ones who most often fill our jails. Providing access to parenting skills and early childhood education could save the huge cost of wasted lives and criminal incarceration later in life. The choice seems very clear.

Georgie Bright Kunkel is a freelance writer who can be reached at HYPERLINK "mailto:gnkunkel@comcast.net" gnkunkel@comcast.net or 206-935-8663.

POEM: In Home’s Stead

patr — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 18:10:35 +0000

By Carol Smith

Yonder stands a grand old lady
Nobel, though in sad distress
Scorched and vacant are her gardens
Pitiful her ragged dress

Once she was a regal creature
At whose table we all dined
Dressed in lace and candelabras
Welcoming, yet so refined

But now jilted by a lover
Whose devotion did not last
The fickle arm of indecision
To limbo, has her future cast

Without help, I fear her beauty
Will be doomed to lie instead
Neath some condo wrongly touted
As the “improved” Alki Homestead!

Westside-O-Rama West Seattle Entertainment Guide

patr — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:44:40 +0000

Admiral Theater
2343 California Ave. S.W.
938-3456
Movie tickets $5.50

On Tuesday, we celebrate Seniors (over 60) with one dollar off all day, $4.75.
Tickets available at http://www.farawayentertainment.com/admiral.html
http://www.farawayentertainment.com/admiral.html

The Historic Admiral Theater Movies & Showtimes

Oblivion
‎2hr 5min‎ PG-13‎ ‎Action‎
‎1:00‎ - ‎3:45‎ - ‎6:40‎ - ‎9:05pm‎

Pain & Gain
‎2hr 9min‎ R‎ Action‎
‎‎‎3:30‎ - ‎9:10pm‎

The Place Beyond the Pines
‎2hr 20min‎ ‎R‎ ‎Drama‎
‎‎‎12:45‎ - ‎6:30pm‎

THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (R)
Saturday 4/6 @ Midnight

Alki Arts
2820 Alki Avenue SW
206.432.9936

Featuring art of ‘The New Northwest’
Join us the second Thursday of each month for the West Seattle Art Walk. Enjoy a featured artist, musician and of course wine & snacks!

ArtsWest

4711 California Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98116
206) 938-0339

Bamboo Bar and Grill
2806 Alki Ave. S.W.
937-3023
Happy Hour: Sunday through Thursday, 3 to 6 p.m., 10 p.m. to Midnight, Friday and Saturday, 3 to 6 p.m.
http://www.bamboobarandgrill.com/

West Seattle Wednesday's
Ladies Night Karaoke Thursday's
DJ and Dancing Friday Night
Dancing and DJ Saturday Night

BenBow Room (inside the Heartland Cafe)
4210 Southwest Admiral Way

Weekly drink and food specials Mon-Fri.
See website for details
Happy Hour
Mon-Thur 3-6pm
Late-Night Happy Hour
Mon-Thur & Sun 10pm-close.
Industry Night Sun-Mon
$1 off all drinks from 10pm until close (proof of restaurant industry required).

Live entertainment Fridays and Saturdays
Check our Calendar for Events

Company
9608 16th Ave. SW
Seattle, WA 98106
206-257-1162

Hours are:
Sunday-Thursday 4pm-Midnight
Friday-Saturday 4pm-2am

Happy Hour everyday from 4-7

Every Monday: Rat City Royals Chess Club, featuring DJ Plantkiller
Every Tuesday: $2 Tuesday. Selections from our menu offered for $2
First Wednesday: Baby Ketten Karaoke! Best Karaoke in town
Third Saturday: White Center Art Walk
Every Sunday: Sunday dinner special changes every week

Beveridge Place Pub
6413 California Ave. S.W.
932-9906
Happy Hour: Monday through Friday, 3 to 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 2 to 6 p.m.
www.beveridgeplacepub.com/

The Bridge
4439 35th Ave. S.W.
206.402.4606
Food till 1am every day!

We are featuring an ongoing Build a Bridge Burger contest. The winner will receive their burger once a week while it is on our fresh sheet. The more outrageous the better!

Hours: Monday-Friday 11am-2am/ Saturday & Sunday 9am-2am

(Brunch menu offered until 3pm, lunch starts at 11am)
10% discount (on beverages) for Teachers & Military with ID
Happy Hour 7 days a week, 3pm-6pm food & drinks, 11pm-1am food only
Tuesday- Trivia with Bessy James, registration at 8pm, play begins at 8:30. Teams up to 10 players, $2 per person to play

Wednesday-Happy Hour drink prices all day long.
Saturday- Brunch at 9am-3pm, full menu at 11am to 1am
Sunday- Brunch at 9am-3pm, full menu at 11am to 1am
For the NFL season we have The Ticket for Sunday Funday.

Please see link: http://www.thebridgeseattle.com/events.html

The Cask
2350 California Ave. SW, Seattle, WA.
206-938-CASK (2275)

The Cask is West Seattle's old-world ale and wine house. Featuring regional craft beer on draft, world beers by the bottle, and a fantastic, rotating selection of wine by the glass and the bottle. Check out our new menu! Cheers!!

Celtic Swell
2722 Alki Ave. S.W.
932-7935
http://www.celticswell.com/

Mondays, Traditional Irish Music, 7:30 p.m., No cover
Tuesdays, Pub Trivia Quiz, 8:30 p.m., No admission fee
Thursdays, Live Music, 7 p.m.
Most Fridays and Saturdays, Live Music, 10 p.m.

C&P Coffee Co
5612 California Ave. S.W.
933-3125
http://www.candpcoffee.com/

Duwamish Longhouse

4705 W. Marginal Way SW
(206) 431-1582

Easy Street Records
4559 California Ave. S.W.
938-3279

Check the Web site for in-store events.

