ISLAND LIVING Whidbey
Saturday, July 27 , 2013 • The Whidbey News-Times
www.whidbeynewstimes.com
Page A11
Advice for the road: Don’t target flaggers with your frustrations FAITHFUL LIVING By JOAN BAY KLOPE
Photos by Ron Newberry/Whidbey News-Times
The elephant replica at Dugualla Bay Farms has been a popular attraction for those driving along Highway 20 on North Whidbey.
Roadside attraction New resident at Dugualla Bay Farms draws questions, visits from gawkers By RON NEWBERRY Staff reporter
No matter how creative Lynn Backus is with her chainsaw art, she can’t sell a piece of her work without people seeing it. With so many cars whizzing by her workplace at the roadside store at Dugualla Bay Farms, Backus got an idea and acted on it. Then she had to sell the idea to Bob Hulbert, owner of Dugualla Bay Farms. “I have an elephant,” she told him. “Is it OK if I can bring it down here?” “He said, ‘You’ve got a what?’” For about a month now, travelers along State Highway 20 in North Whidbey haven’t been able to drive by the store without spotting the farm’s massive new inhabitant. Visitors stop and snap pictures beside the elephant, which is made of fiberglass and rebar and weighs roughly 1,000 pounds, according to Backus. Some jump in their cars and leave while others wander over to the stand, which sells fresh produce, ice cream and other items, including Backus’ artwork. It was this trickle-over effect that stirred up the idea of the
elephant in the first place. “My idea was for it to be an attraction and possibly grow from that,” Backus said. The plan worked, according to Emily Meagher, who works in the store and can’t count the times she’s been asked about the elephant. The most common question: “How did the elephant from South Whidbey get there?” The elephant is a holdover from a Greenbank business that used to sell life-size replicas of wild animals, including lions, tigers, bears and giraffes, as well as replicas of famous people such as Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. After the store closed, the elephant sat on property along Highway 20 in Freeland for about three years until Backus arranged for the relocation in June. Backus said she traded some of her wood carvings for the elephant in a deal with friends who own the property where it stood. It was disassembled, loaded on a flatbed trailer and sent on its way to North Whidbey. “It became a landmark,” said Backus, who comes from a well-known Whidbey Island family of woodcarvers. “It actually was sitting there for sale, but there was no ‘for
Emily Meagher says she can’t count how many times she gets asked about the origin of the elephant at Dugualla Bay Farms.
A missing tusk shows how the elephant has been loved a little too much by children. sale’ sign on it.” Backus said she loves the elephant. And she’s learned that children do too, sometimes a little too much. Since its arrival in Oak Harbor, the tusks were broken off by kids hanging from them, so the elephant has been roped off for everyone’s protection.
Backus has big plans to spruce up the elephant and create more animals from wood, adding to the roadside attraction. “I might even make a baby elephant,” she said. The elephant is so far nameless, but she plans to place a jar beside it, asking the public to put their suggestions. Dugualla Bay Farms is approaching its busiest time of the year, gearing up for its pumpkin patch and corn mazes in the fall. A woodcarving show and auction, benefiting the Wounded Warrior project, is set for Aug. 9-11. Backus hopes the elephant might be joined by a friend or two by then. Not that it’s lacking attention from visitors. “They think it’s pretty cool,” Meagher said.
As I sat in my car this week watching a flagger stop a line of cars so the needed road construction could progress, I truly understood how tough their job is. That’s because for one summer I, too, was a flagger. The lessons I learned, there on the side of the road, have stayed with me all these years. For you to fully understand the impact of my roadside experiences, I must provide some background information about myself. During my childhood, I was regularly reminded how happy my parents were that I was born. I was protected and cherished. I was also expected to live with courage and honor, to work hard and be helpful to the people in my life. And like many late Baby Boomers, my parents learned from their Depression-era parents that there was honor in serving your country, working hard, encouraging your children to live bigger than the generation before, and behaving with respect. I thought about all of this one afternoon, now years ago, when I set down my flagging sign, momentarily took off my hard hat, and asked God to repair my bruised psyche. Of the many hats I had chosen to wear in my life, wearing that bright yellow hard hat proved the most protective, yet took me to places of extreme vulnerability. Hard hats and iridescent vests are designed to bring workers into clear view of approaching drivers, but the more time I spent flagging the more I mentally envisioned the outfit as a shield, deflecting the venom, molten language, and unreasonable frustration that occasionally poured out onto me when I asked hurried drivers to slow down, stop briefly, or heaven forbid — take an alternate route. That summer our flagging team was regularly abused by drivers as we did our best to safely control traffic around construction sites. To my great surprise and sorrow, this included extreme verbal harassment and witnessing incredibly poor behaviors on a daily basis. While I felt sickened and disillusioned, I also got a surprising lesson from God: when your personal reserves are gone — worn down by financial stress, ill health, broken relationships, unfulfilled dreams, isolation, and little hope — you are more likely to behave badly when irritated by a sudden inconvenience that changes your plans. Author and therapist Michael Gurian in his book, “The Good Son: Shaping the Moral Development of Our boys and Young Men,” speaks specifically to boys when he says that a dangerous and exponentially growing number of our boys live in confusion, ethical numbness, moral distraction, and spiritual emptiness.” And lest you think I am unfairly picking on men, I witnessed enough bad behavior from women to apply Gurian’s assertions to a more general understanding. As a society, we will not generously or graciously respond to interruptions, inconveniences and personal sacrifices without a foundation of morality and faith that works to balance and override our immediate irritations. Without values, we lose the socially accepted notion that it’s simply not right to be rude. The weather is amazing and our roads are under construction. Let’s all match the beauty that surrounds us and give a flagger or anyone working on our roads appreciation and respect.