Art Hyland

Until we moved from Wisconsin to Bellevue in '58, we had nothing but a party line and only 4 digits to the number.  But Bellevue was a private line and we felt quite superior to our friends and families left behind in the old country.

But if any of you are running Facebook, Google, YouTube or Alexa at the moment you're on a party line on steroids.  It's just that you aren't automatically aware of it.  But they know a great deal more about you than what we used to find out in the party line of old.  I liked the old better, in fact I liked a lot of things old better!

... Art

Emilie Lamphere (Ortega)

Art, me too.   But, I can remember my mother and father saying the same thing.   Oh, yeah, I have turned into my mother.

Patricia Doyle (McLain)

We moved to Eastgate in 57 and had a private line. I remember days when my sisters and I fought over the phone and found ways to have "private" calls with our girl friends away from our parents and sisters. We pulled the phone into the bathroom and a bedroom closet when we could make the cord reach. I still use a pink princess phone in my den although the pink has faded to a soft beige. The curly cord gets tangled just as it always did. Phones were built to last, the sound quality is so much better than my cell phone and the battery never runs low for those three hour calls with girl friends and family. And thanks Art for reminding us that many of the new systems we have come to rely on have built in trade offs we thought we'd left behind in the days before private phone lines. I traded up when I went off Facebook and signed up for a cloud of the day email from the Cloud Appreciation Society. Better days! Pat

Deborah Wallick (Quimby)

Haven't been on here for a little while, but there are so many more salient subjects. Thought I'd add a few. Steve, You lived on Cherry Crest. Wasn't that the most awesome sledding? We'd leave home early in the day and spend most of it sledding. Never understood why my mother didn't like snowy days. Seems she was in charge of gathering wood for the wood stove and ended up with frost bite a couple of times. Her feet and hands would turn purple.

I feel so sorry for all of you on 1 or 2 party lines. My mother knew exactly who was on our line. When a phone was off the hook, my mother dispatched David in one direction to see if they had a phone off the line and I went in the opposite directin. I think my mother must have know what the various residences sounded like as she was keen at figuring out who's phone was off the hook. And, no, she wasn't one of those people listening in on conversations.My first fulltime job was as a telephone operator---no direct dialing, people standing in lines to us the pay phones, all the banks had their alarms in our dial office. If there were a tidal wave alert, we were not allowed to leave our station.   My last years I ended up on the Washington State Boards for Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault with some real estate mixed in. Never did graduate from College. When we moved down here (Ilwaco), there were no colleges around and we had to ride a ferry to go to Oregon.

Eric and Pat, so interesting on adaption to dyslexia, autism. Mine was ADHD. I ended up at OHSU with the head of adult psychiatry.He tested me for ADHD. I never dreamed being able to draw a cube was part of diagnosing ADHD. I still see him about once a year. The ADHD really helped when I was working with multimillion dollar budgets; you could go from one budget to another to another and it was no problem.Rick, you never did anything with your German. And then there was the day I found out Aunt Mimi's good friend was Helen Wolf. By the time I got through my first year of college, I already had my minor in German. Why weren't we smart enough to take Spanish? I have one grandchild.; He has OCD, ADHD, Aspergers-Tourette's. My doctor at OHSU explained sometimes when we have a Strep A infection, we form antigens which attack the brain. All of the OCD, ADHD, Tourette's are in one small part of the brain. The antigens attack that part of the brain.He often travels to Sweden with some of his OCD patients for surgery.

Bellevue History:  My grandfather surveyed the Bellevue-Redmond Highway. Maybe it should be renamed Microsoft Highway. In my grandfather's era, you were purely hired by what political power was elected. I remember they ran into some troubles around Midlakes which make for an interesting reroute. I often wondered how Kemper Freeman was intelligent enough to keep all of the Bellevue Square private as they closed off roads

My grandfather petitioned to have 140th become a road--the road that went in front of Sammamish. He had a Mr. Goldsmith sign the petition first and 140th became known as Goldsmith Road until they changed it to 140th. At that time, 140th never went through. You would have to take the Bellevue-Redmond Road to Highland, get off at 22nd and go down to 140th N. We had a huge creek on 14oth N. and the salmon would spawn. Someone came up with the idea of putting 140th all the way through, putting in culverts, etc. and I felt so sorry for the salmon as they could not spawn. I wonder if they ever did anything to reconcile the spawning salmon.