Elliott Bay Brewery and Pub
4720 California Ave. S.W.
932-8695
http://www.elliottbaybrewing.com/west_seattle/
Happy Hour: Everyday, 3 to 6 p.m., and 10 p.m. to close

Feedback Lounge6451 California Ave. s.w. 206-453-3259

Feedback Lounge Events Calendar

Heartland Cafe and Benbow Room
4210 Southwest Admiral Way, Suite A
Seattle, WA 98116

Kenyon Hall
7904 35th Avenue SW,
Seattle, WA 98126
206-937-3613

Balorico Dance at Kenyon Hall
7904 35th Ave SW Mondays 6:30pm
Ballroom & Latin dance lesson $15/ $25 duets
www.balorico.blogspot.com

Locöl Barley & Vine
7902 35th s.w.

NEW WEBSITE! Menus, music, and much more

6/9 Kimball Conant "Dr. Kimball & the Fugitives" plays a wide variety of jazz/r&b/blues standards, latin, calypso. We play as a trio with female vocalist Annie Eastwood.

6/10 Correo Aereo
latin inspired jazz and folk music. Harp, Maraccas, Violin, Drums, and more!

6/11 Jonathan Kimball
http://www.myspace.com/jonathankimballmusic It seems Jonathan Kimball can't help but make great music. With a background of collaborating in progressive rock, roots reggae, punk, and ska bands

6/16
Roo & the Few witty original songs and music of lead man Andy Forrest, mixed with covers of some old familiar favorites from Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and others.

6/17 Brians Jazz Trio. West Seattle boys laying it down with Jazz and more!

6/18 Scott Lindenmuth http://www.scottlindenmuth.com/ Scott Lindenmuth is a guitarist with few boundaries, expanding his reputation as a cutting edge composer, creative and intuitive improviser, and master technician. A master of many styles Seattle guitarist Scott Lindenmuth is one of the few guitarists in the world today that can easily transition from jazz to electric blues, classical to rock, funk, and fusion displaying fluid technique and virtuosic ability in all genres.

6/23 pending

6/24 pending

6/25 Greg Belisle-Chi, West Seattlites, preforming fun, original, Jazz / R&B / Rock

Check the site for news and events or our Facebook page.

OutWest Bar
5401 California Ave SW
OPEN: SUN, MON, TUES, WED, 4PM - 12AM
THURS, FRI & SAT 4PM - 2AM
HAPPY HOUR EVERYDAY 4PM - 7PM
TRIVIA MONDAY
LESBIAN WEDNESDAY WITH KARAOKE
KAROKE SUNDAY

KARAOKE EVERY THURSDAY AT 9PM. Great sound system and huge library music. A really fun small venue!
Check the events calendar here: http://www.outwestbar.com/outwestbar.com/Calendar.html

Poggie Tavern
4717 California Avenue Southwest
Live music - Weekends

Salty's on Alki
206.937.1600
1936 Harbor Ave. s.w.

Music plays 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. with Friday and Saturday Late Night Happy Hour served 8:00 to 10:00 p.m.

Friday
8:00pm until 10:00pm
Catch Barbie Anaka with Steve Banks (drums) and Eugene Bien (keyboards) at one of Seattle's most prestigious water-view restaurants. Enjoy world-class cuisine, a cozy fireplace and soul soothing jazz to melt away the stresses. The outside deck is now open! Featuring late night happy hour, free parking and no cover.

Shadowland
4458 California Ave. s.w.
420-3817
Happy Hour: 4 to 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. to midnight.

http://shadowlandwest.com/events.html

Starlite Singer/Songwriter Showcase
Hosted by Patrick Smail. Seattle area songwriters sign up and perform their latest work. Tuesdays nights. 10pm. When we're live you should be able to listen in by clicking the following 'play' arrow.

Skylark Cafe and Club
3803 Delridge Way s.w.
935-2111

Weekly Events

Tuesdays
9pm Baby Ketten Karaoke

Wednesdays
7pm Trivia
9pm Fully Backlined Open Mic (21+)

---and---
Weekly Trivia 7pm to 9pm: 4 rounds and short bonus round. $3 per team member. 1st place wins half the entry fees with bonus round chance to win ALL the cash. (If not won, the pot will grow from week to week.) Prizes for 2nd and 3rd place. More details at skylarkcafe.com.
Skylark Cafe Live Music and Events Calendar

Talarico's
4718 California Ave. S.W.
937-3463

Happy Hour: Daily from 4 p.m. to 6 pm and 11 pm to 1 am.
Open from 11 to 2 am Saturday and Sunday
New late night happy hour 11pm to 1am seven days a week
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursdays (2.50 jello shots Thursdays)
Karaoke- Sing your heart out from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.
same specials on those days
Wednesdays
Trivia- $2 entry per person, starts at 8:30 p.m.New Belgiuim Trivia night featuring $2.50 New Belgium Pints

Join Talarico's Email club and get a free slice of pizza! Come in and ask us about it!

Saturdays
DJ Topcat spinning, 10 p.m.

Check with Talarico's Events Calendar for any changes

A Terrible Beauty Irish Pub
4752 California Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98116
(206) 453-4066
An authentic Irish Pub. Amid the crowded byways of cloned chains, A Terrible Beauty follows its own path, with an unparalleled commitment to authenticity & atmosphere, a gourmet, affordable menu and 30 imported and local beers on tap.

Saturday Live Jazz Brunch 8-3

Saturday's Prime Rib Dinner Special

This Month
Sunday Live Jazz Brunch 8-3
Sunday 8:00am

Open Mic Night at A Terrible Beauty...
Monday 8:00pm

Tug Inn
2216 SW Orchard Street

Tug Inn events calendar

Tuscan Tea Room
4521 California Ave SW
206 906-9914

Sunday Jazz Brunch
with Loren & Dune
on Piano and Bass

Piano Friday and Saturday nights and Duo on Select Nights.

