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Playing it by ear
Live music scene continues to move forward...........................page 7
TABLE of
The ‘OG’ of social media........................page 12 4
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Picking out the pumpkins in The Patch..................page 16
Making music
On the cover:
This past summer saw two releases from local musicians......................page 9
Puppets will be walking around downtown Ellensburg this Halloween.
Looking Back: Ellensburg Puppetmasters........page 20
Questions of past linger today..........page 22 K V LIVING
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KITTITAS VALLEY
Letter from the Editor
O
nce again we have arrived at what is arguably Kittitas County’s best season — fall. The weather has been just about perfect (no smoke) and life, as we know it, is shuffling back to normal. There have been fall football games and trips to the pumpkin patch and this weekend a Halloween that should see more costumed kids out and about. In other words, there are plenty of reasons to celebrate as fall segues into the holiday. This edition of Kittitas Valley Living will feature a look at what some of our local musicians are up to, a feature on a group that maintains the Ham radio network in the county, a visit to a pumpkin patch and a puppet lab and well as some advice from 1921 that shows that some things never change. Wherever you find yourself this fall, enjoy what Kittitas County has to offer. — Michael Gallagher, managing editor
Q4 | 2021
Editor: Michael Gallagher Writers: Jack Belcher, Karl Holappa, Rodney Harwood Photos by: Jack Belcher, Rodney Harwood, Karl Holappa Designer: Stan Eichwald Publication of the Daily Record 401 N. Main St. Ellensburg WA 98926 509-925-1414 To submit a story idea or upcoming event, email newsroom@kvnews.com. For information about advertising, email: advertising@kvnews.com. www.dailyrecordnews.com
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Ellensburg band Cobrahawk had COVID impact its plans to tour, but the band was able to play some live shows this summer, including a show at the Seasons Performance Hall in Yakima.
Playing it by ear
Live music scene continues to move forward
By RODNEY HARWOOD staff writer usic venues around the Kittitas Valley are going to take a page from the musician’s songbook and play it by ear this fall. Cornerstone Pie had a regular schedule of music out back on the band shell patio all summer, but is expected to scale it back as the fall
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weather moves things inside. It’s the same with the Pretty Fair Beer location in the 402 Building on Pearl with just special occasions. The Gard Vintners will continue with its first and third Friday entertainment schedule through the first of the year and The Mule will push on through December with regular music as well. Summer marked the return of live music around the Kittitas Valley with
the Olson Brothers providing the Fourth of July entertainment in Kittitas and a show of force from the locals out at the wineries and various venues around town. But the resurgence of the delta variant and the idea of moving the stage indoors has been met with mixed emotions. It’s not like the COVID-19 pandemic has ever gone away. The continued on next page K V LIVING
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Ellensburg singer Mel Peterson, seen here performing on the roof of the Windrow Hotel this summer, is scheduled to perform a Christmas show at The Mule in Ellensburg. continued from previous page
death toll in the United States reached 700,000. Healthcare professionals are overrun with new cases every day. Back in September, Rockin’ the Arena headliner David Lee Murphy canceled his Ellensburg Rodeo performance because he contracted COVID-19. The Zac Brown Band just canceled shows on “The Comeback Tour” after the lead singer tested positive. So, play it by ear has taken on a new meaning as the music scene shifts indoors throughout the fall and winter. “I have chosen not to do live music. As a performer, you have a little bit more control over your space whether its outside or with a barrier of some kind around the stage,” singer/songwriter Jan Jaffe said. “But venues don’t 8
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have as much control of the environment. “I have some transition in my life with kids going back to school and opening the Make Music Ellensburg (school). So, I’m just not going to play for a while.” The Mule owner Sarah Beauchamp said they will continue to offer live music at the venue on Fourth Avenue, but they will enforce the mask mandate and state regulations, she said. “It’s a Catch 22. But we are asking people to wear their masks when they are not drinking or moving around the bar. We are enforcing it and following the state guidelines,” Beauchamp said. “We’re taking extra precautions with the hand sanitizers and extra cleaning. “We’re not running away, but we are
just asking people to be smart. We’ll have shows throughout October and November with a special Christmas with Mel Peterson in December.” The Gard Vintners on Pearl Street has also scheduled live music every other Friday, which includes the First Friday Art Walk and the 15th of every month, manager Riley Newman said. “We make sure every table is cleaned before and after each customer sits down, following all the regulations,” he said. “We have a very large space to spread out. We plan to continue hosting live music through the first of the year. “All our staff is wearing masks and we encourage our customers to wear them.” Local singer/songwriter Billy Maguire was the Gard Vintner entertainer
Ellensburg musician Billy Maguire did perform live this summer, but with the spread of the delta COVID variant has cut back this fall.
