Field Guide to the Lower Columbia River in Poems and Pictures By Robert Michael Pyle and Judy VanderMaten.
Rex Ziak’s edited and annotated edition of Franchére’s 1820 journal, The First American Settlement on the Pacific.
FOR YOURSELF OR FOR A FRIEND!
11 issues $55
In three editions:
• Boxed Signature Edition, with color $50
• Collectors Edition, with color $35
Rex Ziak • $29.95
WORDS
AND WOOD
Pacific Northwest Woodcuts and Haiku by Debby Neely •Boxed, Gift Edition with tasseled bookmark $35
OF ART
• Trade paperback B/W $25 DISPATCHES FROM THE DISCOVERY TRAIL
•220 historic photos •Boxed, signed. $50. IN FULL VIEW
Southwest Washington author and explorer Rex Ziak revolutionized historical scholarship by documenting minute-by-minute the Corps’ dangerous days at the mouth of the Columbia.
COLLECTORS CLUB / BOOK MAIL ORDER FORM
BOOKS: A PERFECT GIFT
A Layman’s Lewis & Clark by Michael O. Perry.
•BW Edition $35
The Bunker Hill Cemetery Tour in September utterly charmed me. Produced by the Stella and Cowlitz County Historical Societies — and their second such “living history” event — this will continue, I hope, as an annual event. Reminding me of Thorton Wilder’s play, “Our Town,” the Bunker Hill tour — clever, polished, and touching — sweetly celebrated our shared local roots. Bravo!
I noticed the Clatsop County Historical Society is doing something similar, “Talking Tombstones” in Warrenton, Oregon, on Oct. 26. This would make an interesting Sunday outing (s ee details, page 35). And besides skiing (see People+Place, page 19), there are many other fun options ahead, too.
It’s fully Fall and performing arts seasons are underway, in spades I am amazed by how many local musical and theatrical events are scheduled over the next few weeks. Check out the calendar listings (pages 36-37) and ads sprinkled throughout this issue for the full scoop, pick your favorites, and mark your calendars.
Just be sure to keep the first half of the day free on Nov. 8, for the chance to put your money where my mouth is, so to speak.
And don’t worry, it’s only a $25 theatre ticket.
Publisher/Editor:
Columnists and contributors:
Hal Calbom
Nancy Chennault
Alice Dietz
Joseph Govednik
Tom Larsen
Bob Park
Michael
Ned Piper
Dan Polacek
Robert Michael Pyle
Marc Roland
Alan Rose
Greg Smith
Andre Stepankowsky
Debra Tweedy
Judy VanderMaten
Editorial/Proofreading
Advertising
P.O.
Sue’s Views
Let’s go to the opera!
Regular readers may recall my writing enthusiastically last summer about The Met Live in HD opera series, broadcast from New York to select cinemas. The 2025-2026 season opens with Puccini’s La Bohéme at 10am on Saturday, Nov. 8.
The Met’s website says it all:
La Bohème, the passionate, timeless, and indelible story of love among young artists in Paris, can stake its claim as the world’s most popular opera. It has a marvelous ability to make a powerful first impression and to reveal unsuspected treasures after dozens of hearings. At first glance, La Bohème is the definitive depiction of the joys and sorrows of love and loss; on closer inspection, it reveals the deep emotional significance hidden in the trivial things — a bonnet, an old overcoat, a chance meeting with a neighbor — that make up our everyday lives.
If you go: Look around for fellow CRR readers. If you happen to see me , say “Hello” and join me for champagne afterwards — CRR’s treat! In any case, please email up to 125 words describing your impressions/
•Century
experience by Nov. 15 to publisher@ crreader.com; watch for a follow-up in the Nov. 25 Holiday issue. Maybe you’ll not only enjoy your opera experience, but even help spark a movement.
Wishing you a beautiful Fall!
Ski instructor Tony Fardell amidst the merchandise at The Pro Shop in Longview.
Scene from La Bohéme courteSy of metropoLitan opera
About Bob Park
I have read with great interest two articles by Bob Park and Ned Piper’s September column about growing up with Bob Park.
I met Bob through my work with the Mark Morris High School Foundation and the “Opportunity Can’t Wait” fundraising campaign currently underway at Lower Columbia College. Once I met Bob, I knew we needed his input on the new vocational center being built on the LCC campus.
Bob met with LCC President Matt Seimears, Sheila Burgin of the LCC Foundation, and me, sharing his thoughts on the best way to encourage more young people to enter the trades, stressing the need for additional “soft skills” training in addition to traditional classes.
Bob’s an amazing guy. He has been big a supporter to local students considering a vocational education. We, as a community, are lucky he lives here.
Mark McCrady Longview Wash.
Mr. McCrady refers to a series of essays by Bob Park running since March 2025 under the heading “Our World in Words,” dealing with Park’s lessons and memories growing up in Longview. See page 13 .
Confessions of a Book Lover
I must confess I love books. I love reading almost as much as I love books, so it kind of works out. Those of you who love books know that there is no substitute for the crinkle of spine as you first open the tome, the feel of the crisp paper beneath your fingers as you turn the pages; yes, even the smell of books draws me to them.
And I completely judge books by their covers. I can’t resist a jaunty font or a glowing New York Times Review. If Reese Witherspoon [via her book club] tells me to buy it, I will. In my car, listening to NPR, and an author interview comes on — gotta pull over and make a note. It sounds so good. I must add it to my collection.
My collection. I’m not embarrassed, but I have more books than I will ever have time to read. Some caught my attention years ago and are now collecting dust on shelves. Some favorites I’ve kept just in case I want to read them again. They are like old friends that I can encounter after years, and time melts away as I peruse the pages once more.
But there comes a time, I think. A time to bid farewell to the “things” in our lives. But my books. That’s
different — how can I part with them? I don’t want them to end up in a landfill; They still have joy to spark. Is there a way to extend their lives?
It turns out there is a way to let our books have new lives. The Friends of the Longview Library accept book (and media) donations for their book sales. The money made at the sales goes to fund local library projects and events. And the books have yet another chance to find a reader and a home.
Book sales are typically in May, August (smaller sale at Squirrel Fest), and October. The Friends accept donations from 10am to 12-noon on Thursdays, or smaller donations can be put in Tom the Cat book drop on the first floor of the library during regular business hours.
Susan Donahue Longview, Wash.
Editor’s note: Susan Donahue is a retired high school teacher and currently volunteers with Friends of the Longview Library. See Book Sale ad, below.
BRAND NEW STORE
Lewis & Clark
DISPATCHES FROM THE DISCOVERY TRAIL
IShooting the Rapids
By Michael O. Perry
n October, 1805, after fighting their way up the Missouri River and across the Rocky Mountains, the Corps of Discovery must have been happy to float down the Snake River to present-day Pasco, Washington. Clark wrote the Columbia “river is remarkably clear and crouded with salmon in many places… Salmon may be seen at the depth of 15 or 20 feet.”
Hot Dog!
Thinking they were diseased, the men were afraid to eat dead, spawned-out salmon lying along the shore, so they purchased 40 dogs as they began their journey down the Columbia. More than 250 dogs would be eaten during the journey. Lewis wrote that he preferred dog meat to lean venison or elk, but Clark wrote, “I have not become reconciled to the taste of this animal.”
The abundant fish allowed for a dense population of Indians in permanent villages. It was a rare day that the Corps didn’t see settlements while floating down the Columbia. There were no trees as far as the eye could see, so they had to purchase firewood from the Indians.
