Dear Liza

Dear Liza,

Our wonderful Portland Art Museum, called PAM for short, has a new exhibit for this summer. It is called Paris 1900 and has 233 items on display from La Belle Epoch, or Beautiful Age, in Paris from 1871 to 1914.

These items range from a small waterfall hat pin made of gold, opals and diamonds to monumental statues and paintings that fill a wall. The exhibit covers the Paris World Exposition of 1900, but also the art, prints, clothes, and nightlife of The City of Lights. It includes art depicting La Parisienne, an almost cult-like worship of the perfect Paris Woman– stylish, opulent, and beautiful.

The World Exposition recorded 51 million paying visitors (at one franc apiece) over seven months, at a time when the entire population of Paris was just about 10 million. Paris prepared for the crowds by laying the first lines of the now-famous Metro subway and laying in a moving sidewalk to help folks get around the Fair.

The Eiffel Tower had been a part of Paris since 1889 and served as a centerpiece for the Fair. The Grand Palais and the Petit Palais were newly built of iron, glass and masonry to be permanent structures to display French art. Other magnificent, but temporary, buildings were built on the banks of the Seine River by visiting countries to show off their own art and industry. Switzerland built a chalet next to a tall waterfall like you would find in the Alps. Sudan built an enormous grass hut, four stories tall. The United States’ building had lots of domes and bald eagles.

The Museum showed hours of film shot by the Lumiere brothers, the first professional film studio. These show the displays, boat tours, dancing and excitement of the Fair. There was also a beautifully restored copy of George Melies’ Voyage to the Moon. This was a delightful, theatrical, fantastic film that every movie about space has borrowed from, whether they know it or not.

I am sure we will return to PAM many times this summer to immerse ourselves in the beauty of Paris 1900.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Dear Liza,

Last Fourth of July, we went to Lents Stadium for some National Holiday Pickles baseball fun. It was an interesting day, seeing what Portlanders are like beyond the “close in” neighborhoods. It had felt very odd, as though we had left Portland and arrived at Elk City, Oklahoma.

Last night was the Opening Day of the season for our local team, so Grandpa Nelson and I returned to experience evening baseball. This felt more Portland…more rock and roll than country music, a younger and more diverse audience. Maybe it’s because it was a weekday evening, I’m not sure.

It was very warm, so I wore my new sunhat, which is big enough to give me shade and Grandpa Nelson, too, if I sit up straight. Before the game started we got to chat with some Royal Rosarians, who are folks that spend a lot of time being out in the community and being “boosters” for Portland. They threw out the first pitch this special Opening Day. We also saw The One More Time Around Again Marching Band’s trumpet section, who played the National Anthem.

We got to see the pitcher for the opposing team (The Port Angeles Lefties!!) warming up, and kids playing catch with moms and dads.

The game was fun to watch. We were only about 30 feet from home plate, so we had a good view of every pitch. We especially cheered for the left fielder, Chase Latrelle, who is a student at our old college, Cal State Long Beach!

But, as usual, what makes a ball game fun is the people. Dillon, the mascot, was everywhere, high fiving and posing, being silly. There was “Bowling for Bobbleheads” at the fifth inning, “Take me out to the Ballgame” at the seventh, and Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” at the eighth. Great audience participation! There were also dancing contests (by section) and free french fries from Lardo for the winning group.

The sun set during the game and when the Pickles had beaten the Lefties 3 to 0, the stadium lights were turned off and there were fireworks! We cheered and hooted and walked back to the car feeling happy and full of Baseball joy.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Dear Liza,

It is pretty hard to miss Hippo Hardware. Up on East Burnside and 11th, this 1907 building has happy cartoon-ish hippos painted on the pillars out front and the loading dock in back.

The odd two-story shape with its giant porch is caused by a widening of Burnside in the 1920s that led to ( I am not kidding) chopping the front 15 feet off the first floor of buildings on both sides of the street. They left the second story, through some kind of compromise.

Inside, it is a trip down someone’s memory lane. The inventory is reclaimed from old buildings, homes and businesses. If you are looking for a couple of light fixtures from 1927, this shop has them. Need a mauve toilet lid? They’ve got you covered.

Besides stocking impossible to find items, this shop made me laugh. The hippos outside give you a hint, then come the giant legs busting through the ceiling from the floor above and hundreds of smaller hippos hanging around inside.