Tug Inn
In West Seattle on Delridge & Orchard (across from Home Depot).
No cover, free parking.
Tug Inn Events Calendar
Tug Inn on Facebook

Daily Events

Sunday :
Karaoke w/ Christopher Michaels
Tuesday :
Taco Tuesday
(2 Tacos for $2)
Wednesday :
Karaoke w/
Christopher Michaels
Friday :
DJ Music w/ DJ Will-E-3

VFW Hall
Ecstatic Dance
3601 SW Alaska St. Seattle, 98126) on Thursdays, 7:30-9:15, $10.

West 5
4539 California Ave. S.W.
935-1966

Flat Earth Society at West 5
Featuring a line-up of some luminous Seattle record junkies spinning the rarest and fairest vinyl from deep within their respective LP collections. Rare soul, garage, dirty-funk, J Pop, jazz and a smattering of world-stage psychidelia will be spinning at the popular lounge in the heart of West Seattle. Mondays at 9:00 p.m.

Your Party, West 5 Style!
Plan to have your next party here. Call 206-WE5-1966

______________________________________________________

Please let us know if your West Seattle or White Center establishment has live music or entertainment or if you have corrections or additions to these listings and we will add it to Westside-O-Rama.

Email westseattle@robinsonnews.com.

An Untold Life: Steve "Stumbletown" Adams

patr — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 00:42:42 +0000

By Maggie Nicholson

As a young boy, Steve had already developed his mischievous grin: one that unwrapped and crinkled across his cheekbones. His eyes, reflecting the joy, twinkled like starlight on tinfoil. The grin would show itself readily: as he played with baking ingredients atop a flour-coated counter top, as he chased after his dog, Spooky, and certainly as he grew.

Steve was a friendly and happy child. He loved to be around other people. He was Captain of his school patrol in sixth grade. He had two younger brothers, Tim and Kevin, who he played with and ate meals beside growing up. Steve’s parents, Bill and Joanne, raised their boys in West Seattle. Bill was a machine salesman and Joanne a stay-home caretaker.

As an adult Steve remained conversational. Entering new environments, he was as open as he had been in younger years. He saw the best in people and had a heart as unblocked as an open door. Everyone was welcome there.

He went to Western Washington University to study journalism. He had ample friends and lived for a while on campus. Intermixed within his group of friends was his someday wife, Mary Anne Spada.

Steve and Mary Anne reconnected at a friend’s 40th birthday party, years after their time at university. They dated and fell for each other. In 1997, they married in the green grass of a friend's backyard in Snohomish. The sun was a warm wool blanket, cloaking their arms.

The couple took many vacations together, boating with Mary Anne’s family and traveling during winters. Steve had two sons: Matthew and Eric. Steve bonded with the boys over sports and music. He bought them both their first guitars and enrolled them in lessons.

Steve, Matt and Eric attended baseball and football games together. They talked about sports throughout the various seasons. Matt and Eric both achieved college degrees, which made Steve very proud. Matt now works at Boeing and Eric at Fred Meyer.

Steve had been involved with music throughout college and afterward, but had moved away from it when he married and started a family. Ten years had passed when Mary Anne’s sister Nancy found a used wooden guitar at a garage sale for two dollars. Steve paid her five dollars for the old instrument, and that, says Mary Anne, started it all back up.

He wrote songs, sang them and played guitar. He listened to all kinds of music, from country and rap to seventies rock. He’d get up and jam to classic rock or sit down and let melancholy songs sink over him. It just depended on the day.

He organized, along with several other fellow West Seattle musicians, a Christmas CD called ‘We Are The Junction.’ They donated their profits to the West Seattle Food Bank.

Steve was compassionate and never judgmental. He rooted for the underdog and helped where he could. Several years ago, he met a guy who was low on luck. The man was looking to go back to work, but had been stalled by his circumstances.

Steve organized a group of donators who came together and purchased the man a clothing certificate.

“He did a lot of things quietly and on his own,” says Mary Anne. “For the benefit of others.”

In 2006, he was named King County “Big Brother” of the Year for his involvement in the Big Brothers program. He had taken a young boy named R'tavius into his life. He took R'tavius on the ferry for the first time in the boy’s life, back and forth from Vashon Island. For Earth Day they participated in a cleanup together.

Steve worked at Boeing for twenty-six years. He was skilled with his work and enjoyed it.

In his living space, he kept stacks of books nearby, some on sports and music, others related to his work, and some on UFOs, the study of which he found fascinating. He encouraged the growth of loved ones and strangers, helping them roll onward. Family members chose to include an Emerson quote alongside Steve’s photograph at his memorial: a mantra of Steve’s. ‘To laugh often and love much/ …to find the best in others/ …to have played and laughed with enthusiasm/ to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived/…this is to have succeeded.’

______________________________________________________

The West Seattle Herald published a story about Steve by his friend Jeff Gilbert in October of last year.

SLIDESHOW: A fence with a story, and a tree that deserves one

Ty Swenson — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 16:20:11 +0000

Retired Seattle public school teachers and West Seattleites Donn and Jan Weaver are getting older (around the 80 mark), and have begun the conversation on moving out of their 48th Ave. S.W. home here soon for the easier option of an assisted living community.

Before they do so, however, Donn decided he ought to email the Herald and ask if we’d like to come over and check out “what I think may be the largest rhododendron in West Seattle,” during its two to four day showing of vibrant pink blossoms in peak bloom.