On October 22nd, they reached Celilo Falls, where the river was funneled through a series of drops totaling 38 feet. Indians were hired to help portage the cargo around the
falls while the men rode their five dugout canoes down all but one of the drops. Shooting the rapids was a foolish thing to do, but Lewis and Clark were in a hurry to reach their goal and were reluctant to spend the time to portage around every rapid. There would be several more dangerous sections on the Columbia in the next 55 miles.
On October 24th they found nine miles of narrow channels with fast currents and eddies at The Dalles. Clark wrote, “at this place the water of this great river is compressed into a Chanel between two rocks not exceeding forty five yards wide and continues for a ¼ of a mile when it again widens… The whole of the Current of this great river must at all Stages pass thro’ this narrow chanel.” Clark was dismayed by “the horrid appearance of this agitated gut Swelling, boiling & whorling in every direction.”
There was no easy portage, so the nonswimmers walked along the shore while the rest of the men shot the rapids. The Indians were astonished and lined up to watch the crazy white men drown themselves, undoubtedly waiting for the chance to help themselves to their equipment after the canoes capsized. Amazingly, all five canoes made it through without serious incident.
… they reached Celilo Falls…
The Falls were the beginning of more than 50 river miles that also included the Short Narrows and the Long Narrows, which today we know jointly as The Dalles. This difficult passage through lava flows and columnar basalt ended with the Cascades of the Columbia. Moving quickly downstream in the autumn of 1805 — even though slowed by the portages — the Corps passed through this region approaching the Cascades of the Columbia in 13 days.
The Columbia River Plateau is formed by basalt flows, in present Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Retreating glaciers of the last Ice Age left an ice dam in trapping glacial melt water. This ice dam broke and re-formed as many as 40 times, releasing vast torrents of water westward with an estimated force 60 times that of the Amazon River.
While visiting the many Indian villages, the men were exposed to a new problem. Clark wrote, “The Flees which the party got on them at the upper & great falls, are very troublesom and dificuelt to get rid of, particularly as the me[n] have not a Change of Clothes to put on, they Strip off their Clothes and kill the flees, dureing which time they remain neckid.”
The end is near
After passing Celilo Falls, Clark observed what he described as sea otters and seals. Since sea otters never enter fresh water, they were undoubtedly seals and sea lions. As the scorched, barren hills transitioned into moist, green tree- covered mountains, it began raining. Forty five miles below The Dalles, they reached “The
cont page 7
five yearS ago, we introduced a reviSed verSion of Michael Perry’s popular series which began with CRR’s April 15, 2004 inaugural issue and was reprised three times and then expanded In the new book, Dispatches from the Discovery Trail, edited by Hal Calbom and published by CRRPress. It includes an in-depth author interview and new illustrations and commentary.
Native Americans fishing at Celilo Falls prior to the Falls being flooded in 1956 after construction of The Dalles Dam. U.S. Army CorpS of EnginEErS
.... happy to float down ...
At first it wasn’t exactly easy street. They weren’t used to making dugout canoes. Their axes were crude for making boats. If the Indians hadn’t shown them how it would have taken longer to come up with something resembling a boat. The hull was not shaped like anything special. It was just a log floating down the river with men in it and a bunch of baggage. If it got a little bit off kilter, it turned over. They had a lot of trouble even getting down the Clearwater, until they got to the Snake. The boats would get hung up on sand bars and gravel bars and get cross-wise and lose their cargo or lose the men. One of the most amazing things to me was when they chose the people to go on this expedition, they didn’t choose people who could swim. That was not a criteria. Half of them couldn’t.”
from page 5
Great Shute,” now called Cascade Locks. After portaging around the cascades on November 2nd, they passed “Beaten Rock” (today’s Beacon Rock) and camped at Rooster Rock. Clark noticed 9-inch tidal effects on the river at Rooster Rock, and 18 inches the next day.
On November 3rd, they passed the “Quick Sand River” (today’s Sandy River) and camped on Government Island where I-205 now crosses the Columbia. Joseph
next
Whitehouse wrote, “we met Several Indians in a canoe who were going up the River. They Signed to us that in two Sleeps we Should See the Ocean vessels and white people.”
On November 4th, they saw an Indian village on Sauvie Island, near St. Helens, with 25 houses built of straw and covered with bark. Clark noted he saw increasing amounts of “uriopian” goods: guns, powder flasks, copper and brass trinkets, and tailored clothes. John Ordway wrote, “one of the Indians could talk & Speak Some words English such as curseing” picked up from encounters with sailors. They camped near today’s Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge where Clark wrote, “I could not sleep for the noise kept by the Swans, geese… ducks.” He added, “they were emensely numerous and their noise horrid.”
Urban sprawl – and an urban legend
On November 5th, they passed 14 wooden plank houses at the Cathlapotle village near Ridgefield, and another Cathlapotle village at the mouth of the Lewis River. Clark wrote the Lower Columbia region was “certainly a fertill and handsom valley, at this time crowded with Indians.” At the mouth of the Kalama River was an abandoned village. Capt. Clark called it “Cath-la-haws Creek” while Joseph Whitehouse wrote, “we continued on & passed the Mouth of a River called by the Natives Calamus.” In 1811, Gabriel Franchere wrote in his journal that the river and village was called “Thlakalamah.” In the Cathlamet dialect of the Chinook language ,“Kalama” was the Indian word meaning “beautiful.” Today, many people mistakenly believe the Kalama River was named after John Kalama, a fullblooded Hawaiian who lived near the mouth of the river and worked for the Hudson Bay Company. However, since John didn’t arrive until 1837, there is no connection. The Corps camped between Prescott and Rainier on November 5th, near where the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant was located.
On November 6th, the men saw abandoned villages on both sides of the Columbia near the mouth of the Cowlitz River. Clark wrote, “The Coweliskee river is 150 yards wide, is deep, from Indian information navigable a very considerable distance for canoes.” Lewis later said the principal village of the Skillutes was on the lower side of the Cowlitz a few miles from its entrance into the Columbia. They passed two lodges on the Oregon side across from Mt. Coffin, downstream from the present-day Lewis and Clark Bridge at Longview-Rainier. Clark described Mt. Coffin (named by Capt. George Vancouver’s 1792 expedition) as “a verry remarkable knob riseing from the edge of the water about 80 feet high” (it was actually 240 feet tall). They camped that night near Cape Horn, east of Cathlamet.
The next morning the fog was so thick they could not see across the river, but they set out with great hopes of soon arriving at the ocean. They passed four large houses near Cathlamet. The houses
This postcard, printed in 1913, looks upstream towards Pillar Rock, a basaltic column that extended from 50-foot deep water. Clark first saw the ocean from here, and wrote, ”a remarkable rock about 50 feet high and about 20 feet Diameter is situated opposite our Camp about ½ a mile from Shore.” In the late 19th century, the Army Corps of Engineers blasted the top off the rock in order to install a navigation beacon.
were raised off the ground, with beds four feet above the floor. They saw another seven houses at a village near Skamokawa, and when the fog lifted, they could hear the roar of the ocean.
Ocian in view! O! the joy
At last, on Nov. 7, 1805, near Pillar Rock (12 miles downriver from Skamokawa), Clark wrote, “we are in view of the opening of the ocian, which Creates great joy.” The men saw a magnificent
vista – the river had widened to about five miles and they could see that the sky met the water at the horizon where the Columbia flowed into the Pacific Ocean between Point Adams and Cape Disappointment. But they were still more than 20 miles from the actual coastline, and getting there was going to be a most miserable journey.