for the October First Friday Art Walk, but Billy Mac said he’s backing off his live schedule as a health precaution. “It’s falling off for me. But for other people, it seems to still be happening,” said Maguire, who opened for the Dusty 45s for the Hoedown in Downtown during rodeo week. “I’m not reaching out. I’m fine with staying home, writing more and practicing more. “It makes sense for venues not to bring people inside. I’d be OK if they’d just mask up. But I can’t mask up and still sing and play the harmonica. So, I’m fine with not playing for a while.” The Cornerstone Pie schedule is on hold for the time being as well, manager Jack Drennen said. In the pre-
continued on page 11
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Making music
Kittitas County musicians continued to work on their craft, even during COVID-19 closures and limitations on music venues. This past summer saw two releases from local musicians.
Alison Bachero: EP “It Ain’t Love” Banchero is a 2021 Central Washington University graduate who earned the university’s Scholar of the Year award for creative expression. She released her single, “It Ain’t Love” in August, followed by the release on the four-song EP in late September. Her songs are like a self-contained universe with its own cast of characters and conflicts, she said. “I want it palpable for the average listener, because music is made to be enjoyed. It’s not meant to be overly lofty that only musicians can understand,” she said. “No one likes that.”
Grady Fortier: “Royalty”
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The Ellensburg High School junior released his first professional pop song, “Royalty,” on musical platforms iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube and others. “I wrote this song in May of 2019 about the time that COVID hit Ellensburg and everything shut down,” Fortier said. “I put down the instrumental tracks sitting on my bedroom floor in my room. Then started working on the lyrics later.” Fortier received assistance in producing the track from Jon and Becky Griswold of Griswold’s Stupid Rooster Studio. “He’s a really talented kid,” Jon Griswold said. “He has an absolutely incredible ear. I’ve been doing this for a lot of years. He hears something in the mix that I didn’t even pick up. He was right every time.” Fortier has other works in the mix, but “Royalty” is now available on all the music platforms.
continued from page 9
pandemic world, the local band shell had live music every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The venue abbreviated that summer schedule with regular gigs. But with the end of summer, there were concerns of shifting the music inside. “We’re just taking it easy right now and see how the next couple of months go. We’ll reevaluate later,” Drennen said. “The summer schedule was spectacular. We got almost all of our concerts in with just a couple of cancelations due to weather. “It was awesome to have everyone back and musicians back on the stage. We’re excited for next summer. Right now, we’re just seeing how the COVID situation goes.” Classic rock band Chuck Boom ushered in the summer schedule at the Cornerstone Pie and music fans were so ready. Guitarist Al Kaatz said the band is reevaluating its live schedule. They have a couple of dates booked in Roslyn, then they’ll see how it goes. “We had this big spike with this delta stuff right after the summer,” Kaatz said. “2020 was really awful, so it was nice to play again. We’re just going to play it by ear. We’ve already turned a couple of things down. “I went over to Seattle to play couple of gigs this summer. The last one I played everybody in the band had to have proof of vaccination, wear a mask and the crowd was the same. So, we’ll play the Roslyn gigs and see what happens.” One of Central Washington’s most acclaimed bands Cobrahawk released a music video of one of the new songs, “Get on Your Knees” with the new album “Excuses Excuses” last Halloween. Drummer Nat Nickel said they’ve been working hard trying to support the new release, but the pandemic disrupted the CD party blowout and West Coast tour. “Everything’s just been up in the air,” he said. “This time of year, we haven’t really been seeking out any shows. We did some streaming. We had a really big one with the Seasons Performance Hall in Yakima, which was nice. “It seems like we’re walking a fine line. We’re still trying to do something, yet trying to be careful. We’re just at a place where we’re taking the right precautions and protect ourselves, because there are certain elements that are out of our control.” Playing it by ear takes on a whole new meaning as musicians and venues try to make it happen and keep it safe heading into the new year.