Finding myself in the Weaver’s part of town on June 4, and fresh off a visit to Whidbey Island and the Meerkerk Rhododendron Gardens (53 acres of woodland full of a dizzying array of rhododenrens, from traditional to never-before-seen hybrids), I decided I needed to see this tree.

Donn had emailed me his address, but upon turning onto 48th and surveying the landscape I put down the notepad and went by sight as it was clear where I needed to go. In full bloom, the Weaver’s tree cannot be missed as it imposes its pastel presence well into public space.

Donn last measured the tree four to five years ago and clocked it at 21 feet tall with a 23 foot spread. With a full head of flowers, 23 seemed modest.

As we circled the beauty he prunes religiously to create room for standing and walking by on the sidewalk underneath, Donn gave me some history. He purchased the home 30 years ago. It was a dilapidated mess with boarded up windows and an eye-sore exterior.

“It was one ugly house,” he recalled. It was also foreclosure, and he picked it up for $29,000. I think once they find a suitable assistive living community and list the home - with West Seattle inventory low and the seller’s market high and getting higher - that purchase will prove a ridiculously sound investment.

Donn didn’t even know the low-hanging scraggly tree out front was a rhododendron … until the flowers came. I asked him what kind it is, if he happens to know the scientific name. He didn’t.

We both agreed it didn’t really matter; it was just an impressive sight to behold.

About that fence …
The Weaver’s home is now clean, inviting and cozy after decades of do-it-yourself improvements, and it has a glowing white picket fence out front that deserves a second look with its descending and ascending teeth of cedar, punctuated by caps and balls at the main posts.

We got to talking.

At some point down the line, Donn designed and built the fence with inspiration from one he’d seen at Butchart Gardens in Canada as he wasn’t a fan of the standard model. Having spent his career as a music teacher and acting as the West Seattle Big Band director today, the undulating quality of his fence makes sense as it rises and dips like a musical score.

Back in 1998, the Weavers heard a knock at the door. It was a photographer from Better Homes and Gardens magazine who was traveling the streets of West Seattle looking for candidates for a white picket fence issue. The pros staged a few flower baskets on the sidewalk and took their shot. Later that year, the Weaver’s were in print.

“Picket Pretty,” the caption read, “Inspired by a Victorian-era design, this scalloped fence and elegant gate were built from custom-cut cedar pickets and posts. The posts are topped with ready-made caps and balls purchased from a local lumber supplier.”

And then, a column inch or so down, it read:

“Buying information, page75”

For those who turned to page 75, and as it turns out many did, they found Donn and Jan’s physical address and a note to send a letter for plans on how to build your own. The Weaver’s hadn’t been informed by the magazine their contact information would be posted. It was probably an error somewhere down the editorial assembly line.

For the next several years, the Weaver’s received letters from all over the nation asking for the plans. Jan brought out a box bursting with the correspondence they kept. It’s labeled: “5043 48th Ave. S.W. fence from Butchart Gardens inspiration to magazine celebrity.”

Jan said the letters were an unexpected surprise in their lives, and they always marveled at the variety of people who wrote; from young to old and rich to poor. Donn would send the plans back to his fans and, sometimes, they would send a letter back with pictures of their rendition. Friends were made, fences were built.

Realizing I’d probably taken a bit too much of the Weaver’s time and having asked them to dig up the magazine and letters so I could take a look, I figured it was time to say goodbye.

Donn said he was glad we had a chance to meet (I concurred) and that he was able to share his tree with the newspaper before the inevitability of eventually selling their home.

As a longtime West Seattle Herald reader, Jan told me she enjoys the paper every week but, as a retired English teacher, she can’t help but catch our occasional typos. I told her I was sorry for those mistakes (as I know how they pull you out of a story) and that I’d really appreciate it if she would email me suggestions on how to improve my grammar when she notices a gaff.

Donn looked at me with a knowing look.

“Careful what you wish for,” he said. “She’ll be emailing every day.”

I look forward to those emails, just as the Weavers look forward to their resident rhododendron’s yearly bloom.

How to build collagen with every bite

patr — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 14:10:25 +0000

By Holly Brown

Mirror, mirror on the wall, what the heck is happening?! According to www.LiveStrong.com, the plump and healthy looking skin we enjoy in our youth is from collagen, and elastin, stored in our bodies. Collagen forms connective tissues such as tendons and ligaments, and gives young skin its smooth texture and resilience. Elastin is a protein also found in connective tissues, and provides the flexibility to structures such as skin, cartilage, and arteries.

Unfortunately, these important proteins are depleted as we get older, causing wrinkles and other visible signs of aging we see looking back at us in the mirror. The good news is you can build collagen and elastin with every bite, by serving meals containing ingredients that keep production levels of these key proteins up.

Ingredients like leafy greens, citrus, soy, and seafood all contribute to the beauty and health of your skin.

Here’s why:
HealthCentral.com suggests incorporating vegetables containing vitamin C because it’s a good source of lutein. Choose green leafy vegetables like spinach, kale, collard greens, mustard greens, and arugula. Oranges, kiwis and strawberries are super concentrated sources of Vitamin C.

Copper is an essential trace mineral that assists with the metabolism of ascorbic acid. It works in conjunction with vitamin C toward the maturation of collagen and the formation of elastin. Dried fruits like apricots, prunes, and raisins supply copper in abundance. Adults require 900 micrograms of copper daily.
Vitamin A builds and maintains healthy and glowing skin. Include carrots, sweet potatoes, cantaloupe and melons into your meals. Foods high in antioxidants, like these, prevent the molecular reaction caused by free radicals that leads to cellular deterioration.

Fish is an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids, important fats that the body does not produce on its own. Omega-3 fatty acids are essential to the proper functioning of many different types of cells in the body, including those in the skin. Salmon and tuna are excellent choices.