NOTES FROM MY LIVES
Dby Andre Stepankowsky
Beauty and ugliness often co-exist
uring a recent early morning drive home from Seattle, the dawn light made a silhouette of Mount Rainier. The planet Venus hung high above it in a deep blue sky, gleaming with the clarity of the purest diamond.
Then I remembered that Venus’s brilliance and reputation as “The Morning Star” is due in large part to the light-reflecting nature of toxic gases that envelop it. That sorry reality, though, failed to steal from the magnificence of the scene or the pleasure it gave while imprinting on my memory.
The week that Charlie Kirk was assassinated, I scrolled through Facebook, depressed by all the anger, accusations and chilling calls for reprisal. Then came a moment of salvation: I scrolled across a recording of Frederic Chopin’s ethereal and haunting “Nocturne in C sharp Minor.” Its beauty couldn’t mask the ugly realities of the news. But somehow it helped me cope and avoid depression.
John Keats wrote that “A thing of beauty is a joy forever” that brings “A bower quiet … and a sleep Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.”
Keats, an English Romantic poet, said this two centuries before you could find an AI-generated summary that says seeking beauty boosts selfesteem, enhances creativity, and inspires kindness.
I don’t think we look often enough for beauty in the life and landscapes around us. Our careers, obligations and troubles
trap us. It’s so easy to become depressed by fixating on the news of these strange, divided and troubled times.
That’s unhealthy and even dangerous. I suspect that those who resort to political assassinations or mass shootings are so consumed by their hatred that they never come up for air and appreciate the beauty around them.
Beauty is everywhere, including in ordinary things, waiting to be appreciated and absorbed. Beauty is more than just traditional artistic achievement and breathtaking scenery.
You can find it in the daring of a NASCAR driver or the force of a Cal Raleigh homer as much as you can experience it in the shape and aroma of an old rose. You can be enriched as much by a high school play as by a production on Broadway.
I speak from experience. As a musician, one of my most revealing moments was listening on my car radio to Ella Fitzgerald’s recording of “Good Morning Heartache.” The care she put into each word and note was exquisite. I hung on each syllable, as rapt as I could be while motoring down the freeway.
Sometimes you find beauty harbored next to heartbreak. That’s the case with my autistic son, Nicky. I often grieve that his language and social deficits rob him of the delight human life can bring. But he and people like him are so pure and innocent, only craving love, nourishment and simple pleasures. He’s a beautiful person who restores my belief that people are basically more good than evil.
For our own good we more often need to search for beauty, wherever it may lie. Then we need to tap in — and get drunk on it.
Award-winning journalist Andre Stepankowsky is a former reporter and editor for The Daily News in Longview. His Columbia River Reader columns spring from his many interests, including hiking, rose gardening, music, and woodworking. More of his writing can be found under “Lower Columbia Currents,” on substack.com.
DEAR MISS MANNERS: On our neighborhood app, one of my neighbors cautioned that two young men had recently knocked on her door. She could see them on the security camera and she did not know them. She thought them odd, but opened the door anyway.
Nothing bad happened, but she felt unsettled and brought the interaction to our community’s attention.
I commented that it was fine to ignore knocking and to not open your door to strangers, adding
By Judith Martin, Nicholas Ivor Martin and Jacobina Martin
that it is not even impolite. Another neighbor disagreed and said it was impolite. Please settle the question.
GENTLE READER: Safety -- and legality -- transcend etiquette’s social obligations. You do not need to be welcoming to someone who is robbing your house.
The fact that your neighbor was unsettled is enough evidence to affirm that she should not have opened the door. Trespassers of any kind need not be treated as guests, Miss Manners assures you. Even the police may not enter without a warrant.
DEAR MISS MANNERS: While traveling abroad on a group tour, I invited three travel companions to share a bottle of wine with me, and they agreed. None of us were teetotalers.
As the waiter poured for us, one lady refused the wine and ordered a soda. Was I obligated to pay for the soda? I did, but if she had decided on a cocktail instead of the wine, what would my obligation have been?
GENTLE READER: Obligation is a strong word, but it was a reasonable presumption that you were treating your companions to a round of drinks, not just that one particular bottle of wine. That your friend deviated from the plan is less of an assault on protocol than you make it out to be.
Paying the nominal cost for her soda — which she might have ordered for any number of reasons: a pending work call, say, or a propensity to headaches from that type of wine -— was the gracious thing to do. Getting her a cocktail, if she preferred, would have likewise been kind, although the added expense might have prompted her to offer to pay.
In either case, real or imagined, Miss Manners thinks the cost of accommodating your friend’s changed mind could hardly be greater than that of hurting the friendship and maintaining a grudge.
And she trusts that they will treat you for the next round.
DEAR MISS MANNERS: I received a wedding invitation from a good friend that began, “Mrs. Sallie Doe and the Late Mr. John Doe request the presence of your company at the marriage of their daughter.”
I was torn between amusement and pity. Assuming I could not attend, how would one direct regrets to the Dear Departed?
Now I’m wondering if the Dear Departed will be on hand to give the bride away -- which might be a compelling reason to attend. A penny for your thoughts?
GENTLE READER: That you should try very hard to suppress the amusement and go with the pity.
DEAR MISS MANNERS: I notice that alcohol has a role in many social invitations: “Would you care to join me for a glass of wine?”
I do enjoy wine, and have for many years, but I’ve decided to
Mount St. Helens Club
(E) - Easier: relatively flat ground (up to 5 miles and/or less than
(M) - Moderate: Longer, more elevation gain (over 5 miles and/or 500+ ft. e.g.) (S) - Strenuous: Long and/or elevation gain (over 8 miles and/or 1200+ ft. e.g.) Call leader to join outing or for more info. Non-members welcome. Driving distances are from Longview, Wash. (SS) – Snow Shoe (XC) – Cross Country Ski (K) – Kayak (B) – Bicycle RT - round trip e.g. - elevation gain
Oct 17 - Fri Indian Heaven/ Blue Lake Loop (M/S)
Drive 160 miles RT to the Thomas Lake TH. Hike an 8.4-mile lollipop loop past Thomas Lake along part of the old Cascade Crest Trail (Susan’s Meadow) to Junction Lake, along the PCT to Blue Lake, then return to parking lot via Thomas Lake Trail. A NW FOREST PASS or AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL PASS required for each vehicle. Limit: 12 hikers. Leader: Harry A. 360-280-4184
Oct 22 - Wed Castle Rock River Trail (E) Drive 30 miles RT Hike out and back 4+ miles paved with little e.g. follows the Cowlitz River. Climbing “The Rock” is optional. Leaders: Maureen B. 360-449-9488, Ingrid S. 408-890-0439.