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Volunteers with the Kittitas County Amateur Radio Communications Service man the mobile command unit, otherwise known as the ‘Hambulance’ at the Teanaway Country 100 race.
The ‘OG’ of social media Dedicated group maintains ham radio system
KARL HOLAPPA staff writer
I
t is a hobby that spans generations, and it is still alive and well in Kittitas County. The Kittitas County Amateur Radio Communications Service has approximately 35 active members who span both Upper and Lower Counties, and in recent years they have taken the hobby to a level that serves the community in ways that other technologies don’t have the ability to do. This summer, members
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of the club set up relay stations along the courses of two mountain races that cross through the county in order to create a communications network in terrain that isn’t otherwise accessible by cellular networks. On a Saturday morning, a group of volunteers sat inside a modified ambulance near Salmon La Sac. The vehicle, nicknamed the ‘hambulance’, has been set up as a mobile command unit with all the necessary communication components. The vehicle is the brainchild of club member Randy Thomas, who sunk his own funds
into its creation. The volunteers were monitoring communications from the relay stations set up along the annual Teanaway Country 100 race, which takes competitors across some of the most remote terrain in the county. Thomas said the group has been handling the communications for the TC100 since it started and took over communications for the Cascade Crest 100 race this year for the first time, although he said they have participated in various aspects of race organization over the past few years. “Each of these races have aid
Members of the Kittitas County Amateur Radio Communications Service pose at their monthly meeting in Ellensburg.
stations that the race people man with their crews,” he said. “Because these are such remote races over rough terrain, radio communications is about the only way to get communications in and out of these aid stations. Most places, the cell phones don’t work, so at each of the aid stations we set up a mobile radio communications center. The ham operators man those stations during the race.” A mobile repeater is set up on a mountaintop for each race that relays the radio messages to the command center established for the event. “That enhances the communications between all our aid stations,” Thomas said. DEEP PASSIONS Thomas has been operating amateur radio since he was living in the Philippines as a child. As he became an adult and got into his career, he put his passion on hold until retirement. He revived his passion upon retiring and
moving to Kittitas County. “When I retired, I told myself I wanted to get back in ham radio,” he said. “I started getting more and more involved in emergency communications. When I moved over here, I saw that the operations over here were pretty much dead. There was a Sunday night check in, but there wasn’t really any preparation. I picked it up and started to get things reactivated.” Although the process took time, Thomas said the efforts to create relationships with law enforcement agencies have been successful over the past few years. The group now has a close relationship with Kittcom to provide backup communications in an event where cellular communications go down within the county. “We have our repeater up at Sky Meadows at the Kittcom emergency radio site,” Thomas said. “We are able to have our equipment in the Kittcom facility,
which gives us a really good background for our club and for the repeater.” Even though he is technically retired, Thomas has taken his passion to the point where he is employed by Kittcom to maintain its communication systems in the county. He said his major motivator to being so involved in the discipline is that it keeps his mind and body active while in retirement while giving back to the community he is a part of. “I’m almost 70 years old, and with everything that I do, I’m able to do a lot of exercise work that’s related to towers and everything,” he said. “Just the constant learning about different avenues of communications keeps my mind active, and I that’s important for anybody.” FAMILY ROOTS Many members within the club are not the first generation in their family to take up the hobby. Longtime club member continued on next page K V LIVING
