Meet Me at the Dev...

Well, here we go with the last installment of Jane's 1976 photo spread. New Year's Eve in Vancouver, B.C. at the Hotel Devonshire. But first, a brief discussion of the role of Vancouver in our collegiate lives is in order.

Babes in the city. Jane Ellis, and Terry Harrigan at the Devonshire Hotel in Vancouver, B.C. on December 31, 1976.

A number of us attended Western Washington University in Bellingham. For late-teen/early twenty-somethings Bellingham in the 1970's was a fine community; but not what the doctor ordered when one was racked by Boogie Fever. Fortunately, Vancouver, B.C. is only a short drive from Bellingham.

Vancouver then, as now, was a thriving cosmopolitan city with frequent big-name concerts, theaters, museums, nightclubs and fine dining. Oh yeah, I almost forgot - the drinking age was nineteen.

For many of us living in a dorm and without a car, transportation was a serious problem in those days and the lights of the city might have remained out of reach but for the innate creativity of disco-deprived freshmen and the entrepreneurial spirit of Greyhound Buslines. It was very common on late Friday afternoon to see a Greyhound bus parked in front of a dorm with "Charter" or "Vancouver B.C." in the destination window and rapidly filling-up with kids in their boogie togs.

A quick hop across the border and before you know it - cocktail time in Vancouver - almost always beginning at the pub in the Hotel Devonshire. Cocktails at this time of our lives meant schooners of good Canadian beer...and lots of them...followed by supper, often in Chinatown, and then dance, dance, dance. Then back to the bus for nappy time as our intrepid bus driver hauled us back to the dorms.

And intrepid is not an exaggeration - since returning to Bellingham necessarily meant crossing the U.S./Canadian border with a busload of mostly intoxicated persons most of whom were minors in the eyes of U.S. Officialdom. Greyhound bus drivers take their responsibilities very seriously, however, and these guys were silver tongued devils with the Customs guys. I never heard of any of these boozy sorties coming to grief although, upon further reflection, the Greyhound legal department was certainly asleep at the wheel for countenancing these trips in the first place.

As we got older and some of us obtained wheels, Vancouver nonetheless retained its allure. And the Hotel Devonshire was always our headquarters. Such was the case on New Year's Eve 1976 when Jane Ellis, Terry Harrigan, Carl Swanson, Tim Wilson, and I rang-in 1977 with great enthusiasm.

Ready for a night on the town. I have absolutely no recollection of where we went. Terry remembers it well, however, particularly the part where the gal with the 4 inch spikes impaled her big toe on the dance floor. Ouch!

New Year's Day follows New Year's Eve just as the inevitable hang-over follows the night on the town. We were pretty subdued the next morning - I believe we are watching cartoons.

All of Jane's 1976 photos (including some not posted on the blog) are available for your viewing at: http://www.kodakgallery.com/elmerlindstrom/jellis

Also, check out the 1970's quiz on the right of the blog.

McKinnon Behrends 1986-2008

I’m so sad.

Today, I attended the memorial for Dick and Candy Behrends’ son McKinnon, “Mac” Behrends. Mac was 22. He died in Portland, Oregon earlier this month.

The celebration was held at the old Armory Building next to Centennial Hall. There were hundreds of folks in attendance.

Dick is my “cousin” by marriage. His father’s first marriage was to my father’s sister Ingaborg.

Dick and I were more than cousins at Western Washington University. When I first arrived at WWU he was my mentor on the ways of University life and best friend. We were living together in Bellingham when he met his future wife, Candy. I have a dim recollection that the initial meeting was at a Bellingham “Mexican” cantina – Candy was there with several friends for some special occasion. A wedding perhaps.

Candy’s hometown is Bothell – and Dick became a commuter from Bellingham to Bothell on a very regular basis.

Sadly, I have not remained close to Dick and Candy over the years. They have a very successful plumbing business in town.

The ceremony today was quite moving. Doug was the Master of Ceremonies. He did a very good job. Several very talented folks sang songs. One of Candy’s brothers recited a very moving poem written by one of Candy’s sisters.

Mac’s sister, Amanda, and Candy put together a beautiful slideshow accompanied by some of Mac’s favourite songs.

Tears flowed down my cheeks the whole time.

I resolve to rekindle my relationship with Dick and Candy and their delightful daughter, Amanda.

Condolences may be sent to Dick and Candy at: candybehrends@yahoo.com

Mac’s Juneau Empire obituary is at: http://juneauempire.com/stories/072308/obi_308369875.shtml

McKinnon Behrends – rest in peace.

Young, Stupid, and Drunk

Now where were we? Ah, yes, - Juneau in 1976.