Zinc enables proteins to combine with other building blocks of protein to form new collagen. Good sources of zinc include shellfish, other fish, meats, and dairy products, such as yogurt, milk and cheese.

Soy-based foods can also help boost collagen production in the skin. Tofu, edamame, soymilk and soy nuts contain a substance called genistein, an element responsible for increasing collagen synthesis.

Get inspired to cook and serve a bounty of skin-healthy foods for your friends and family with our Summer Celebrations Menu!

Cheers! Holly Brown
Publisher, Foodie, WebTV Host of TheBrownLounge.com

A few selections from our Summer Celebrations Menu are included here.

Click for our complete selection of Party Menus. http://thebrownlounge.com/menu-plans/

Appetizer – Raw Oysters on the Half Shell http://thebrownlounge.com/recipe/raw-oysters-on-the-half-shell/

Salad – Spinach, Kale, and Apple Crisp Salad http://thebrownlounge.com/recipe/spinach-kale-and-apple-crisp-salad/

Main – Seared Tuna with Spicy Peanut Sauce http://thebrownlounge.com/recipe/seared-tuna-with-spicy-peanut-sauce/

Vegetarian Pasta –Summer Tomato, Sage, & Squash Orecchiette http://thebrownlounge.com/recipe/summer-tomato-sage-squash-orecchiette/

Dessert – Apricot, Ginger, and White Chocolate Cookies http://thebrownlounge.com/recipe/apricot-ginger-white-chocolate-granola-...

New West Seattle produced video released by Black Dahlia Films features The Dolly Rottens

patr — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 14:46:29 +0000

The newest in the series of West Seattle produced music videos, shot at Salon 08, which is on Genesee Street north of the West Seattle Junction has been released by Black Dahlia Films and director Jamie Chamberlain. Chamberlain in recent years achieved national attention with his work for bands ZZ Top and Duff McKagan.

The featured artist this time out is West Seattle based rock band The Dolly Rottens. The first video in the series featured Travis Bracht.

The video is for their single "The Ruiner" and the band is fronted by Geneva Butler and Darci Carlson, featuring members of Bob Wayne and The Outlaw Carnies and JD Hobson.

This alt. rock pop band is known for their tell-it-like-it-is sensibility and sassy, catchy, make-up/break-up, girl powered rock songs. They will be celebrating their EP release titled "Honeymoons Over" on June 13th at Slims Last Chance in SODO.

Clips from first film LIVE FROM SALON 08 will premiere every Tuesday at www.blackdahliafilms.com.

Pet of the Week: Sadie is a social dog with a thing for socks

patr — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 07:34:43 +0000

Kathleen and Bruce MacPherson got their dog Sadie a long time ago, 12 years to be exact, and she is 14 years old. "We adopted her from a family that was neglecting her, but they recognized that, and gave her up for adoption along with her brother Wesley." She is a West Highland Terrier.

Sadie eats super premium Costco dog food, and is fed twice a day.

But mostly, Sadie is social. Not so much with other dogs, though she's fine with them. Really Sadie has expanded the social circle for the MacPherson's. "We walk her every morning and every afternoon and we know all the children and all the doggies in our neighborhood. She has been like an ambassador. We know everyone on our street plus many blocks around," said Kathleen. "She's an ice breaker. When people don't know you they are hesitant to say hello, but they see Sadie and say, 'Oh what a cute dog' and then the conversation begins."

Sadie does have a personal quirk however. She loves socks. "If there's a sock on the floor," explained Bruce, "she will grab it and she will hide it. If the back door is open she will bury it. Only to bring it up and drop it on our pillow at night."

She does chase birds and squirrels, but only to play with them. She's basically a very gentle soul.
She's got a good friend in Millie, a golden lab and Daisy, also a West Highland Terrier. In another example of the social aspect that Sadie enhances, the couple that own Daisy have become friends with the MacPhersons and have been to dinner. "We've gotten to know them just because of the dogs."

Sadie has also made a friend of a neighbor boy, Damien, who always asks about him, plus many other neighborhood children. "She loves children."

"The irony is that we will remember all the dogs we've met but we will sometimes forget the names of the owners," explained Bruce.

Sadie goes to Canine Casa (near Endolyne Joes) for her grooming.

"She's a creature of habit like most dogs," said Bruce," and gets up around 6:30 most mornings and she wants to get up, stretch, go out do her business and so when she's up so are we."

Kathleen summed Sadie up as, "Sadie is kind of my soul mate and she's such a good supportive friend to me. I look forward to seeing her, even in the morning when I come home, she's always in a good mood. She's just right there as a companion, not judgmental and a loving supportive friend." Bruce said, "This is the first time I've ever owned a dog. I grew up with cats and wasn't sure what dogs were all about. But they give you such unconditional love. You can have a bad day or a good day and either way they are so happy to see you. Their tails are wagging and their whole focus is on you. They bring a lot of love into a person's life."

Jerry's View: I don't make up these stories!

patr — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 17:53:18 +0000

Now that I am semi-retired, my days are often punctuated by the simple and pleasurable activity of going out for lunch. I usually go with two of my sons, Tim and Ken, who manage the paper these days. Last week, we went to one of our favorite spots in White Center, Young's Cafe.

Young's is on 16th S.W. just north of Roxbury Street. It has been there since 1982. As a testament to the quality of its food, we saw a cop in there eating lunch one day last week. It's that good.

We are always greeted by name by the effervescent Janice Young , daughter of the owners. She has a great personality and a big smile for everyone who comes through the door. Young's has a lot of regulars.

While I am no longer on the merry-go-round of daily business life, it is still nice to get out in the community. One of the great things that happens is I often get to meet new people and sometimes I even meet a subscriber!