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The mobile command unit for the Kittitas County Amateur Radio Communications Service, otherwise known as the ‘Hambulance’. continued from previous page
Steve Szombathy got started in the hobby as a teenager in 1976. Back then, the requirements were different in that people wanting to get licensed had to learn morse code. “I stumbled a bit on that part,” he said. “I passed it, and I have been doing it for 45 years.” Szombathy’s passion for electronics as a teenager helped shape his career ambitions, and he developed a career working in telecommunications for public utilities. “Even my mom asked me today if I was still doing that radio thing,” he said with a laugh. “There’s a bit of a stigma about the hobby, and people are sometimes surprised that there’s still ham radios out there. I always remind people that ham radio is the OG of social 14
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media.” The passion extends to Szombathy’s wife, who is also a licensed operator. Her parents were also operators, an element he said helped him out in the beginning. “When I started dating her, I was immediately accepted by her parents because I was a ham operator,” he said with a laugh. “I have since inherited my father-in-law’s station.” Club member Steve Douglas was also inspired to get involved in the hobby from family connections, as his father was an operator back in the 1940s. “He passed away when I was young, and I always wanted to get his callsign back,” Douglas said, referring to the identification given to operators when they receive their license. “I couldn’t because I could never get the darn morse code right. The rules changed, and the
code was eliminated from the licensing requirements, but his callsign had been reissued.” Douglas said reissuing callsigns was a common practice in the 1950s and 60s, and said he caught wind about four years ago that the person who had the callsign chose not to renew it. When it became available for reissue Douglas attained his license and applied for the callsign. “It felt great to get it,” he said. “It felt like I was able to complete a childhood desire.” For those interested in trying the hobby, Douglas said there are various levels of licensing that graduate in difficulty. On the equipment side, people can start with a device as simple as a modified walkie talkie for less than $100, ranging up to complex setups that cost thousands of dollars.
Volunteers with the Kittitas County Amateur Radio Communications Service man the mobile command unit, otherwise known as the ‘Hambulance’ at the Teanaway Country 100 race.
Douglas said another incredibly helpful aspect of getting into the hobby is becoming acquainted with others who share your passion in your community. In his case, he was able to find secondhand equipment through the local club, as well as find his niche in the passion. “They become your deep well of information and guidance,” he said. “Oftentimes you come across a problem, and then you go to a club meeting, and someone has the answer.” Although he is still relatively new at the craft, Douglas said one of his favorite parts of operating amateur radio is the ability to reach out and talk to people all over the world with the radio. Although the internet has removed some of the novelty of that concept, he said the romance of being able to use simple radio waves to connect to another human being on the planet is something that can never be replaced by a mobile phone. “I’ve talked to people in Japan, people in Slovakia,” he said. “I’ve talked with people all across the country. I enjoy just having a nice conversation with somebody over radio waves. You hear their voice, you hear their inflections, and it’s not as stilted as having to type or text a cryptic response that is devoid of any real emotion.” Club member Gary LaHaie said he remembers telling his grandchildren about his first international conversation over radio with an individual in Spain. In response, he said they asked him why he would do that when there’s access to cellular technology. “I said who are you going to call in Spain,” he said. “You can get on the radio and look for people wanting to have a conversation. Your phone will work all over the world, but then who do you call? Where do you go where people are physically talking to each other?” For more information, interested individuals can join the Kittitas County Amateur Radio Group Facebook page. K V LIVING
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The Pulido family loads up it pumpkins at The Patch.