Ceramic hands formed into soap holders and towel racks is both elegant and creepy,

and the nun in the claw foot tub is just a crack up!

Always finding a way to have fun!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Dear Liza,

When we bought our new home here in Portland, we loved many things about it.

The location, in a neighborhood full of restaurants and pinball games, and right next to beautiful Laurelhurst Park, was perfect.

The size, big enough for three but small enough to be cozy, was perfect.

The compact, pretty kitchen, where there is room to make everything but tiny enough to clean easily, is perfect.

The only drawback was the window blinds. They had been installed twelve years ago when the place was new. Since this had been a vacation home, they hadn’t gotten much use. Now that they were getting raised and lowered everyday, they were falling apart.

Last month we drove by Bolliger Windows, up on Broadway, and had a look at their selection. We made an appointment for Shelly to come today and measure our windows and decide which kinds will work best for us.

This past week, Steve came by to install them. Because of a communication issue, he was one short, but I have faith that that will be resolved.

We are loving our new blinds. They can be down from the top or up from the bottom, or anywhere in between. Since our windows are right across from our neighbors’, this gives us all some much needed privacy.

Love, Grandma Judy

Dear Liza,

We are still in the midst of Rose Festival. There are fund-raiser walks, naked bike rides, and rose displays at the Lloyd Center Mall.

But yesterday we chose to spend our energy at the Starlight Parade. As you might think, this Parade doesn’t even start until dark…actually, around 9:00. So we needed to pace ourselves.

We took the Magic number 15 downtown and got off by the City Fair, the Midway area we visited last week. We played low-price, fun pinball (Batman and Hook), getting better as we went along, having a flipper-slapping good time.

In the next tent a group of hundreds of people, old and young, fit and not, in silly costumes or regular running clothes, gathered for the Starlight Run, a 3.1 kilometer run through downtown. There were costume contests, lots of cheering and laughing, a lovely rendition of The Star Spangled Banner, and then they were off! It was so much fun watching them all have fun. The cast of The Wizard of Oz won for best group. I didn’t expect to see them run!

We ate a disappointingly small pulled pork sandwich while we watched Rhys Thomas, a wonderful local juggler (who also uses juggling to teach physics!) do his show. He has major skills and a great line of silly banter.

Walking around downtown, we saw a sign that made my history buff heart very happy. The oldest standing building in Portland, built in 1857 at the corner of Oak and Naito Parkway, is being restored. I always love to see old buildings restored to use rather than torn down.

Walking further along, we saw another piece of history, the Portland Outdoor Store, celebrating its 100th anniversary. This landmark at 3rd and Oak has been owned by the same family, the Popicks, since 1919. The neon sign (which I will return to properly photograph after dark someday) was installed in 1946. They sell a lot of cowboy hats!

We wandered a bit more and found the Runners, still moving along. Those in costume were making a noble effort, and there were quite a few really young runners (about 5 years old) holding their own.

We realized we needed a place to sit for a while, so we headed to our new favorite place, Kells Irish Pub. We had Guinness and cider, soup and fries, and watched Portland come out to play. There were several televisions, showing both a hockey game and the local soccer team, the Timbers, playing the Los Angeles Football Club at our newly opened Providence Park. It was filled to the rafters and everyone watched, talked, cheered, and ate.

When it started to get dark, we headed to 4th street and found a place to stand. Portland parades are always so silly! The marchers wave, chat, and pose with the crowd, and have a great deal of fun among themselves.

There were marching bands playing Queen’s song ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’, and representatives of the Evil Empire.

We cheered for an inflated airplane carried along by Alaska Airlines employees. A platoon of De Lorean gull wing cars came by, and my favorite, The One More Time Around Again Marching Band. This group of hundreds of folks ‘of a certain age’ marching with instruments, flags, batons and energy does my heart good every time I see them.

When we just had to get off our feet, we headed back to Kells…not for more beer, but to call a Lyft. car All the buses had stopped running through downtown and we needed to get home. What an evening! What a city!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Dear Liza,

Since I am retired, I have time to wander around, notice things, ask questions, and actually find out the answers!

One of the things I have been asking more of lately is “What tree is that?” Your Great Grandma Billie, my Momma, knew the names of just about every tree she ever met. She had thick books on her shelf to help identify trees, flowers, and birds. She and nature were on a first-name basis.

