Judy – Page 57 – Dear Liza

Feels Familiar

Dear Liza,

While we were in Los Angeles, there were some days when Auntie June had other things to do. Dogs had appointments, housekeepers came in, yard work got done.

To make a good use of the time, we rented a car and drove over the hills from the San Fernando Valley to the BEACH! The Topanga Canyon Road is twisty and turny, but if you go slow enough, it is okay. Still, I was glad Grandpa Nelson was driving.

And in about 20 minutes, we were on a sunny beach with kids, families, and dozens of surfers. This felt very familiar…. from about 50 years ago. I grew up in Manhattan Beach, and high-school-age Grandpa Nelson and I spent years talking about our future walking on beaches just like these.

It was homey and nostalgic and new, all at the same time.

We chatted with surfers, nibbled our goodies from Bea’s Bakery (more about that later) and drove on up the coast. Malibu and all the other beaches rolled by with their gift shops and beach access points. We didn’t need to stop, but were just happy to look and enjoy being there.

As we turned inland to return the car, we saw this impressive cloud forming over the low hills. It seemed to promise rain, but we knew better. Sure was pretty, though.

We stopped by Auntie June’s to say hi, and I had a visit with Zeus in Uncle Michael’s office. He is a very loving, friendly dog who just happens to weigh about half as much as me. Isn’t he massively cute?

We got the car back in time, had a light supper and a glass of wine, and fell asleep like logs.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Helping Out

Dear Liza,

I have some sad news. Grandpa Nelson’s sister June lost her husband this week. They were out walking their two big dogs, Zeus and Luna, and Uncle Michael had a heart attack and died, right there in the park by their house.

Michael was a very nice guy. He was a surfer, a football coach, a musician and music manager. And he loved Auntie June very much.

Grandpa Nelson and I have spare time since we are not working, so we came down to Los Angeles to help out. I must tell you, I wasn’t looking forward to LA traffic. But it turns out that there are now trains that will get you around town!

Once we landed at the Burbank airport, we walked few blocks and there was a train station named after Bob Hope, a comedian who worked in vaudeville (ask your dad) and then movies. We caught the train to Chatsworth, and walked a few blocks from the station to our hotel. Portland to hotel, door to door, in 5 hours, with no car. Pretty nifty.

We got to see June, Auntie Dorothy and Uncle Gary the first day. We talked non-stop for about 13 hours, only taking breaks to eat lunch and dinner.

And of course, we got to meet Zeus and Luna, who are missing their Daddy Michael very much.

We will be here for a week, helping Auntie June figure out what to do next. It’s always good to help.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Other People’s Photos

Dear Liza,

I have told you about Buy Nothing, an online organization for trading, sharing, and helping neighbors out. The huge network is divided by neighborhood, so the folks you are giving to (or getting from) are within walking distance.

This past winter we gave away coats, Mardi Gras beads, and car chains.

And last week I walked down the block a ways and got a giant envelope of old photographs. I have started using photos for some collages, and wanted some more to work with.

This package was really interesting. It had some family photos, but also some pictures of the James River, Virginia flood of 1940 and the old Grace de Havre Bridge in Normandy, France, taken in 1928. Some will be useful for collages, and some won’t be.

Some were professionally taken pictures by a photographer named Arthur G. Davis. He lived and worked in a little town called Beallsville, Maryland, but I can’t find out when he worked, lived, or if he is still alive.

There was also this fabulous picture of a distinguished looking man overcome with disbelief. He seems to be in a play of some sort, but there is no clue I can see.

I’m not sure what I will do with these pictures, because collage depends on finding all sorts of bits that go together to make an interesting picture. It can take a long time to find all the bits.

For example, here is my first successful use of an old photo in a collage. It includes an old photo of a cousin, a cat food ad, the top of a Kleenex box, a wallpaper sample, dabs of acrylic paint, and words cut from magazines.

This kind of art takes time, thought, and patience. But it sure is fun!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Chasing Summer

Dear Liza,

My veggie garden got a late start this year because of a cold, wet spring, including a snowfall on April 11. But now that it has gotten started, I am having trouble keeping up! This week’s heat wave has been upping the ante.