Picking out the pumpkins in The Patch BY JACK BELCHER staff writer
A
classic fall tradition is carving pumpkins. People can carve whatever they want into the pumpkin, and it’s a chance for people to show their friends and neighbors their artistic talent. The key to a good carving is a good pumpkin, and people can find pumpkins The Patch, formerly Huffman Farms. 16
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The U-Pick pumpkin farm has been operating in Ellensburg for just under a decade, and provides all the traditional pumpkin farm events including hay rides, a petting zoo and a corn maze. The fair also has two ambassadors in the two dogs who hang around, Quinn and Millie, who also serve as the kettle corn taste testers. However, there is a very strict policy stating to people not to bring their own dogs, as they can cause a lot of problems in the petting zoo and other farm continued on next page
Joan Pulido finds his pumpkin at The Patch.
The Davies family. Miranda and Taylor (mom and dad), daughter Avery, Chance (red hood), Calvin (tie dye), James (camo) pick out pumpkins at The Patch. The unofficial rule for the family was if you want to take the pumpkin home, you have to be able to lift it into the wheelbarrow. KK VV LLIIVVIIN NG G
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Margot (age 4), Gunner (age 7) and their dad Scott race rubber ducks at The Patch. continued from previous page
systems. Hillary Jensen said she used to be a general manager in a winery, but was laid off from the position in 2012. She owned a piece of land, but there was nothing on it, so she decided to start her own pumpkin patch. “It was really random, I had never grown a pumpkin in my life,” Jensen said. 18 18
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Jensen said she loved being outdoors, and loved making the lifestyle change from being in business to working outside. It has been a complete shift for her, and she finds the current job to be much more rewarding. “It’s fun, anytime people think pumpkins and fall, it’s fun. They come here to make memories, and I think that’s the part that’s really cool,” Jensen said. “The people who
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come here want the experience to come with it. It’s not just about the pumpkins it’s about the experience that comes with us, and across the farm that is our benchmark, we want you to have an experience.” The Patch also offers farm goods, kettle corn, pulled pork sandwiches with homemade BBQ sauce, rubber duck races, tricycle races and more. At the petting zoo, people can find donkeys, llamas and cows. The corn maze is 2 1/2 acres with the corn about 10 feet tall. Jensen said the weather made it challenging to get the corn they way the wanted, but they were able to push through and get it to grow. The pumpkins themselves come in a wide variety of types and sizes. This gives people options to pick the pumpkins they want and will suit their carving best.
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Brian Kusser, founder of the Blue Bear Puppet Lab, holds up one of the puppet heads at the lab’s Ellensburg workshop.
Ellensburg Puppetmasters
Creative creations of Blue Bear Puppet Lab take to the streets BY JACK BELCHER staff writer Puppets will be walking around downtown Ellensburg this Halloween. The puppets are individually handcrafted, and are large enough to be worn as a costume. The puppets are created by the local artists from the Blue Bear Puppet Lab, who work to provide the community with original characters and costumes. “One of the rules for the work that 20
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we do here, is that every image that is made that will be brought out into the community is an original one,” said founder Brian Kusser. “When we have an entire world of corporations, where almost every image that you see is one that somebody is making money off of… so much of a person’s creativity is manufactured and sold to you, and we want to represent a creativity that is more homegrown, something you can only see in your hometown, and present the idea that creativity can exist outside
of corporations.” The puppet lab is located in Ellensburg, and there is a small warehouse full of new and old creations. These puppets are mostly made from papermache although there are some exceptions for robots and giant skeletons, and while many of the puppets are worn as costumes, there are some go beyond and can reach up to 17 feet tall. The puppets have participated in Ellensburg events before, most notably
Some of the creations stored at the Blue Bear Puppet Lab in Ellensburg.
