My wife Peg and I met while attending the University of Puget Sound. Over the years we’ve enjoyed on-campus art exhibits, boxing matches, theatrical productions, lectures, and concerts. For most of our married life, we’ve lived within a few miles of the school. Peg even worked in the library for a number of years. We’ve […]
My Life with Root Beer
When I was a child living on South Ferry in Tacoma during the 1950s we played war with real military gear. I had a metal canteen that fit into a felt-lined container which clipped onto a belt. I remember the canteen because one summer day I was wearing it and drank warm Kool-Aid root beer. […]
Culture Sharing with Chinese Students
This summer you have a chance to open your home and meet new friends. Chinese students (ages 12-18), are looking for “home stays” during a summer camp from July 9 – July 18, 2018. The students are from Tacoma’s Sister City Fuzhou, China. Like Tacoma it has a busy port. “Fuzhou, the capital of southeastern […]
SOTABOTS & Learning are Number One
SOTABOTS came to my attention when my wife Peg interviewed high school senior Addie Bjornson for a possible P.E.O scholarship. Peg loved her determination to become an engineer and the enthusiasm she had for robotics and her group whose mission is to change the way society views education through implementing an innovative approach to learning. […]
The House of Caviar
In the 1980s and 90s my friend Jim Whitacre and I traveled each year to the furthest away Husky football game. Neither of us went to the University of Washington (him to Western and me to UPS), but Jim’s brother did and was a captain of the football team. Our first trip was to Houston […]
Stage Door Friends
On a cold and wet weekend when we could have been quietly reading the Sunday papers and napping, we instead drove through I-5 and SR 167 crazy drivers to Renton. We saw the play “See Alice Run” at the Renton Civic Theatre, not because we wanted to, but because a friend had a part in […]
Serendipity, Sri Lanka, and Peter Pan
“A safe but sometimes chilly way of recalling the past is to force open a crammed drawer. If you are searching for anything in particular you don’t find it, but something falls out at the back that is often more interesting.” James M. Barrie When I was attending Hudtloff Junior High School my parents bought […]
Tolls on downtown streets?
On April 3rd, Mayor Jenny Durkan announced that Seattle will develop a plan to toll city roadways as part of its efforts to reduce traffic congestion and greenhouse-gas emissions. The Seattle Times used the comment and information as a front-page story. I had just finished a white paper for a history project about the changes […]
Raining On My Parade
In my senior year at Clover Park High School it rained so hard during the Daffodil Parade in downtown Tacoma, our band was told we wouldn’t be marching. My buddies and I took our leader’s word for it, put away our instruments, and wandered through the crowds. We were taken by surprise when we heard […]