I am not that studious, but I am learning. Momma taught me (and I have taught you) how to identify maples by their hand-shaped leaves and helicopter seeds, and magnolias by their shiny hard leaves and bristly seed pods. I had learned the names of most of trees in Salinas… and then we moved to Portland and have a whole new bunch to learn.

There are lots of maples here, as well as different kinds of firs, pines, redwoods, and even Monkey Puzzle Trees. I have met the Dawn Redwood, which was known only by fossils here in North America but still alive in Asia. Seeds were sent from China to America after World War II, and it is now living happily in the Hoyt Arboretum and Laurelhurst Park.

The other day, Auntie Bridgett and I noticed a tall tree by Sunnyside School, and wondered about it. It had leaves almost like a maple, but not quite…and it had FLOWERS. Orange, tulip-like flowers. I was curious, so took some pictures and looked on a few tree identification websites, but got frustrated with the tiny print and confusing questions.

This afternoon, Grandpa Nelson and I took to fold up chairs to the park and sat under a tree by the dog park area to read and watch the dog drama. And guess what tree we sat under? The same tree, with the orange flowers!

So I got out my phone and took some more pictures, and tried again to find a site that would help. I found “Common Trees of the Pacific Northwest” (on the oregonstate.edu website) was easy to use, with pictures of leaf-shapes and short descriptions.

Ta-Da! My mystery tree is a Yellow-Poplar tree. Notice, there is a hyphen, which means it is not a true poplar, but a sort of off-shoot. I know what it is called. I know something I didn’t yesterday.

Keep learning, kiddo.

Love, Grandma Judy

Dear Liza,

Yesterday I went to Lone Fir Cemetery again. I didn’t have anything special I needed to do or learn, but something always presents itself if you keep an open mind.

I saw tall, handsome iris on the way. We are now cruising towards full-on summer, with iris, poppies and roses running amuck, and hydrangeas just getting started.

At Lone Fir, I sat in the shade by the graves of these two friends. I can’t remember or read their names, but I remember their story. They were two men, inseparable best friends, who died within days of each other. Their friends buried them side by side and planted a maple tree at their heads. Over the years as the tree grew, it has enveloped the headstones. The roots have joined the two graves and the friends are together forever. Sad and lovely, my favorite kind of story.

Further along, I noticed a chestnut tree. It has shed its blossoms and the tiny chestnuts are showing! They look odd, like baby opossums or baby swans.. .scraggly and fragile, nothing like the beautiful, hard, mahogany-colored nuts they will be by fall.

In a corner of the cemetery I hadn’t visited before, I saw a flat headstone almost entirely covered with dried, mown grass, thrown over the stone by years of ride-on mowers. I could just make out the flower decoration.

I sat down and tried to brush the grass off so I could read the stone, but it had been there for a long time and was stubbornly stuck. I tried rubbing, but my fingers got sore.

I found a Fir cone and used it as a scrubber to loosen the layer of grass, bit by bit. Scrubbing, blowing, and tugging at the overgrown grass, I worked up quite a sweat as I uncovered letter after letter.

“Acred totheme….” read part of the top line. What language was this? I needed to know more! I kept going, scrubbing and sweating and wishing I had worn a hat.

Finally I had uncovered it all.

“Sacred to the memory of John Peabody

Born Nov. 9, 1846

Died Jan. 2, 1877

Aged 30 yrs 1 mo & 24 dy

Erected by his brother

Wm. Peabody”

No mysterious foreign language, just a modest memorial to a young man by his brother. I haven’t been able to find anything about them in the local papers of the time, which means they weren’t rich or powerful, just pioneers like thousands of others who came to Portland, lived as best they could, and died young.

I walked home, as I always do from Lone Fir, thinking about life, how we live it, and what we leave behind.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Dear Liza,

You know I love playing pinball! I played in college, then when your Daddy David was a little boy, and now here in Portland. We have our favorite game, Monster Bash, at our local tavern called Belmont’s Inn. We even discovered a new game there called The Beatles! And you know I love them.

We had heard about Quarterworld before, but this past weekend at the Rose Festival Midway, we were reminded, and today Grandpa Nelson and I had a long walk there.

We headed off late, because the place doesn’t open until three o’clock, and admission just a dollar from three until six. On the way we got hungry, so we stopped at a new hamburger place for fries and milkshakes.