Oct 29 - Wed Seaquest Park (E)
Drive 40 miles RT Hike 4 miles on boardwalk and thru the park. 200’ e.g. Leader: John R. 360-431-1122
Nov 1 - Sat Lake Sacajawea (E)
Walk 4 miles on flat ground around the whole lake or any loop/portion for shorter walk. NOTE: This walk is designed for super seniors and/or people with physical limitations at a slow pace. Leader: Susan S. 360-430-9914
Nov 1 - Sat Lewis River Falls (M)
Drive 160 miles RT Hike 7+ miles with 500’ e.g. along a riverbank trail and enjoy the fall colors and 3+ waterfalls. Leader: Pat R. 360-225-7232 or cell 360-560-9554
Nov 7 - Fri Fort Stevens State Park (E)
Drive 116 miles RT Hike 2.7 miles around Coffenbury Lake and then 2 miles out and back on the Russell Ridge Trail for a total of 4.7 miles total with 120’ e.g. AN OREGON DAY USE PASS IS REQUIRED FOR EACH VEHICLE OR A $10 FEE AT NORTH LAKE DAY-USE AREA. Leaders: Kim S. 360-431-5530, Belinda L-K. 360-430-9879
Nov 12 - Wed Lake Sacajawea (E) Walk a 4+ mile loop around the entire lake or walk any segment of the lake trail for a shorter distance. Leaders: Russ K. and Anne V. 951-285-6015
Nov 14 - Fri Lacamas Lake - Heritage Trail (M)
Drive 100 miles RT This is an easy 7.1 mile out and back hike with 203’ e.g. on a gravel trail with great views along Lacamas Lake. Leader: John M. 360-508-0878
Nov 19 - Wed Burnt Bridge Creek (west side) (E)
Drive 95 miles RT for a 4.5 mile and 200’ e.g. hike. Leader John R. 360-431-1122
Nov 22 - Sat Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary (M)
Drive 96 miles RT Hike 4.5 miles with 600’ e.g. Nice fall hike through large trees. Leader: Bruce M. 360-425-0256
Northwest Gardener
Guess who came to dinner . . . and stayed all winter?
Herbs in the House
As the new season brings shorter days and cooler temperatures we move indoors and somewhat reluctantly toward winter. The simple summer pleasure of pinching fragrant herbs from our deck or patio pots is drawing to a close. But wait! Autumn does not have to mean the end of clipping a snippet of French tarragon to garnish salmon or signal an end to muddling mint for a Mojito.
This is the perfect time to invite a selection of herbs to live with you for the winter. As your focus turns to fall many of the potted, edible foliage plants that you have nurtured all summer are adaptable to indoor living. The following tips will help make the “move in” effortless and cohabitation beneficial for all.
Herbs generally include three types of plants
1. Perennial varieties that live from year to year, such as rosemary and sage (photo below), will survive outdoors through most winters. They can be harvested even though they become dormant and although they will not continue to grow. Place them under an overhang and watch for severe cold temperatures (below 25 degrees) when you will bring them temporarily into a garage or indoors. Protect from soaking winter rains and water minimally when dry. Thyme plants are winter hardy but will produce more succulent, flavorful foliage with indoor temperatures. Keep the plants blossom free (photo, middle right). Candidates for indoor growing are Chives, French Tarragon, Mint, Oregano and/ or Marjoram, Lemon and English Thyme.
2 Biennial herbs include curled and Italian parsley. These plants will be vegetative the first year and then will flower and go to seed the next. Then the plant will die. If your plants have wanted to bloom this summer, the plant should be composted. Purchase fresh starts for bringing into the house this winter or wait until spring. Italian parsley is a candidate for indoor growing.
3. Annual plants only live one summer and often into fall. Popular basil will continue to produce aromatic, edible foliage if protected from frost. Basil will not survive long with the reduced lighting indoors. However, bring the last of the pots inside and they will provide a few more leaves for your favorite pesto for a short time. Cilantro, (coriander after it has gone to seed) is much more resistant to cold temperatures. However, to keep your crop of cilantro actively growing, sow seed every few weeks. Harvest by clipping the young plants with scissors to keep vegetative growth active (top photo) . When plants become old and woody you can compost these and move on to the next generation. Fresh cilantro at your fingertips for enchiladas and fresh salsa is a winter treat you don’t want to miss. Cilantro, Stevia, Lemon Grass, Scented Geraniums are candidates for indoor living.
WHERE TO PLACE
Choose a location that receives the brightest winter light possible. If the plants stretch toward the light, get spindly or no longer have rich foliage color, they are not getting enough light and you may have to find another spot for them. The plants will need to be watered occasionally, so make sure drips will not damage interior surfaces. A baker’s rack (top right photo) will maximize the number of containers and requires minimal square footage for display.
HOW TO GROW
Make sure the pots and foliage are clean and free from insects and disease before moving your herb collection indoors. Clean the pots with a mixture of 1 tablespoon bleach per 1 gallon of water. I like to mix in a little liquid dish soap as well. Rinse the foliage with clear water and then give them a misting of
“Safe Spray.” When the plants are dry, they can be moved indoors. Keep the Safe Spray on hand for any outbreak of injurious insects. Your house will be a haven for these uninvited guests as well. They will think they went to Scottsdale!
Water only as needed. If you can move them to the kitchen sink to give them a good drink at that time, it would be an excellent opportunity to check for disease and insects. Let the water run through and once they have quit draining, move them back to their window. Fertilize once a month with a liquid houseplant food.
A long sleepover
Maintaining a supply of unpretentious herbs through the winter can be a rewarding experience. Invite some to dinner and ask them to stay over. You will harvest savory, original seasonings to use in recipes throughout the long winter months.
Bon appétit!
Nancy Chennault and her husband, Jim, operated a landscaping business and independent nursery/garden center for 20+ years. She wrote CRR’s Northwest Gardener in CRR’s early years. After a hiatus, she re-joined CRR to reconnect us with some of her favorite gardening topics. Nancy is founder of “Castle Rock Blooms” community team of volunteers.
Story & PhotoS by NaNcy cheNNault
Herbs, clockwise from top: Cilantro, Thyme, Sage
Oct 17th – Nov 17th
The Evening Sky
A clear sky is needed.
By Greg Smith
Saturn is still in the night sky in the southwestern sky about a quarter of the way up. October 15th will find Neptune nearby Saturn at the 10 o’clock position about a half a binocular view away; you will need big binoculars or a telescope to see it.
The Morning Sky
A cloudless eastern horizon sky is required.
Jupiter is high in the southeastern sky near the constellation of Gemini at around 5:30 am. It rises in the east at about 11:30pm.
Venus will be rising about half an hour before the sun and will be somewhat hard to see in the growing brightness of the eastern sky. It will be the brightest star at that time of the morning near the eastern horizon.
Night Sky Spectacle
A clear dark sky is a must.
On October 10th, in the northeastern sky you will see the Pleiades. And just to the right of the Pleiades at about the 5 o’clock position (some 4.5° away), you may see the planet Uranus. Unfortunately a bright moon will be nearby possibly drowning out Uranus. But the moon and Pleiades conjunction is a nice sight, too.
Longview resident Greg Smith is past president of Friends of Galileo. Meet him and other club members at monthly meetings in Longview. For more info about FOG, visit friendsofgalileo.com.
MOON PHASES:
New Moon, Tues, Oct 21st
1st Quarter, Wed, Oct 29th
Full Moon, Wed, Nov 5th
3rd Quarter, Tues, Nov 11th
New Moon, Wed, Nov 19th
1st Quarter, Thurs, Nov 27th
END OF TWILIGHT:
When the brightest stars start to come out. Allow about an hour more to see a lot of stars.