Something like that happened last week. We had finished our lunch and son Tim was at the counter paying the bill when a man named Bill overheard Janice mentioning my name. Bill asked Tim if he was me.

Tim said "Do I look like a 93-year-old man?" Then Tim pointed at me.

Bill asked if it was the guy sitting in the back booth. Tim said yes.

Bill came over to where I was just about to get up from the booth and the remains of a chicken Caesar salad.

"Are you Jerry Robinson?" Bill asked.

I was suspicious at first. He might have been an FBI agent and I plumbed my memory for things I might have done that could get me in trouble. Nothing came to mind immediately. So I say "yes".

Bill said "I'm Bill Myhrwell." Bill is a slender man of indeterminate age, but maybe about 75.

I said "Bill Mearwlll?" It sounded like I had marbles in my mouth. That's because I wear hearing aids. Hey! I'm 93!

He spelled his name.

"You are a legend!" Bill declared.

Outside, I met Mrs. Myhrwell. She is a lovely woman who has been married to Bill for 52 years and said she fell in love with him on their first date. What a great couple!

Then Bill's wife, Jeanie, said," We love the West Seattle Herald. We have been reading it for years.We love your column and look forward to it every week. It is so much fun finally meeting you. How do think up all those stories that make us laugh?"

Those kind words made my day.

The cafe is right across from the former Volkswagen dealership where I once angered the owner, Max Borgeson and I was in my office when I spotted him coming to my office with a pistol on his hip.

I hid behind a door as I was unarmed and my editor had to handle the angry car dealer.
He did well by saying, "Mr. Robinson is not in the office right now. Can you shoot him later?"

I was so happy to meet them I asked I could have my picture taken with them.

You can contact Jerry Robinson via our editor Ken Robinson at Kenr@robinsonnews.com

Discovering your Heritage

patr — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 15:45:10 +0000

By Georgie Bright Kunkel

Once I mentioned that I am related to the great John Bright of England. He served for many years in the British Parliament and was remembered for his coming to the Queen’s rescue. A colleague, Mr. Ayrton, also a member of Parliament, decided to criticize the queen’s absence from her public duties during her long period of mourning her husband’s death. After he finished his remarks at the meeting held in support of the working classes, John Bright rose to give the following speech, “I am not accustomed to stand up in defense of those who are possessors of crowns, but I could not sit and hear that observation without a sensation of wonder and of pain. I think there has been, by many persons, a great injustice done the Queen in reference to her desolate and widowed position, and I venture to say this, that a woman, be she Queen of a great realm or the wife of one of your laboring men, who can keep alive in her heart a great sorrow for the lost object of her life and affection is not at all likely to be wanting in a great and generous sympathy for you.” Rising to their feet, the audience shook the roof with cheering and then singing “God Save the Queen.” Bright’s oratory was eloquent and served him well that day. Charles Moore who wrote a 1901 version of Queen Victoria’s life noted that he didn’t know whether the queen ever heard this speech but when John Bright lost his wife, a kind message came from Windsor Castle expressing the queen’s sympathy.

Even if I didn’t have proof of my lineage dating back to John Bright, anyone would recognize the similarity between us. We both champion the underdog. We don’t believe in attacking someone who is already down. And certainly we both believe in public service. Remember, heritage accounts for over 40 percent of who we are. If I were transplanted back into history alongside my Bright ancestor I probably would feel very comfortable sitting in the gallery in Parliament and listening to his pronouncements which were often supporting those less fortunate. (But as a woman I would not have been allowed to sit in that Parliament. I am glad that I was born just after women were allowed to vote in this country.)

Those Bright pioneers who braved the seas to travel from England in order to start a new life in this country were fed up with not being able to achieve on the basis of their intelligence and skill. They left a culture in which only being born to royalty or into a family of high standing could assure success in the world. I know, it still helps to know someone in a position of power to help you up the ladder but at least royal blood is no longer a requisite of success.

You would think that a family as prolific as the Bright family would not need any additional members. But there is always room for one more at the table, as they say. As anyone knows who has been through a search for family connections it doesn’t always end up with everyone in that family wanting to accept someone who claims they are a long lost relative. As some people would say, “just let sleeping dogs lie.” But to the one seeking knowledge about heritage there is no going back once the door to genealogy is opened. If someone contacted me and claimed to be a relative of mine I would say,

“I am an oldie and am willing to share my wisdom with anyone who wants to visit with me.” That’s what my role in life is these days. So if you don’t have younger relatives in your life, find some young friends or neighbors and share your great stories. Okay?

Georgie Bright Kunkel is a freelance writer who can be reached at gnkunkel@comcast.net or 206-935-8663.

An Untold Life: Bob Minckler

patr — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 16:02:29 +0000

By Maggie Nicholson

The man and the boy sailed over the water, lemon-yellow under the sun’s gaze. Beneath their boat, fish droned in circles. The man knew that soon they would catch a fish. The boy knew that the fish would be good to eat. When they returned home, they would cook and eat the fish together in their small kitchen.

The man, Dilbert, turned to the boy, Bob and grinned. Dilbert was Bob’s father. Dilbert was a fisherman by pleasure and a policeman by trade, stationed within West Seattle. He was married to his loving wife Bertha, who raised Bob and took care of their home.

Bob Minckler was born and raised in West Seattle. The only child of his parents, he was talkative even as a boy. He played on his local baseball team as a pitcher and hunted occasionally with his beloved dog, Jack. He passionately studied art. In high school, he lived across the street from Audrey Gessner. Both Bob and Audrey’s homes were small and wooden. Grass sloped up to Bob’s front door, and Audrey’s backyard was filled with fruit trees.