I planted my pumpkins by a ladder so they can climb up instead of spreading out and taking up a lot of space. They are now almost up to the second rung, and I have tied them to encourage their progress.

The oak leaf lettuce starts I planted in March have given us dozens of salads over the months, but are starting to bolt and go to seed in the hot weather. I pulled them up and managed to harvest several days worth of lettuce before tossing the stalks out. I even used some of it in a batch of pesto, since I was short on basil.

My five cherry tomato plants have gotten almost as tall as me, and have formed a lacy vertical screen that gives my garden some dappled afternoon shade during these hot days.

I have stopped watering the tomatoes, since there is a lot of fruit set, and today I was rewarded two tiny, perfect, ripening tomatoes! Stay tuned for lots more!

Auntie Bridgett’s sunflowers are short, as we planned, but are still making neat blooms! These are called Pompoms.

I have sewn a few more rows of peppery arugula lettuce and some Danvers carrots, making sure to go over every morning and give them water.

I will be chasing summer until fall. Should be a fun ride.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Yet Another McMenamin’s

Dear Liza,

Heading home from Long Beach, we stopped at a new-to-us McMenamin’s location. Like most of the McMenamin’s venues, it has an interesting history.

The original Gearhart Hotel opened in 1890, as a golf club and get away for well-to-do Portlanders. It was the first golf course west of the Mississippi River and was very popular.

A second hotel opened in 1910, but by 1915 both hotels had burned down.

The third hotel that was also connected to the golf club was constructed in the 1920s. This grand Oregon coast landmark was torn down and replaced by condos in the early 1970s. The current building was built in the same Cape Cod style in 2012. So the building is not historic, but that doesn’t stop McMenamin’s. They take a story and run with it!

Original paintings by McMenamins’ team of artists are typically colorful and quirky, and here, they mostly have themes of golf. This painting in the restaurant tells a fanciful story of St. Rule making a pilgrimage to take St. Andrew’s ashes to Scotland and this being the basis for the development of St. Andrew’s Golf course there.

As with all McMenamin’s properties, the food was good, the ambience delightful, and the service friendly.

Still, when lunch was over and we made the last leg of our trip, we were happy to be home. And Mousie was glad, too.

Love,

Grandma Judy

More from Long Beach

Dear Liza,

Long Beach, Washington has a population of about 1,500. It has one main street. By any definition, it is a small town. But in our short stay, we found a lot to see.

There is a half mile long boardwalk that lets you wander into the grassy sand dunes and feel the breeze, without scaring the birds.

There are statues of whales, turtles, and explorers.

There are sandcastles and kites.

And there is a delicious, silly restaurant called Lost Roo. This is where we had dinner, since the places that were still open at dinnertime were very loud and more bar-like than restaurants. Grandpa Nelson found this on the map and we got in the car and drove the mile or so. The parking lot was packed but their sign said, ”Lots of room inside!”, so we went in.

The silly started right away, with this towering kangaroo and joey keeping us company while we waited for our table.

The food was delicious and the service very friendly, and we left full, happy, and glad we had made the trip.

Eventually, when we had driven the country lanes, seen piles of oyster shells and bought some books on local history, it was time to head home. And that’s another story!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Long Beach, Washington

Dear Liza,

Once we crossed the Astoria-Megler Bridge, we were in Washington. The forest came right down to the ocean and everything felt very far away from the hustle and bustle of Portland. We drove up Highway 101 to Long Beach, where we had reservations for the night.

We haven’t checked to see if it actually IS the longest beach in the world, but the beach does go on for more than 25 miles! It is a classic northwest beach, too; flat and wide, with small ripples instead of crashing waves. It makes for very peaceful walking.

Long Beach, as it turns out, is where explorers Lewis and Clark first saw the Pacific Ocean in 1805.

There is a life-sized statue showing Captain William Clark standing by a ten foot long sturgeon, a huge fish that had been washed ashore. I loved the details of his hair and clothes! It seemed like you could just talk to him.

He wasn’t particularly chatty, however.