Wed., Oct 15th, 6:54pm
Wed., Oct 22nd • 6:43pm
Wed., Oct 29th • 6:32pm
Wed., Nov 5th • 5:22pm
Wed., Nov 12th • 5:14pm
Wed., Nov 19th • 5:08pm
SUNSET
Wed., Oct 15th • 6:26pm
Wed., Oct 22nd • 6:14pm
Wed., Oct 29th • 6:03pm
Wed., Nov 5th • 4:51pm
Wed., Nov 12th • 4:42pm
Wed., Nov 19th • 4:35pm
Third Interstellar Interloper coming soon
By Greg Smith
here has been a lot of talk in the astronomical community about the comet 3I/Atlas. This is the third comet that has been identified as coming from outside our solar system. It will not come close to Earth; it will only get as close to the Sun as Mars’s orbit. It will pass by Mars while Mars is not visible to us due to the glare of the sun. Most likely, it will pass in front of Mars, but a few astronomers are thinking it might HIT Mars!
IF ( and it’s a big IF ) it hits Mars, the devastation would be humongous. All our rovers would be destroyed. And the satellites that orbit Mars would be damaged, as well. Our eyes on Mars would be blinded. Good thing Musk’s plan to send equipment ahead to Mars (before sending people) never made it off the ground. The equipment that would’ve been sent would be destroyed. 3I Atlas will not come closer than 170 million miles to Earth, so we are safe from this thing. Whew!
The designation of “3I” means that this is the third interstellar comet that has been seen in our solar system. The first one was 1I/Oumuamua (Hawaiian for visitor from afar).
With the comet likely to miss Mars, the orbiters at Mars are going to be repositioned to take a look at this comet to figure out what it is and what it’s made of. All of this takes place in mid- to late-October. I am sure the news media will be spreading the latest information about this interstellar interloper.
3I/Atlas is not the only comet in our neighborhood. There are two in our evening sky just barely visible low on the western horizon at sunset. They should be more visible in late October and early November when they come out from behind the sun — that is, if they survive the trip so close to the sun! Stand by.
back to Pacific Standard Time on Sunday, Nov. 2nd.
THarvest 2025 Forecast: Yakima Valley grapes show exceptional potential
by Marc Roland
his is my best guess as to what to expect from the 2025 Washington grape harvest. In my humble opinion, we have a lot to be thankful for. I’m going to go out on a limb and predict this will be a year of the decade for Yakima Valley fruit! The entire state will make good wines, but Yakima Valley Appellation fruit has the best potential for exceptional balance and concentration.
Here’s why. The growing season brought steady warmth without the extreme heat spikes that can shut down ripening. As a result, the fruit is showing even development, with sugars and phenolics (flavors) progressing in tandem. As I talk to growers, they note a lighter crop in some blocks, which is translating into greater flavor concentration and thicker skins — attributes winemakers prize for structure and color.
Compared with recent harvests, 2025 is being described as a “balanced year,” giving producers the chance to craft expressive wines without chasing runaway Brix (sugars). However, I have seen higher Brix in some of my fruit and I have had to add some tartaric acid to balance things out. Not to worry, the full physiological development will more than make up in flavor.
Operationally, the valley’s pacing has been steady, avoiding the compression some AVAs (such as Red Mountain) are experiencing. Our fruit has come in quickly, but not so fast as to not overwhelm us. This allows for more controlled picks and fermentations. Most Yakima Valley fruit was in by the end of September, but for some, as September rolled into October: cooler nights and potential moisture raised the risk of mildew and rot. We were lucky.
Regional market conditions add another layer to the harvest — soft demand. Wineries are experiencing fewer visits to the tasting rooms due to consumer perceptions that alcohol is bad for you, and new potential wine drinkers are turning to spirits as wine prices go up. These factors mean wineries could be more picky, leaving some fruit unpicked. Overall, Yakima Valley is on track to deliver excellent wines, but success will depend on quality fruit and careful winemaking.
I’m excited for the wines from the 2025 vintage. Better get some when they are released because the quality should be good, however possibly, less easy to find.
Longview resident and former Kelso teacher Marc Roland started making wine in 2008 in his garage. He and his wife, Nancy, now operate Roland Wines at 1106 Florida Street in Longview’s new “barrel district.” For wine tasting hours, call 360-846-7304.
Our World in Words
FMy Moms
Did you make it to the top?
by Bob Park (written on his 77th birthday)
rom the approximate age of 60-plus, I always tried to spend my birthday with my mother. It seemed like it all started with her, so I thought she deserved my attention on this special day she had given me.
My earliest memory of Mom was at my grandparents’ house on Fir Street in Longview when I was a baby being held by my grandmother, and looking across the room past my mother as my Uncle Frank came into the room and my Aunt Rachel was in the room. Uncle Frank was scary, loud, and huge to me.
My next memory is from living in Government Housing in Fort Lewis, as maybe a 3-year-old. Mother was taking me to Mrs. Reed, the next door neighbor who took care of me when Mother went to work. The war was in full swing, and both Mom and Dad worked in the building of facilities at Fort Lewis. Mrs. Reed’s husband worked at the same places as Dad. Mrs. Reed taught me to read and count. She had a big influence on me and Mother was very supportive of her “special” treatment of her “little boy.” At this young age and in my memory, both women merge together. As an aside, I received a book on my birthday every year from Mrs. Reed well into my thirties, when she passed away in her nineties. In the last year of her life, she met my three kids at the Gresham retirement home she lived in. Mrs. Reed was the first of many special people in my life. How lucky I am.
From Tacoma near the end of the war, we moved back to Longview on Pacific Way. We lived in a big house. My mother was pregnant with my brother Mike. My Aunt Beatrice and her baby daughter, Betty, lived with us. Her husband, Uncle Bill, was in the South Pacific in the Army Corps, repairing Black Widow Night Fighters. So again, I had two moms, so to speak. I do not know where Dad worked in Longview, but he worked and was in the Coast Guard Reserve. My two moms were very important and gave me a lot of attention. Together, we listened to the war news each evening. Mom and Aunt Beatrice talking about Uncle Bill and his letters, plus following the news of progress in the Pacific dominated the conversation.
Uncle Bill came home and I immediately became his shadow. It became apparent to me very soon that I wanted to be like him and have my own company.
Back to Mom: We soon moved to Long Beach. With Dad being a contractor, I tagged along and did my chores and tried my hand at hammers and the saw. Mom made me a pair of white carpenter coveralls like the men wore. I loved it and I got a tool box and hand tools for Christmas. Mom
cont page 14
Bob Park enjoys the good life in his hometown, and elsewhere. This is #8 in a series of his recollections growing up in Longview, where he founded a steel fabrication business still operating worldwide.
never said, “Don’t let Bobby do this or do that.” Never! This was a lifelong gift from her. She was supportive of all my schemes to make money and live on the wild side from this point until she passed. Never a word about, “Oh, you might get hurt or fall.” She would go way out of her way to make sure I had what she could provide for whatever I wanted to or interest I had. More importantly, never a word about, “Oh, you might fail.”
I remember when on Lincoln’s Birthday Sale at Sears, I wanted to camp out on the sidewalk overnight to be first in line to buy a Geiger counter for one cent, she packed food for me and Dad drove me down to the store. Mom never said, “What a crazy thing to get a Geiger counter to look for uranium around Mt. St. Helens.”
Well. I looked and looked in the tailings of all the old gold mines around Spirit Lake. My parents would drive me 60 miles to Spirit Lake, leave me, and come back that night to pick me up. I really regret I lost track of the Geiger counter, as it would be cool to still have.
About this same time I read in the Longview Daily News that the Mt. St. Helens Club was sponsoring an
all-comers climb of Mt. St. Helens. I asked Mom about wanting to make the climb. She said “Ask your dad.” Dad asked who was the person to call. I said Rob Quoidbach. Mom said, “Well, call him.” I did, and he said okay, but I needed a rucksack, an alpine stock, and warm clothes.