They met when they were sixteen, as all neighborhood kids met: playing in the street. The neighborhood boys played ball games. Audrey roller-skated through the streets on old-fashioned four-wheel blades. Bob and Audrey fell in love and married when they were twenty, on March 21st, 1942, at Audrey’s childhood home. At the time, Audrey was attending the University of Washington, and the minister of her school performed the living room service.

The sky was full of light. Bob and Audrey took a water ferry to Victoria, where they stayed at The Empress Hotel for their honeymoon.

Bob was drafted into the war less than a year after the two were married. He worked on floats, taking captains and crews out to supply ships. He had learned about boats from his father early in life, on their fishing trips. He trained in New York for medical emergencies and served as a Merchant Marine, acting also as purser for the ship. During his time in service, a boat he was aboard was hit by a kamikaze. There were no fatalities. Bob treated the injured until they were able to make it safely back to shore. He was shaken.

Bob and Audrey wrote ink letters back and forth during Bob’s time at war. They had secret codes that allowed Audrey an idea where Bob was. “How is Uncle Camille?” for instance, had secret meaning. At one point, the men at sea ran out of all food but canned Spam. The chef on the ship, Bob said, was marvelous and thought of a million things to do with Spam. In the end though, Bob said, it was still Spam.
Later in life, Audrey and Bob purchased a time-share in Hawaii. Incidentally Hawaiians love Spam, and it was found feverishly throughout the island. Audrey stayed away from it in grocery stores.

Bob, before leaving for war, had left West Seattle only for California. He told Audrey he was most excited to use a vending machine. That, at the time, was his idea of something new.
After Bob returned home, he and Audrey bought a one-bedroom house on Brandon Street, near to their childhood homes. Later they purchased a plot of land farther down the road. The lot was on a hill overlooking green shores. The plot of land ascended with the foundations of an old home. As a child, Bob and his friends had scavenged within the mossy walls, using the decrepit house as a play fort. Bob designed their new house atop the ruins.
Bob worked as a dispatcher and salesman for Nelson Trucking and Reliable Transfer. He was a talented salesman and carried amicability throughout his personal life.

Bob had two daughters and one son: Barbara in 1948, Mark in 1953 and Betty in 1959. The couple was friendly with a collection of couples that called themselves the Dolly Girls and Jolly Boys. When the kids were little, they slept in one of the home’s beds as the adults played poker in the living room and conversed on sofas. Bob designed a summer cabin on Anderson Island. Bob and Audrey, along with another couple, took the ferry to the island for vacations. They golfed at the local course, under the warm sun. It was uncrowded there, and intimate. Bob had a deep laugh and a great sense of humor.

The family belonged to the Admiral Congregational Church, where their children attended preschool and Sunday school. All three of the children worked alongside Bob at the transfer company: Mark in the trucks, and Betty and Barbara in the office. Mark is now a dispatcher and salesman for Alaska Marine Lines. Barbara retired recently after working for the city of Des Moines, and Betty teaches special education.

Bob was, in his free time, a painter. His art was vividly colored and organic. One painting depicts the famous “haunted house” of Georgetown: Audrey’s grandparents’ old home. When Bob passed away in 2012, his children collected their favorite paintings, to hang and keep close.

On Bob and Audrey's 50th anniversary they were offered a free stay by their honeymoon hotel, The Empress. Older then, and still very much in love, they boarded the familiar water ferry. With hands entwined and hearts impressed with the memories of their shared past, they went together unafraid into the sloping green hills of Victoria.

SLIDESHOW: Harbor seals get a new waterfront home at Seattle Aquarium

patr — Fri, 31 May 2013 20:52:13 +0000

The new $6.5 million harbor seal exhibit at the Seattle Aquarium means some seals have a fancy new home on the waterfront. The exhibit features doubled-tank depths over previous accomodations, a 180-degree visitor viewing area outdoors and surround seating for 100 people. While the exhibit can hold up to five seals right now the three harbor seals Barney, Q and Siku are getting used to their new surroundings after spending the past few months at Tacoma's Point Defiance Zoo. The City of Seattle contributed $3.5 million for the project. Private donors will cover the remaining $3 million.

“We are so thrilled to deliver this exciting new habitat for our seals and viewing accommodations for our visitors of seals and Elliott Bay,” said Aquarium President and CEO Bob Davidson. “Barney, Q and Siku are ambassadors to the wild harbor seals who inhabit our beautiful Pacific Northwest marine environments. Visitors can now enjoy both the spectacular view of our seals and Puget Sound.” More than 830,000 visit the Aquarium each year.

The stars of the exhibit include Barney, a silver-grey 28-year-old male; Q, a dark-colored, 14-year-old male; and Siku, a dark-colored, eight-year-old, female. Siku is part of an important breeding exchange program with Pt. Defiance Zoo.

The Aquarium spent the past nine months replacing the original exhibit on Pier 60 with a new Pier 60 boardwalk, steel-crafted pilings, acrylic panels spanning three sides of the exhibit, naturalistic exhibit rock upgrades and comfortable seating to enjoy the seals for hours. The ample seating will accommodate three entire classrooms of school children. The seals will have more room to dive and play underwater, as well as above-ground areas to play and sunbathe.

“Harbor seals are the only seals that breed off the shores of Washington and one of Puget Sound’s most thriving marine mammals,” said Traci Belting, Aquarium curator for marine mammals and birds. “Harbor seals are an important barometer to the health of Puget Sound and the marine mammal most Washington families will encounter on our local beaches and shores.”

Seals feed on sole, flounder, sculpin, cod, herring, octopus and squid—all links in a food chain that is increasingly vulnerable to pollution, development and other human activities. They can be found in coastal and inland marine waters and estuaries. Seals routinely rest and sunbathe on sandbars, beaches or rocks that are uncovered at low tide. They do not migrate and instead tend to stay in one locale most of their lives.