Has anyone read Daniel Goleman's book, "Emotional Intelligence." Would love to hear from you if you've read it.

Deb

Stephen Nicol

Deborah, I can only respond to part of you story.  Kemper Freeman kept the square private by closing and blocking all access one weekend a year. As long as he allowed no access for that time, Washington law allowed the designation of private land.  The police department could not even enforce parking regulations in the square area.

Edgar Hart

As long as we are traveling down history lane, my father placed the first pontoon in place on the first flaying bridge. He bet the engineers they couldn't get concrete to float. Because he lost the bet he was in charge of putting the first one in place.

Edgar Hart

I meant floating bridge 

Edgar Hart

While living in Idaho I learned of the Sunshine Mine Fire of 1972, one of the largest mining disasters in American history with the death of 91 men. Speaking to people who lived through the experience from various perspectives I decided to write a book. IN 1984 I began, and in 2019 I finished! It is not nonfiction, but a novel attempting to touch the human aspect of such disasters. But it also deals with the reality of death as a part of life, and the quest for the meaning of life. Needless to say, I was not working on it fulltime. It starts in Seattle and moves to Idaho, and deals with the times, Vietnam, the death of J. Edgar Hoover, and the resignation of Richard Nixon. It is dedicated to Mrs. Iverson, my (and some of yours) second grade teacher at Factoria Elementary School because she taught me to read. Our class, by the way, is in the book. It will be released February 16, and be available on Amazon. The title is "The Sounds of the Earth" (Everyone has a story). So far those who have read preliminary copies have responeded positively. Ed Hart

Marcia Micheau (Green)

Eric (Rick) Moon

I regret not meeting Mrs. Iverson, she sounds terrific.

I too look forward to reading your novel, and to knowing your thoughts.  I've marked the release date on my calendar. 

Curtis (Gene) Sorensen

I am happy one on my fellow classmates is so talented.

I will read your adventures.

Gene Sorenesen

Paul Shelton

I have been “away” for the last several months, and am just catching up with all the class has been talking about.  It seems 75 years is plenty of time to have wandered the continent, and beyond, and have amassed any number of adventures. I see my life as having largely been squandered. I’ve had my share of adventures and successful outcomes, but think I could have achieved so much more were I not such an eclectic soul. But I will say, after leaving the corporate world of my first several jobs, I have never been bored and always looked forward to the excitement of morning. My favorite day is clearly Monday, when a whole 5 days of potential is laid out before me. I’m an entrepreneurial spirit, and my past is quite littered with little startups. My eventual “career” in metal work, is now as far in the past as the time I was in it. And I’m not through, with a couple more pie-in-the-sky businesses and missions I want to start. I’m in a race not only with life itself,  but with the declining energy curve that is bound to happen even with good health. 

I was born and raised on a farm in Michigan, coming to Bellevue, and Sammamish, only as a Junior. It took me a good five years to get over the rolling hills of Michigan and finally find pride in my new home. After 3 years in the Coast Guard (California, when not at sea) and 4 years in Kansas City with Kenworth, I knew that the NW was where I wanted to live and die. I am an outdoor enthusiast and enjoy the vicissitudes of weather. Seeking the sun was never a priority. I also appreciated how relatively bug free the NW was. Living in Michigan and KC, spending time as well in Virginia and wandering the SE, I knew bugs, and wanted to share life with them as little as possible. Not to suggest I didn’t like bugs as a study; I just didn’t want them in my bedroom and crawling my kitchen walls.

I stopped after a Masters, figuring a PhD was never going to be put to good use. I was right. Now I’m a landlord living off my years of putting various abodes in good shape. I have an adequate steady income that will last to my last breath, I suppose, leaving me with enough time to putter as I like. 

I suppose some of you have already gotten your first shot for C-19. I’m still waiting along with many of you, I’m sure, for phase 2. Boy, it will be great to travel again. In truth, though, I haven’t missed it too much since I’ve been so busy.