After a couple of calls back and forth, Rob said he would pick me up on Friday night and bring me back Sunday afternoon. I went to Bob’s Surplus and bought a surplus Army rucksack and made an alpine stock out of an old shovel handle with a 20-penny nail driven in the end and the head cut off and sharpened, and on the other end, a hole with a leather thong through it.
Friday night came and I was picked up. Off I went with the Quoidbachs and a stay that night in the loft of the Mt. St. Helens Club cabin at Timberline on Mt. St. Helens. What an eye opener for a 10-year-old who had never seen a person drink alcohol and carry on.
We got up before daylight and off we went. A lot of folks showed up, about 30. We started off and just short of the Dog’s Head, a group of rocks came flying down the mountain. One, a bit bigger than a baseball, hit a man in the jaw. It laid him out and broke
out several teeth. A couple men helped him up and took him down the mountain. I was a bit scared, but the rest of us went up the mountain. The climb, in my memory, seemed to go on forever, but we arrived at the summit before noon. There was the broken-up wood hut and a book to sign. We had some food, then started down. Rob showed me how to lean back on my Alpine stock and glissade down most of the way. I was exhausted when we got back to the lodge and went to the loft. Well, the adults partied big time that night, but did not bother me, being fast asleep.
After a late breakfast and a trip back home in the Quoidbach station wagon, I was dropped off at home. Mom did not seem the least concerned, except to ask if I made it to the top.
Miss Manners from page 9
stop drinking alcohol for health reasons. I do still enjoy nonalcoholic wine.
How do I politely accept an invitation, while also supplying my own nonalcoholic beverage? My question applies particularly to situations that are spontaneous, such as encountering a neighbor on a patio pouring a glass in that very moment.
GENTLE READER: Surely the key phrase here is “join me,” rather than “glass of wine.”
Don’t you suppose that you could have thanked the neighbor, sat on the patio and socialized while also politely declining the wine?
Yet Miss Manners reminds you that you, too, must treat the drinking part as unimportant. In an indoor setting, a nonalcoholic drink might easily be available. But in the situation you
mention, it would probably require you to run home first for your own drink, or your neighbor to go inside to fetch one for you.
So wave away the drink with thanks, enjoy chatting, and -- as you are in your own neighborhood -- when your thirst overcomes you, go home
DEAR MISS MANNERS: My neighbor/friend came over and said, “I made you a cake for your birthday, and it is also your gift.” That would be fine, except she only gave me part of the cake!
Of course I didn’t ask where the rest of it was. I was kind of in shock! Should I be upset that I wasn’t worthy of the whole cake as my birthday gift?
GENTLE READER: Maybe she thought it was your half birthday.
DEAR MISS MANNERS: A coworker invited a few people and their spouses over to watch a popular
sporting event. After everyone in the office bombarded him with questions about what to bring, he insisted we bring nothing.
Never having met his wife or having been to his home, I brought a seasonal hand soap as a small thankyou for hosting us.
They both laughed at the gesture. In fact, it was a running gag between them for much of the evening, saying things like, “Thank goodness we have enough soap!” or “Maybe we should all wash our hands.”
I smiled along with them, but thought such a reaction was odd. My spouse brought beer, which was shared among the guests without jokes.
To avoid such a situation in the future, should I no longer bring a hostess gift to gatherings?
GENTLE READER: Hostess gifts are not the requirement they were once commonly considered, and Miss
Manners would definitely dispense with them if the hosts are only going to ridicule you for your efforts. Come to think of it, she would not be inclined to socialize with such people.
DEAR MISS MANNERS: My brother and I are the financial gatekeepers for our elderly, quite wealthy mother. Mom refers all requests for donations to us.
How do we politely get some of these requesters to just go away? One in particular keeps pestering me for a
Biz Buzz
What’s Happening Around the River
Biz Buzz notes news in local business and professional circles. As space allows, we include news of innovations, improvements, new ventures and significant employee milestones of interest to readers. Please email to publisher@crreader.com
The
Castle Rock, Washington won top honors at the 2025 America in Bloom symposium and awards celebration held in Rochester, Michigan, Sept 25–27. The town’s awards included the Floral Outstanding Achievement Award 2,100 – 3,700 Population Category Award, and special recognition from its AIB advisors, Connie Baggett and Brian Sullivan, who spent two days the summer touring the community and meeting municipal officials, residents, and volunteers. America in Bloom executive director Laura Kunkle said, “America in Bloom is helping communities of all sizes achieve their potential. Every year our participants raise the bar, and the accomplishments and progress shown by this year’s group is remarkable. These are, without a
Castle Rock
doubt, some of the best places to live, work, and visit. Congratulations to Castle Rock for the excellent work making your community more beautiful and vibrant.”
To date, more than 370 communities from 44 states have participated in the program and more than 22 million people have been touched by it. Registrations for the 2026 national America in Bloom program can be submitted until Feb. 28, 2026. Eligible participants include towns, cities, college and university campuses, business districts, military installations, and recognized neighborhoods of large cities. Visit www.americainbloom.org.
CATHLAMET, WA – Computer Link NW is proud to announce its authorization as a collection site for the E-Cycle Washington program , a statewide program that provides a no-cost option for residents, small businesses, schools, and other organizations to recycle certain electronic devices. This initiative, funded by electronics manufacturers, ensures that old and unwanted products are handled safely and responsibly, keeping hazardous materials out of landfills and recovering valuable resources for new products.
“We are thrilled to partner with E-Cycle Washington and contribute to a more sustainable community,” said Steve Carson, owner of Computer Link NW. “As a local technology company, we see firsthand how quickly electronics can become obsolete. We are excited to offer a simple and secure solution for our neighbors to dispose of these devices in an environmentallyfriendly way.”
Under the E-Cycle Washington program, Computer Link NW will accept the following items for free recycling:
•Computers (including CPUs, towers, and laptops)
•Computer Monitors
•Tablets and E-readers
•Portable DVD players and televisions
For more information on the E-Cycle Washington program and to see a complete list of accepted items, please visit the official website at ecyclewa.org.
Customers may drop off their unwanted devices at either of Computer Link NW’s two convenient locations:
Cathlamet: Tues, Thurs, Fri, 11am to 4pm. Longview: Mon-Fri, 10am to 4pm. More details on the new recycling services and information on the importance of data security before recycling, may be found at clnw.com/ecycle
Computer Link NW is a local technology company dedicated to providing high-quality computer sales, service, and support to the communities of Cathlamet and Longview. See ad, page 12.
SPENCER CREEK STATION
Left to right: Lucas Richardson, Castle Rock Public Works Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator; Dave Vorse ,Castle Rock Public Works Director; Cnnie Baggett, AIB Advisor; and Tyler Stone, Castle Rock Public Works Senior Plant Operator.
Bloom is “on” in
Port of Kalama set to unveil new light industrial suites at Spencer Creek Station
PUBLIC EVENT Ribbon Cutting NOV 14 • 3pm
By Dan Polacek, Port of Kalama Communications Administrator
The Port of Kalama announces the grand opening of the new flexible light industrial suites at Spencer Creek Station, located at 240 Kalama River Road. The public is invited to a ribbon-cutting ceremony on November 14, at 3pm, featuring remarks from Port and County officials, as well as
project stakeholders. This event marks a significant milestone in fostering economic growth and opportunity for the community.
