“St. Vinnie’s is here to help. If you need emergency assistance to help pay for basic needs, such as rent, utilities, gas, food, clothing or links to other resources, we want to help.” It’s December and winter will soon be here. Executive Director Tracy Peacock recently shared this request from a desperate young woman: “I’m […]
Toy Rescue Mission Needs Help for Young and Old
A life time ago, I was president of the Tacoma Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees). I was invited to a meeting about the economy and Christmas. Helen Mader and six or seven other people along with me gathered to discuss the situation. Our community was still in the doldrums with Boeing layoffs and on top […]
Wide Open Spaces and the Love of Camp & Counseling
Campers and Camping means the enjoyment of nature and living! Growing up in the 1950s meant camping out. Usually we would travel to either the dunes and scrub brush near Ocean City with our Whitworth relatives, or to Packwood with our neighbors the Bidisons. Millersylvania State Park (just south of Olympia) was a great memory […]
Pain, Massage, and Relief – Thousands and Thousands of Years in the Learning
It used to be fairly common to see images of Egyptian hieroglyphics and paintings depicting physicians healing with massage. Most people can tell you exactly where they hurt: shoulder, lower back, knee, foot, and other locations. Plus they can also tell you that rubbing or massaging these areas relieves the pain . . . for […]
A Minidoka Christmas – Stories of Japanese Internment in World War II
In May of 1942 approximately 7,390 Americans of Japanese descent from Western Washington and Alaska were sent to the Puyallup Assembly Center on the Western Washington Fair grounds. This temporary facility, called Camp Harmony, was part of a system of internment camps set up for Japanese Americans. Later they were sent to War Relocation Authority […]
Doing the Right Thing with Steve McQueen at The Mangrove
The American King of Cool, Steve McQueen died over forty years ago. There is another Steve McQueen, however. This one was born in West London. His heritage is Grenadian and Trinidadian. This Steve McQueen was the first Black director to take home an Oscar for best picture (2013’s 12 Years a Slave). Peg and I […]
Dolly Parton – One for the Books . . . and COVID:19
The first time I really paid attention to Dolly Parton was when she appeared on the Johnny Carson Show. She just reached behind the couch and pulled out a guitar and sang. No tricks, no boost, just her voice and the guitar. That’s talent. I like when she talks and jokes about her family. She […]
Condensed Anything and An Addendum
On November 25, 1884, Henri Nestlé registered the Nestlé trademark for condensed milk. I don’t care. I don’t like condensed milk. I never liked the Readers Digest condensed books, either. If authors wanted to write shorter books, they would have written them with fewer words or pages. Do people ever go into a restaurant and […]
A New Spirit and Hope for Our Future
At the tail end of four years of immigrant hatred, I came across a story of the American Dream that speaks to all of us . . . and gives us hope. I was captured by the graduation photo of a West Point cadet from 2016. The photo and the story was recently published on […]