I spent the summer of 1976 back in Juneau working for the State to save money to go back to school. It took me five years to get my degree. I'd work for the State for six months or so, go back to school for three quarters, back to Juneau for another cash infusion, and so on.

Jane and Julia at what I assume was our 1976 Halloween Party. Weren't they something?

All of the various stints in Juneau kinda run together. In retrospect, I cannot say that my time spent in Juneau in the 70's contributed much to the betterment of mankind - or the betterment of myself, for that matter. On the other hand, they were certainly fun...in a blurry, boozy sort of way. Many of my pals were on the same sort of schedule. Someone was always going to or coming from school.

Yours truly and Jill Halsted.

My work for the State was not exactly challenging - basically clerical. This was a good thing given my state-of-health on more mornings than I care to remember.

In the summer there were many parties on the beach out North Douglas. When the weather was inclement and in the nine months of the year beach parties were NOT on the agenda, there were often Happy Hours downtown after work. On the weekends, there was frequently live music - Yancey Derringer's (where The Hanger is now) the Baranof, and the Hilton (now the Goldbelt Hotel) were twenty-something hangouts where we would dance the night away.

Left to Right - Jim Larson, Eric Swanson and Mitch Hogan. Ken Barkey in front.

And then there was Louie's Douglas Inn which was the unofficial headquarters of our crew. God knows how many of Louie's trips to Hawaii we financed...

We also had house parties - typically in honor of a birthday or other special event. Jane's pictures from 1976 capture several of these festive occasions.

Left to Right: Terry Harrigan, Doug Rickey, Jill Halsted, and Yours Truly.

Shake Your Booty

The year was 1976. Yours truly spent a quarter at school in London. Most of my associates were in school in Bellingham or elsewhere in the Great Northwest.

The top ten singles of the year included Disco Lady (#1), Play that Funky Music, Love Machine (Part 1), and Shake Your Booty.

Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley were the top rated television shows.

It was a simple time populated by simple, no, make that innocent youth. Failing eyesight, enlarged prostates, hypertension, aches and pains, and the other ravages of middle-age were, if we noticed them at all, strictly the province of our parents. Life was good and had every prospect of getting even better.

And the defining motion picture of our college years was under production.

The producers of Saturday Night Fever missed the boat when they failed to cast Disco Terry, Disco Jim, or Disco Carl for the film.

Click on the image for a larger view.

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

A truly crappy weekend weatherwise. And of course plenty more where that came from...

I spent most of the weekend reading and watching the British Open. A couple of workouts. Yesterday morning dad got about a cord-and-a-half of firewood so I spent a couple of hours hauling it in the wheelbarrow and stacking it in the woodshed. I normally enjoy (or at least don't mind) hauling and stacking wood; but the pouring down rain detracts from the firewood experience as it does most everything else. I was one wet indentured servant.

Dad believes he now has between seven and eight cords of wood on-hand and that will hold him for the winter. Based on previous experience, however, I am predicting another cord or so in September to top-off the supply. The National Weather Service is predicting continuing cooler than normal temperatures for the remainder of what the calendar assures me is summer. Of late, Dad has been burning between six and eight good sized pieces of wood a day. In the winter that rises to twelve to fifteen. That's lots of wood.

The right side of my face is still largely numb; but this morning I noticed that when I smile there are faint crows-feet by my right eye which, I suppose, is a good thing. I'm confident I will have a full recovery.

I really enjoyed the book I just finished - John Adams by David McCullough. The author is very readable (his Path Between the Seas about the building of the Panama Canal is one of my favourite books) and President Adams was a fascinating character about whom I knew very little.

Adams was intelligent, educated, extremely well read, and the quintessential eighteenth century New England farmer - puritanical, frugal, and often irascible. He was completely devoted to his wife, Abigail, and the correspondence between the two that survived is amazing in both volume and content. The relationship between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson was fascinating - Jefferson was both Adams' greatest rival as well as good friend.

Benjamin Franklin wrote of Adams:

"He means well for his country, is always an honest man, often a wise one, but sometimes and in some things, absolutely out of his senses."

As someone who spent a good many years working the halls of the legislature dealing with individuals I would not care to invite into my own home, I found Adams' comments regarding the necessity of concealing one's dislike for persons with whom one must work very apt:

"There are persons whom in my heart I despise, others I abhor. Yet I am not obliged to inform the one of my contempt, nor the other of my detestation. This kind of dissimulation ... is a necessary branch of wisdom, and so far from being immoral ... that it is a duty and a virtue."

I came across a number of other passages in the book that I found appealing and have marked for future reference.

THIS JUST IN: Dougie just sent me a most amusing story from the The Sun of London - headline: "They're Britain's dogs of war." http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/article1447714.ece

"Fearless German Shepherds are being trained to jump from aircraft at 25,000 ft wearing their own oxygen masks and strapped to special forces assault teams.