The first building at Spencer Creek Station offers 16 suites starting at 2,300 square feet, designed specifically for
Timberland Legal Aid offers free civil legal assistance to qualifying low-income people, whether they are longtime residents or newcomers to the community, in Cowlitz, Wahkiakum, Pacific, and Lewis Counties, ensuring that justice is accessible to everyone, not just those who can afford an attorney.
Financial strategies built just for
1332 Vandercook Way Longview, WA 98632 360-425-0037
Services include family law (custody, parenting plans, and protection orders), landlord-tenant disputes, elder law, and immigration consultations. Timberland Legal Aid also hosts regular free legal clinic in the four counties. These clinics are open to the public and provide an opportunity to meet with an attorney or case manager at no cost.
Services are free to those who qualify. The main office is in Longview. Call 360-425-2579 to learn when the next clinic will be held, or other ways to get help. Bilingual staff and volunteers are available so that language is not a barrier to justice. For more info: www. timberlandlegalaid.org.
page 35
Lemiere CFP®
More Biz Buzz,
Join the North Coast Symphonic Band on an Epic Adventure
“Epics and Adventures” opens the 46th season for the North Coast Symphonic Band Sunday, Nov. 9, at the Liberty Theatre, in Astoria, Ore.
the concert features an array from Rossano Galante’s “Mt. Everest” to Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “Sea Songs,” music “to transport listeners to fantastic places, near and far,” said Conductor and Musical Director Terry Dahlgren.
The band will also take audiences on a “road trip” coast to coast across the United States, from “The Sidewalks of New York,” to San Francisco, where
Tony Bennett left his heart, in his signature song. Get ready for a cinematic adventure for your ears!
Doors open at 1pm and the Trolley Stop Combo will provide prelude music starting at 1:30pm.
The band encourages audiences to purchase admission tickets in advance for $15 at the Liberty Theatre Box Office from 2 – 5:30pm. Wednesdays through Saturdays, or online at www.libertyastoria. showare.com. Tickets purchased the day of the concert are $20. High school students are admitted free; admission for middle school students and younger is free with
a paying adult. The Liberty is located on the corner of 12th and Commercial streets in Astoria.
The NCSB is a nonprofit community performing arts group composed of local musicians of all ages who enjoy networking, learning from each other, and maintaining their skill levels in a positive and supportive environment.
The NCSB performs four concerts per year at the historic Liberty Theatre in Astoria. Upcoming performances will be Feb. 1, April 12, and July 3, 2026. Rehearsals are from 7 to 9 p.m. Mondays at the Charlene Larsen Center for the Performing Arts (PAC) in Astoria. The band is currently full, but players come and go.
• Astoria-Warrenton Chamber/Ore Welcome Center 111 W. Marine Dr., Astoria 503-325-6311 or 800-875-6807
Photo: kathleen barber
Hal Calbom
Production notes
Drinking. Smoking. CarouSing. Skiing.
For a high school athlete, playing a team sport, these were the big no-nos.
Yes, skiing. In the 60s and 70s, according to school decree, careening down the hills on slats was a pastime not appropriate for either varsity athletes or buttoned-up prom queens.
Team coaches and school administrators routinely forbade snow skiing during their competitive seasons — some kind of reckless, elitist affectation foisted on us by snooty Europeans.
And imagining itself as “family fun?” This added insult to injury.
Like all stereotypes, bias mingled with grains of truth. We saw some early TV of competitive slaloms in exotic alpine destinations, and plenty of jet-setter action ala “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.”
Yet, at the same time homemade rope tows were hauling dedicated amateur enthusiasts up our own soggy Northwest slopes. Smitten by the sheer exhilaration of it and a kind of pioneering ethos, these trailblazers helped popularize and de-stigmatize this alpine sport.
Ski clubs proliferated across the Northwest, especially in the 1930s.
In fact, not the least of the hallowed habitats lost in the St. Helens eruption was a cabin erected and maintained for decades by the local club founded in 1935. Few sports attracted such perseverance and joy combined. Grit and grins.
I suspect it was the Winter Olympics, one of the first sporting events catapulted to prominence by improved and expanded television coverage, that propelled skiing into the mainstream. Viewers saw superb athletes, demanding courses and competitions, and national pride all rolled into one. And some spectacular crashes and “yard sales.”
The affectations and hazards were snowed under by “the thrill of victory and agony of defeat.”
Today the slopes attract virtually everybody and anybody. And skiing is booming.
people+place
Let it snow!
It’s all downhill from here
Tony Fardell
When an audacious American skier won a silver medal at the Lake Placid Winter Olympic Games in 1980 it was considered something remarkable.
When that same American skier, Phil Mahre — and his twin brother Steve — won both gold and silver medals at the Sarajevo Olympics in 1984, it was deemed even more remarkable.
But perhaps the most remarkable story of all was that of their origins and lineage: They were two of twelve kids of David “Spike” Mahre and his wife Mary Ellen. The mountain-managing Mahre family supported and sustained a low-key ski hill in Washington State called White Pass.
Housed in crowded quarters at the bottom of the mountain, eighty miles from their roots in Yakima, and a world away from St. Moritz.
White Pass Ski Area still boasts a subtle status and a fervent following.
“We’ve always said that White Pass has better snow than Rainier,” said instructor Tony Fardell, who’s skied there for fifty years. “We’re actually on the east side of the Cascades,” he said, “so when we look back at Rainier it’s 20 miles to the north and west from here.”
Such fine points of micro-climate, snow quality and topography are crucial references for Northwest skiers in particular. Theirs are not the sprawling Rockies or the giant Sierras, but — with a keen eye on the weather report —they manage to hold their own.
“I used to watch the weather all week at work,” said Fardell, “and the worse it got Monday to Friday, I figured the better the snow would be on the weekend.”
THE USER-FRIENDLY SHAPED SKIS ARE DOMINATING
Don Clark seems to have packed the place with every possible accoutrement necessary to get downhill fast.
Most winters we offer a magnificent bounty dropping onto these glorious Cascades.
It’s just not always in the form of flakes.
Shaping Up: Skiing Goes Boom
We meet Tony and fellow instructor Ken Kendall at The Pro Shop on 15th Avenue in Longview. Owner
“The shaped skis are dominating,” said Clark. The other big trend is that ski makers are making a lot more than skis — boots, poles, bindings — as well as other recreational equipment, from tennis rackets to skateboards.
Parabolic and “shaped” skis have revolutionized the industry. And made the subtle art of a smooth turn easier for the regular skier.
courtesy Photo: of ken kendall family
from page 19
“I get a lot of older people who are coming back, who maybe haven’t skied so much, “said Fardell, “and the technology has changed so much. The amount of energy you have to spend to make a nice turn on a shaped ski is about a third of what it used to be.”
“I THINK THE BOARDERS HELPED SAVE SKIING”
Clark’s Pro Shop is crammed with equipment which now includes, prominently, helmets, a safety feature once frowned on but now standard on the slopes. And snow boards. I asked the three ski-bums if the boarders / skiers rift still divides the slopes.
“I don’t think so,” said Kendall. “In fact I think pressure from the boarders caused the ski manufacturers to get with it technology-wise.”
“They used to just change the color every year and call it a new model,” added Fardell. “The snowboard really opened up a lot of possibilities on how to get down a hill.”
“I think the boarders helped save skiing,” he said. “The ski manufacturers got hip when boarders starting taking business, and that began the evolution of the shaped ski. Half the energy and twice the results.”