during the Buskers of the Burg, where they have been the main focus of the parade for the last decade. This year, the puppets will be a part of Halloween, making the night more entertaining for everybody. “We are going to go out during the trick-or-treat event that they have for the kids, and we are just going to bring some of the scarier giant puppets out,” Kusser said. The puppets can be quite scary either intentionally or not, but they are all designed and created with care. The artists don’t set out to scare people, but to make things fun and memorable, admittedly this has been done by handing small children human heads, while dressed as a 7-foot-tall wolf. The artists who design, create and
wear the puppets are unpaid volunteers, who participate just for the fun of it. They are unpaid and enjoy showing their creations to the community. “The interactions with the public are so much fun,” said Treasurer Gayle Force. “People don’t know who it is (under the costume), and they, especially in Ellensburg, try to guess. Being able to interact with people as not yourself, and then you get the reviews. People will talk about it, and you’ll hear about it from them.” Kusser said people will come up to him after a parade and tell him he should have seen the puppets at the parade. They will tell him about puppets he created that horrified or delighted them. The puppets change over time, with
people working and evolving them over the years. Kusser said it’s not uncommon to leave for the night, only to come back and find a character has completely changed in the morning, because someone else has been working on it. The materials are funded through sponsor and donors, and Kusser and Force consider themselves to be “professional dumpster divers,” with the permission of whoever owns the dumpster. The only rules when it comes to building the puppets are it has to be original, no motor vehicles, no advertising and no printed words (most of the time). Otherwise the artists can do whatever they want. Some of their characters speak, others have props and some have multiple parts. K V LIVING
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Looking Back:
from other readers of your column on this — which is one of the biggest problems in our present day life. — Mrs. J.B.H.
Questions of past linger today
What were the problems faced by Ellensburg residents in 1921? How were they resolved? Well, for some, the Ask Me column in the Daily Record was where they turned. The following are some questions and answers published in the October 1921 issues of the Daily Record. Dear Ask Me: This is just a comment on our youthful generation, but I couldn’t resist the temptation. Even newspapers are now taking up the situation in coast cities and are trying to put a stamp on the pleasure hunting that goes on in the high schools. All over there is the cry that youth is being ruined by jazz, vaudeville, by riotous living. They seem to have no conventions at all — dancing as they do until all hours of the night, caring for nothing except pleasure. Our girls wear
the least garments they can with any propriety appear, and our young sons tolerate it and want more. As for morals, nothing in this day and age seems forbidden to be discussed in the presence of both sexes. Daughters go the way they will, regardless of parents, and sons the same careless way. This situation is deplorable in my mind and I can see nothing ahead except utter decay. Young children — girls of 16 — as as blasé as their mothers of 40 when they should be thinking of the wholesome good things in life that count. I wonder, Ask Me, what our age will come to? I certainly would like to see comments
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Dear Mrs. J.B.H.: If other readers care to comment on Mrs. J.B.H.’s letter, their letters will be printed here. It certainly is a mooted question of the day — our younger generation — and perhaps Mrs. J.B.H. has exaggerated it more than it should be but a great many of her remarks are true. The youth of the nation is surely more blasé than ever before. What do you suppose causes this? Dear Ask Me: I am a girl of fourteen years old. How would you advise me to fix my hair? I like ear puffs but Mother doesn’t approve of them. Most of my girl friends have ear puffs. How long should my dresses be? How old does a person have to be before he can drive a car? Can you drive at 14 if an older person is with you? — Fourteen Dear Fourteen: It seems to me that a girl fourteen should wear her hair down her back still. This is especially attractive if she has curly hair. It can be arranged straight back from the forehead and drawn at the back of the head with a narrow long curved comb. Fixed in three curls with two over the front should this is a very pretty way to do the hair. Then if the hair is not straight, it can be combed back from the face and can be puffed slightly at the ears, though not in exaggerated puffs and can be fastened at the neck with a ribbon or some sort of fastener and let it hang down. A good many girls at fourteen are bobbing their hair. Your dresses can be anywhere from 10 to 12 inches from the ground. It is unlawful to drive a car under 15 except when the driver is accompanied by their parent or guardian. It also will be tolerated if recommended by the superintendent of schools for the purpose of getting too and from school. This last permission must be obtained from parents and guardians also.
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