To your question, Eric, about what is innate and what learned, regarding our response to sexual orientation. Of course, the nature/nurture question is rarely black and white. I assume the revulsion of heteros to gays is learned from my reading about cultures and how they existed together with cross-sexed members. I also know my own experience, which was very elucidating. In high school, my naivete was so thorough that I had no reaction whatever. Then I learned how “ugly” and disgusting” it was, and I suffered a decade of genuine revulsion. Then, with maturity and further education, my emotional acceptance returned entirely. My experience was completely a function of learning. As a heterosexual, I have no interest in same-sex love, but I understand and accept it as a condition that no longer has any effect on me. We can observe American culture as well, and see how a sea-change has taken place in acceptance of cross-sexuality as a biological reality not to be feared or condemned. A lot of learning has taken place.

And on to real life looking forward, I hope Wednesday is reasonably uneventful. But a high-alert concern is still understandable. I have been so immersed in this great historical saga, that I must admit, my equanimity and focus have suffered. I’m so looking forward to a time of relative tranquility, free of any high-stakes drama. I think, if you’re like me, you want a chance to live your own life again.

And by the way, David, this writer feels the people most in need of being awakened are the “Woke”, aka, the Regressive left, the Suicidally Compassionate strain of liberalism, nuance free, painfully uninformed, eager to condemn, and yes, as Eric pointed out, self-righteousness is a salient identifier. They are well-intentioned, and I generally stand with them on principal -- but they are wearing the wrong glasses in my opinion.

And by the way again. Our phone number on the farm was 3F11. One long and one short. There were ten families on the line, each with a different ringing code. If you heard 3 long and 2 short, you knew it was for the family across the road. If you wanted to call them (on the same line), just turn the crank 3 times long and 2 times short. Speak into the small bell on the wooden box while holding the cord with wooden ear piece to your ear.

Glad to hear you’re all well.

Eric (Rick) Moon

Good to hear from you again Paul.

Your words reminded me of a quote from Albert Einstein:  "Ignorance is more likely to lead to certainty than is knowledge"

Carol Murrell (Murrell)

Ed-Your book announcement is so exciting and I can't wait to read it. Congratulations

Helen M. Ronnei (Ludwig)

Eric (Rick) Moon

Is anyone interested in using the following quote as a springboard for discussion?

"If the words "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" don't include the right to experiment with your own consciousness, then the Declaration of Independence isn't worth the hemp it was written on." -- Terence McKenna

Danny Braudrick

Not sure I understand the statement/question. But then I will be 76 this year and I think some gray matter continues to escape. 

Danny Braudrick

Not wanting to interrupt Rick's discussion topic, but I have wanted to query regarding these two pins and others experience. 

Eric (Rick) Moon

Hi Danny et al,

Terence McKenna was a visionary who advocated the use of psychoactive drugs as a means of exploring the mental/spiritual realm, and who practiced what he preached.  There's an excellent Wikipedia article on his fascinating life and ideas if you are interested.

The reason I brought up his quote is I am wondering how many of our classmates have used psychoactive drugs, and what their experiences were.  Agewise, we were on the cusp of the transformation of attitudes towards psychedelics.  People of earlier generations than ours seemed to be mostly of the "Reefer Madness" school of thought, and people just after us had much different attitudes.

I smoked my first joint in 1966, and I can testify that I had no urge then or at any other time to clobber my mother with a frying pan.  I also took acid, mescaline, peyote and psylocybin (shrooms), and later on ecstasy.  The rock and roll was great, and so was the sex.  "Sex and drugs and rock and roll" is just an updated version of "Wine, women and song".  Concerts at the Eagles Autitorium downtown, and at various outdoor concerts, were experiences I very much treasure to this day - Grateful Dead, Cream, Byrds, Rolling Stones, John Mayall, Cold Blood, Jimi Hendrix, etc.

I have continued to smoke pakalolo (Hawaiian for cannabis, it translates literally as "wacky tabacky") my entire life. Mostly on weekends until I retired, because I discovered that this sort of "botanical enhancement" was not, for me, a good fit in the moment, with the quantitative reasoning that filled my working life.  On the other hand I discovered that while botanically enhanced, my imagination went places where it probably would not have gone otherwise as I ruminated on the things I was reading and the ideas I was exploring.  I liken it to stereoscopic vision: looking at the same thing through two eyes instead of one gives you depth perception.