The Aquarium works with local volunteers to educate the public about harbor seals and marine life found on local beaches through its Beach Naturalist program. It also works closely with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Seal Sitters Marine Mammal Stranding Network. The Seal Sitters program works to protect marine mammals in the urban habitat of Puget Sound and Washington. Volunteers are trained to help educate Washington citizens on seal behaviors and how to interact with wild seals they encounter on our local shores.

“Barney, Q and Siku offer an up-close chance for visitors to study seal behavior and become their ambassadors for smarter marine conservation,” said James C. Gurke, chair of the Aquarium board. “Our mission is to educate the public on how to protect these magnificent mammals and their habitat. We can do that by engaging the public with an exhibit that is now better geared for seals and visitors.”

The new harbor seal exhibit is part of the Aquarium’s continued strategic plan to ensure the Aquarium’s mission of inspiring conservation of Puget Sound’s marine environment. The Aquarium completed a $22 million renovation of its building and launch of its Window of Washington Waters exhibit in 2007. The Aquarium successfully transitioned into a nonprofit in 2010.

Hours/prices at the Aquarium:
The Aquarium is open daily from 9:30am to 5pm daily, with the exhibits closing at 6pm.
Admission fees: Adults $21.95; Youth (4-12) $14.95; Children 3 and younger are admitted FREE.

On the web: www.seattleaquarium.org
On Facebook: www.facebook.com/Aquarium.Seattle
On Twitter: twitter.com/SeattleAquarium

Enjoying Lincoln Park with safety in mind

Ty Swenson — Fri, 31 May 2013 03:50:55 +0000

Lincoln Park is one of the biggest and oldest of its ilk in Seattle, and for decades reaching back to the early 1900s it has been a gathering, exercising and getting away spot for West Seattleites young to old.

The park boasts 135.4 acres, 4.6 miles of walking paths, 3.9 miles of bike trails, picnic shelters, fireplaces, seawalls, impressive Olympic and Sound views, coyotes and owls, a saltwater pool: You name it, Lincoln’s got it. As West Seattle gets denser with development, the expansive natural reprieve remains as vital as ever.

Unfortunately, with all that good comes a touch of bad with the possibility of crime, and the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council gathered with park users, park staff and police to discuss safety and take a walk on the evening of May 28.

Car prowls are the number one safety concern
Except for the lucky few living close enough to always walk to Lincoln Park, many have to drive and park before entering the forest or heading to the beach. That, according to Community Police Team Officer John Flores, is at the core of Lincoln’s most prominent crime issue: car prowls.

Thieves have been known to work the south and north parking lots, checking for open doors and occasionally busting out windows to quickly get inside and frantically grab what they can before moving on.

While we ultimately need to just accept that possibility when leaving our cars unattended (it’s the same at home, work, the mall, and all), Flores had a simple recommendation that can greatly decrease the likelihood of your vehicle becoming a target. Clean it up. Take that extra minute to clear everything from the dash, floors and seats to make it appear your car is barren of loot, boring, and simply not worth the risk.

Early and late, risks increase
Lincoln Park is open from 4 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., standard hours for Seattle parks. While those extended hours allow users to take advantage of the beauty and trails beyond the day’s core, they also mean darkness shrouds trails at either end.

Flores said robberies and other types of violent crime are rare in Lincoln Park, but people are known to sleep in the woods at night and users need to be aware of their surroundings. He recommends always running or walking with a partner (or at least a dog) if possible and carrying a cell phone, just in case you need to call 911. While technology has made bringing our music with us an easy task, he recommended keeping your eyes and ears available to your surroundings.

Seattle Park Ranger Corby Christensen, a retired sheriff and firefighter from Idaho, also joined the safety walk and shared some solid tips. First, he said, stay off the interior trails at night and stick to the main routes. On that note, both Flores and Christensen said it’s a good idea to mentally map where you are in the park just in case you do need to call 911 for assistance. While the trails are not numbered, they recommend keeping a general idea of where you are in the park and mentally note easily identifiable landmarks nearby (such as a baseball field).

If you do find yourself in proximity of a sketchy individual, Christensen recommended making it known you see them, which can be as easy as saying hello and making eye contact. In doing so, he said, you might take away a potential problem-makers first move.

Seattle Parks employee Carol Baker said her department trims bushes and trees encroaching on trails to increase visibility, but there is a fine balancing act between honoring the natural environment and safety. A park user asked Baker if lights on all the trails are a possibility. Theoretically, yes. Realistically, not likely as the cost would be massive.

Private security employees close the gates at 11:30 p.m. each night and do a single sweep through the park before leaving, but for the most part there is no security around … and that includes park rangers. Christensen said slim budgets mean there are only enough rangers to patrol downtown parks at this point, but city leaders are discussing more funding which could mean regular patrolling at Lincoln one day.

The story on graffiti
Park users who joined the safety walk were curious about graffiti in the park. Flores said the marks found in Lincoln Park are primarily the work of taggers and not gang-related. Taggers are putting down signatures for recognition (while remaining anonymous, however that works), while gang graffiti can signify the marking of territory and has been known to lead to confrontations between competing packs.

If you see graffiti, he recommends calling the City of Seattle Graffiti Hotline at 206-625-7587 to report it.

Balancing safety with enjoyment
For most, the relatively minor safety risks associated with enjoying Lincoln Park (or any other park for that matter) are far outclassed by the benefits of experiencing a pristine slice of nature in the midst of a city.

Gatewood resident Kathleen McPherson joined the safety walk because she walks her dog there all the time, sometimes as early as 5 a.m, and said she wanted to learn more on becoming a smart park user.

“It’s just like anything in life,” she said, “you don’t want to be paranoid, but you want to be proactive.”