There were all sorts of inscriptions along the Discovery trail on the beach, telling about who was traveling with the explorers and what they found here.

York, Captain Clark’s servant, was the first African American to come to the northwest. According to the first hand accounts, York was important in making friends with the First Nations people living in the area, because his color set him apart from the ”others”, (the white explorers)making him seem less foreign.

We spent a while visiting with Capt. Clark, then continued on, leaving him with his true friends, the crows. There was a lot more to see.

And I will tell you about it tomorrow.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Stepping Away

Dear Liza,

It has been hot in Portland lately (though not as hot as some parts of the country). Also, Auntie Bridgett has been working very hard on her art fairs, an upcoming show at the SideStreet Arts Gallery, and her new Zine. We decided to take a few days away to cool off and re-charge.

So we took a road trip! Driving north along the Willamette and then west along the Columbia, we came to Astoria. This still-busy port town was founded in 1811 as a fishing and shipping port, the gateway between the US northwest and the rest of the world.

We had a nice lunch at the Fort George brew pub, enjoying sandwiches, cider, and other people’s kids and dogs, and then walked down to the wharfs.

We found an interesting installation showing the history and culture of the people from Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark who came to Astoria in the 1800s as farmers, lumbermen and fishermen. It included images of the maypole, viking ships, flags of the countries, weird and funny trolls, birch trees, and other iconic images.

This piece of advice was given by recent Astorians and can apply to all of us.

“As your ancestors’ sole reason for being, embrace the virtuous and use your gifts with purpose and generosity.”

We wandered some more along the shore and then decided it was time to cross the Columbia River for the next part of our adventure.

We drove up and up to the high point of the Astoria-Megler Bridge, then swooped down like a rollercoaster to the lowest part, just skimming the white capped waves. Whoosh!

I will tell you what we found over there tomorrow.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Auntie Katie Wins an Eisner Award!

Dear Liza,

You know how hard Auntie Katie has worked at her bookshop, Books with Pictures. She started down the street eight years ago, then moved to her current location four years ago, growing and improving all the time.

When the Pandemic hit, she shut her doors but kept the business open with on-line ordering and driving to make deliveries every evening. She hired fabulous people who know and love comics as much as she does, besides having skills in art, design, organization, website management, and advertising.

With her staff and other friends, she has created a popular, all-inclusive space that has become the center of the LGBTQ+ community. No matter who you are, you will find books that represent YOU. She has meet-ups for teen clubs, creators, and even a pre-schooler’s story time out in the garden.

In short, she has made a change for the good here in Portland. And people noticed.

This year, she won the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award. This is the Comics World equivalent of an Oscar for comic book shops.Besides her years of work, there were many pages of applications and hours of preparation and interviews. It was hard!

And this past weekend at the San Diego Comic Con, she got her just desserts. Up on a huge stage, with a thousand people watching, she was handed the cherry-on-top of these eight years of hard work.

I couldn’t be prouder! Keep going, Katie!

(Well, take a well-deserved nap, first….)

Keep making the world better!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Personal Messages in Public Places

Dear Liza,

The other day while walking through Laurelhurst Park, we spotted this tree with a hand-written message taped to it. We wandered over to investigate.

It said “Flick and Clever Chris sorry I said mean things.”

Further along, we found a similar message taped to a trash can. “Flick and Clever Chris Sorry for treating you like trash. (Heart) U guys”. I can only imagine what lead to this public apology, but it might have gone like this.

During the summer, kids meet to play in the park. Maybe they are visiting in town or attend different schools, and know each other only from their play at the park. They have no way of reaching each other other than THERE. So, when disagreements happen, that is where apologies happen.

There are other instances, more adult in nature, where private feelings are expressed publicly. A series of STOP signs additions are mostly political, but give us the temperature of the neighborhood.

This stenciled graffiti on a nearby building appeared a few months into the shut down, and expressed my feelings exactly. “Take this enforced idleness to step away from the rush and do some healing.” I realize not everyone has that luxury, but being retired, I have the time.

That’s what I tried to do, and it helped.

Love,

Grandma Judy