Next Level Burger is clean, cheerful….and VEGAN. We were half way through ordering before we figured it out, since we hadn’t read the GIANT signs on the wall. We tried “milk” shakes and real French fries. The shakes, though made with soy and whatever else ( they don’t post an ingredient list, even on their website) were rich and very tasty. The fries were okay, but had paprika on them! Grandpa Nelson let me eat them.

After finishing our unconventional treats, we headed east down Hawthorne Street. We stopped at Zack’s Shack, where we got some GOOD fries for poor Grandpa Nelson, then finished our walk …and entered Quarterworld.

The 1913 building was originally a vaudeville, then movie, theater. The ticket booth is just inside the door, just like it has been for 106 years. The carpet has been there … well, not a hundred years, but way too long…. it has that sour what-the -heck -has-been-spilled-on- this smell, which did not make a good impression.

We paid our dollar admission and were told there would be a Tesla Coil Show, warned that it reached 90 decibels, and were offered free ear plugs. I accepted them. 90 decibels is as loud as a home stereo can get, or a lawn mower. Too loud to be enjoyable.

There were over 30 games in the largest room, old pinball and newer video games. I played The Beatles game, and then Bullwinkle, after Grandpa Nelson had a chance at it. Both were fun, fast, had good long play times, and lots of fun audio and eye candy.

Then came the Show. In a caged-off area was a Tesla coil ( a huge electric conductor) which sparked impressively while playing EXTREMELY loud music…the theme from The Muppet Show, Indigo Girls’ songs…. but I couldn’t stay. Even with the plugs and my fingers in my ears, it was painful.

I went exploring. Across the hall (and away from the noise) I found a smaller room with more games, a bar, and some interesting art on the walls.

In the hall on the way out, I decided to try an old friend, PacMan. My fifty cents bought me about 15 seconds of joy, then my little Blinky died and I was done.

We were both done. The noise from the Tesla Coil had rattled Grandpa Nelson’s nerves, so we walked up to a quiet street and headed home for a restful afternoon. Now that I have experienced Quarterworld, I don’t need to go back. For a while, anyway.

On the way home we read this message from a neighborhood youngster…I couldn’t agree more.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Dear Liza,

Our long visit to the Midway got us tired out and thirsty, so we followed Grandpa Nelson’s direction through the old Chinatown to a place we had heard about for two years but never visited… Kells Irish Pub.

Opened in 1990 by Irish ex-pats Gerard and Lucille McAleese, the Portland Kells is a spin off of the original Kells in Seattle, Washington.

Because it is in a building built in the 1890s, Kells is reportedly haunted by several ghosts. One seems to be the spirit of a victim of the Shanghai tunnels, where drunken men were kidnapped and taken off to be crew for the old sailing ships.

Another ghost has been identified as David Campbell, a Fire Chief who died in 1911 working alongside his men in a building that exploded. He haunts the basement cigar room and is more likely to be seen by those with ties to firemen. There is also a piano that sometimes plays itself and furniture that moves.

We witnessed none of these things. What we did notice was friendly service, cozy decor, and the best bread pudding ever, to go with our Guinness and cider. There was even some Trad music (what you think of when you think of Irish music) and audience participation. It was a musical, slightly raucous respite from the Midway.

Once we were refreshed and it was properly dark outside, we went back to the Midway and found one of those benches, to sit and watch the fireworks. The combination of good company, colorful lights and fiery flowers blooming over the river made for a perfect end to a mighty fine day.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Dear Liza,

Rose Festival is here! Portland has been called The Rose City since 1888, and this city really loves the flowers. But Rose Festival is also about parades, rides, and fun.

Down by the Willamette, at Tom McCall Waterfront Park, a full carnival has been set up. Tiny rollercoasters for little kids, whirling vomit comets for teenagers, and benches for old farts like me to sit and watch.

It was fun being in the middle of all those kids, none of which were my responsibility. The joy of Not My Kid looms large.

We enjoyed all the silliness that comes with a midway…

A very macho dance contest…

Misspelled signs offering treats…

And rides too cute to believe.

But the highlight of the Midway was the tent sponsored by Quarterworld, where we found a pinball game inspired by the 1960s TV show BATMAN. It had the graphics, villains, music, and even clips from the show. It was discounted, too, with a mere quarter getting you a full game. It was classic, silly, fun.

When we had seen everything twice, we walked down the riverside for a while, enjoying the view of the Eastside from the Westside.

Then we went in search of a glass of something…..

Love,

Grandma Judy