I discovered that pakalolo has another interesting and useful property: it enhances proprioception.  Proprioception, in case anyone is not familiar with the term, is the body's internal sense of itself.  We have receptors in our muscles and joints that are "lit up" by THC, and if you focus your attention on these sensations you can feel in amazing detail and clarity what your body is doing while stretching and moving.  I employed this property of the herb to, among other things, improve my golf game.  To be clear, it is not a performance enhancer (I play my best golf in a natural state); it is a practice enhancer.  You can feel your swing internally, especially if you close your eyes (to cut down on the visual stimulation that competes with your focus on the proprioception), in a way that you do not feel otherwise.  I trimmed about eight strokes off my handicap index after I began practicing this way.  My best round of golf ever, two under par, was on a Saturday after I had practiced on Friday while in a botanically enhanced state.

I can also testify about the pain-relieving properties.  A few years ago I had abdominal surgery, and afterwards felt pretty severe pain around the incision sites in the belly, and the oxycontin was just not cutting it.  I was unable to take a deep breath, I was hunched over, and coughing or laughing hurt terribly.  On my second day home from the hospital, I smoked some pakalolo and within minutes the pain was almost gone.  I was able to stand up straight and to take deep breaths.

And now after just turning 75 a few days ago (I am a little younger than most of the class of '63, an actual baby-boomer), I am in pretty amazing physical condition for my age.  I give botanical enhancement, and the way I have used it, a lot of credit for this.

You might be wondering about the risks of botanical enhancement.  All drugs should be treated with respect;  but no one has ever fatally overdosed on pakalolo, and its addictive potential is virtually nil.  My own experience supports this claim.  I once had to undergo random drug testing for a period of 15 months, so I just didn't smoke during that interval, and I did not experience any withdrawal symptoms or any craving.  That being said, I have known a few people who seemed unable to face the day without smoking.  I suspect that this was probably not because of the herb, but because of what they used it for.

And perhaps the most valuable feature of botanical enhancement:  it makes you laugh at politicians.

*   *   *   *   *

Further reading for those who are interested: 

"Ganja Yoga" by Dee Dussault, a Canadian yoga instructor.  Subtitled "A Practical Guide to Conscious Relaxation, Soothing Pain Relief and Enlightened Self-Discovery".  It includes a history of cannabis use over the milennia.  You can also see her on YouTube.

"Drug Use for Grown-Ups" by Dr. Carl L. Hart, a psychology professor at Columbia University.  Subtitled "Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear".

"Mr. X" in "Marihuana Reconsidered".  Mr. X was written pseudonymously by Dr. Carl Sagan in 1969 after he began smoking pakalolo in his thirties.  Difficult to argue that it ruined his life.

Stephen Nicol

This is almost exactly the conversation I had with a college room mate in 1967. I decided then that I was a control freak. The idea of relenquishing control of my thought or actions to a substance didn't appeal to me. Later it was fear of losing a newly printed teaching certificate. Whatever the excuse I chose not to use any. I havent even drunk to excess since. That being said however I have no problem with the people who chose to explore the mind with the aid of substances.  I would just prefer they don't drive or operate aircraft while doing so.

Eric (Rick) Moon

Steve - initially I was as braced against pakalolo smoking as anyone, maybe more so.  But it was a girl who said to me, "Here, try this".  A male would never have talked me into it.

Thank you, Lee.

BTW, it's never too late. And it's unlikely you will "lose control", and you no longer have to worry about your career prospects.

Stephen Nicol

True, but lifetime habits are hard to break even if one wanted to. 

Norma Johnson (DeMerchant)

Hi All,

I enjoy reading all your conversations. 

Ed I say congrats to you! You followed through by finishing and publishing your book!  I look forward to reading a classmate's book!  The location really gained my interest having lived in Spokane and traveled North Idaho. Also my husband's family pioneered that area in silver mining and producing railroad ties.

Erick I have thought many times about eating goodie as I don't smoke. It sound like a great pain and stress reliever, but I got second hand smoke  when out with co-workers my years ago and couldn't stop laughing or get up.  My husband had to come and get me. I am still only a two drink person so maybe not?  Norma DeMerchant

Eric (Rick) Moon

Norma, you sound like a really cheap date! All that from second-hand smoke?

Edibles don't give me the same effect as smoke, I much prefer the smoke.  I've never smoked tobacco either, but with today's pakalolo, it only takes one puff to achieve enhancement so I don't worry about hurting myself.

Edgar Hart

Norma, thanks for the encouragement . The book will be released on Feb. 16, Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Where do you live now?