Once down in hostile terrain in Iraq or Afghanistan, the dogs will be sent in first to seek out insurgents’ hideouts with tiny cameras fixed to their heads."

COMING SOON... That 70's Show: Jane's Party Pics. Here's a sample. Stay tuned...

I believe this was Jane's 19th birthday party. August 27, 1976.

BBQ Fun

A good time was had by all...

Mother Julia and Son Devon

I am no expert at reading body language; but this strikes me as falling somewhere between "skeptical" and "amused."

Don't tease 'em while they're eating...

Last Sunday Alison and Doug were the most gracious hosts for a BBQ honoring our esteemed Portland guests. Alison made her classic Chicken Marbella, Dougie his famous ribs, and I played the role of Side-Dish Elmo. A good time was had by all...

As the evening wore on folks gravitated outside to Doug's fire pit. The bullshit got pretty deep. Many lies were told - some old, some new.

Jane has loaned me twenty or so snapshots of various get togethers in the 1970's that are highly amusing. I will be scanning and Photoshopping them shortly and I expect a number of them will find their way into the blog. Think overalls, bell bottoms, and leisure suits. Oh yeah, and there are some pics of a costume party too.

I REALLY enjoyed the company and the weekend. I most fervently hope we can continue our annual reunion tradition.

I WILL BE POSTING ADDITIONAL REUNION PICS ON MY KODAK SITE LATER THIS MORNING.

In other news, yesterday morning I woke-up to discover the right-side of my face was largely paralyzed. Scared the hell out of me. After I took Leah and Chris to the airport I legged-it over to my doc's office and they saw me immediately. Took the doc on duty about 30 seconds to diagnosis the affliction as Bell's Palsy - a temporary condition caused by an unknown virus. Treatment is with steroids and the efficacy of the treatment is marginal, at best. So I have yet to decide whether or not to take the meds. I already take too damn many pills so am inclined to simply let nature take its course. The condition will improve on it's own over a period of three weeks or so (MAYBE a few days less with treatment). In the meantime, I will drool when I eat or drink. On the bright side, I look much younger on my right side - no wrinkles.

Yesterday was my folk's 63rd anniversary. I believe Miss Manners has designated 63 as the "carrot cake anniversary" and I acted accordingly. Dad eats carrot cake for breakfast.

Have a great weekend everybody.

Hit the Beach

The Sandy Beach Crew! (Click on pics for a larger view).

Last Saturday we had a traditional Sandy Beach party for our Portland guests - a keg of beer, hotdogs, hamburgers, and such. A number of old high school chums showed-up and a good time was had by all.

It has always amazed me that in Juneau, a burg of 30,000 souls, it is possible to go for years without seeing another person. Indeed, there are friends and acquaintances who, like me, have lived in Juneau their entire lives; and yet I have not seen them since graduation day.

This is largely due, no doubt, to my widely acknowledged capacity to be oblivious to my surroundings. And it is possible that the "see you later/not if I see you first" dynamic is also in play - when folks see me coming they run in the other direction. Or perhaps some of these people live under the docks and only come out at night

Regardless, it is always a pleasure when one comes across an old friend one has not seen for a good long time. And Saturday provided several of these opportunities.

Bern Savikko and Jim

Take Bern, for example. Bet I haven't seen him more than a half-dozen times in over 30-years. He would be a good candidate for the "see you later/not if I see you first" category. In our freshmen and sophomore years at JDHS, Bern, Jim, and I were in the same math classes. Jim was good at math. Bern was excellent at math. Elmer - not so much.

It is possible that from time-to-time I took advantage of Bern's expertise in the math homework department. In fact it is possible that wholesale cribbing went on...all in one direction, of course

I note for the record that the end result of all of this was entirely predictable. While copying someone else's homework does provide immediate gratification by freeing-up time that can productively be used for other pursuits (like smoking pot); it has the definite drawback of resulting in one's failure to actually learn the subject matter. Bern got "A's" in math...and I got gentlemen "C's" and (gulp) the one "D" I ever received before or since.

Bern was very easy going 35 years ago and it is apparent he remains a good egg. I hope to see him and his delightful wife more often.

Jim Larson and Soc Kruezenstein

Bet I haven't seen Soc more than twice since high school. And yet he, like me, has thirty years of State service - all in Juneau, I believe. I recall Soc best from several high school trips and I have several slides somewhere I need to scan to prove it. One of the most fun high school events I participated in was a week-long biology class trip to Glacier Bay. I recall Eric as a participant too.

I believe Soc could have retired last fall; but has remained at his post in DOT. He is the Supremo on the Switzer Creek interchange project and I got the distinct impression it has been a challenge indeed. I admire your dedication Soc; but remember - it's a job - not a suicide pact!