Getting There is Less Than Half the Fun Skiing seems to defy economic analysis. It keeps getting more expensive, yet it continues to get more popular. Everybody, instructors included, bemoans the price of a lift ticket. While the skiers go down, the demand curve and expense just go up.
“The pressure is in the parking lot, not the hill,” said Fardell. “Crystal Mountain has the same problem. There are people that have paid hundreds of dollars for lessons at Crystal and can’t get within five miles, and are actually turned around because there’s no more parking.”
“At a lot of hills, you have to buy your ticket in advance for the weekends,” said Kendall. “They shut it off at a certain point and won’t sell any more tickets.”
Resort owners, who admittedly have to endure the vicissitudes of bad snow years, Covid, traffic jams and fickle weather, are not naive. They know that when the demand is good they can begin to recoup their huge infrastructure investments.
“Can’t get a day pass, sold out?” said Fardell, “‘How about a season pass for $2,400, come whenever you want?’”
After all that planning, all the logistics and investment, and two hours with the kids in the car, the VISA cards tend to fly out of the wallets. “It’s pretty obvious economics,” added Kendall, “The big outfits want you to buy that season pass. So they’ll punish you if you want to go for a single Saturday for $300.”
The other pressure on day-ski areas is the destination resorts, where all the amenities — hotel rooms, restaurants, bars — help support the ski area, and help owners mitigate traffic. cont page 22
A Park Family Company
A Longview Pioneer Family
Proud Sponsor of People+Place
FCA Club Sports provide experiences that combine athletic development with character and spiritual growth for young athletes, and create an environment where athletes build self-confidence and develop their faith through sports, with coaches committed to ministering to their players.
Kendall Family at White Pass.
courtesy Photo
The Pro Shop owner, Don Clark, stocks and sells a lot more than just skis, showing the latest model to ski instructor Ken Kendall.
Downhill together
Longview Ski & Outdoor Club celebrates 90 years
I
t didn’t take pioneering southwest Washingtonians long to see more than glaciers, fir trees and lava flows on their magnificent Cascades.
There was snow. Plenty of it. But not much in the way of amenities.
“A bunch of us would head up to the St. Helens ski cabin Friday night,” said longtime Longview Ski and Outdoor Club member Ted Boehl. “Our job was to get some heat in the place. We had an old wood stove and would warm things up for the Saturday morning crowd.”
The next morning more intrepid skiers, in their own cars, would make their way up to the end of the plowed road. If they were lucky they’d link up with the ever-active Harry Truman (pictured at right), lodge owner and operator of his own primitive snow-cat, circa 1930s, for a ride further up the hill.
“We had our own rope tow, with Harry’s help, with winches on the bottom,” said Boehl. “A 10-horse engine, too.”
Members recall especially the contributions of two brothers, Val and Rob Quoidbach, and Rob’s wife Mary Lou, indefatigable promoters and contributors to the whole effort. “And Val (at right) especially was a heck of a skier,” said Ted.
“Today the club has expanded to really include outdoor activity in general,” said Ken Kendall. “About a third of our members don’t even ski. But we take kayak trips and all kinds of outings just enjoying the outdoors and the activity together.”
Among those popular activities is a monthly potluck, where members count their good fellowship as much a benefit as the endorphins and sunshine.
All this grew really out of a ski class and bus from the then-Lower Columbia Junior College. “It was nine bucks a trip,” noted Tony Fardell. “And eventually we ended up with a club that’s celebrating its 90th birthday this year and has more than 70 active members.”
Fardell, Kendall and Boehl encourage any interested people to join a potluck or an adventure trip. “There’s a lot of history there,” said Kendall, “and a lot more good times to come.”
90th
Celebration
Nov 7th 6:30pm
The Longview Ski & Outdoor Club, an “over-21 club” founded in 1935, is one of the oldest ski clubs in the Pacific Northwest. Members enjoy alpine skiing, snowboarding, cross country skiing, hiking, biking, kayaking, picnics, potlucks & more.
Interested? Active adults who share interest in social and outdoor activities year-round have an open invitation to visit a meeting and/or join the Club anytime. Potluck dinners with holiday themes take place at 6:30pm on the first Friday, Oct thru April at St. Stephen’s Church,1428 22nd Ave., Longview, Wash. Enter through kitchen door off alley.
For more info, Steve Mackey 907-440-8726
If you can’t attend the event but would like to donate, please mail your check, payable to:
Morris High School Foundation, P.O. Box 1674, Longview, WA 98632 Or donate online at mmhsfoundation.org
The Evans Kelly Family One Of LOngview’s piOneer famiLies
2026 ski trips: Tahoe/Heavenly Feb, and Mt. Bachelor in the Spring facebook.com/Longview Ski & Outdoor Club
“The whole nut here is the lift ticket,” said Fardell, “and those prices keep going up.”
Packwood: The New Park City?
White Pass and its outlying villages, especially Packwood, seem to have been discovered.
Things look considerably different compared to a couple of decades ago. “That’s the same story that has happened to almost every major ski area,” said Fardell. “Locals have been priced out. Businesses can’t even afford to get help.”
Local skiers wistfully recall “picking up” a scruffy cabin for $30,000 to $50,000. “Now, even the junkers are going for $300,000-plus,” he said. Merchants and service businesses that straddle Washington Highway 12, the central east-west artery linking it all, aren’t complaining. But they are aware of the fickle nature of the ski business — not just the weather.
Fardell and Kendall agree that in spite of ups and downs, skiing is booming.
“Oh, absolutely!” said Fardell. “It is packed. In fact, most ski areas actually limit out. It’s not about how many people are on the mountain, it’s how many cars you can get in the parking lot.”
Parking and inflated prices aside, what seems to be working on these slopes is a kind of joyful co-existence: day skiers rubbing elbows with destination resident skiers; boards and skis sharing the mountain; seniors and their grandkids enjoying the vibes.
“Skiing has clean air, sunshine, stimulation,” said Fardell. “Endorphins from the exercise, Vitamin D from the sunshine. It’s like floating. Once you’ve achieved that float … I get goose bumps just thinking about it.
Once you get it you’re hooked.”
IT’S A LOT LIKE FLOATING ... I GET GOOSE BUMPS JUST THINKING ABOUT IT
Interviews are edited for clarity and length.
Hal Calbom, a third-generation Longview native and author of Empire of Trees: America’s Planned City and the Last Frontier, produces CRR’s People+Place monthly feature, and is CRRPress associate publisher. See his “In the Spotlight” feature, page 37.
JOE FISCHER
Fischer
courtesy Photo: the kendall family
courtesy Photos
meeting with my mother. She’s looking for, I believe, either a major gift or to be included in the will.
twice — which of course is not awful, but seems awkward. I need some guidance, please.
GENTLE READER: He is not running for reelection, is he?
We have to continue to live in this relatively small town, so I can’t be as rude as I would like to be.
GENTLE READER: Why would you wish to be rude? Fundraisers may be persistent, but they are, in Miss Manners’ experience, no more interested than anyone else in wasting their time.
Explain that you and your brother make these decisions for your mother, and that you are not interested in donating to this cause. If you feel these requests have been less than polite, then you can forget to append a “thank you.”
(Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, gentlereader@missmanners.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.) from page 15
Miss Manners to have a discussion.” Then he could have suggested that you visit his office, write a letter or attend a forum. There is no reason for you to avoid the coffee shop. Perhaps it will present an opportunity for the politician to apologize to you.
GENTLE READER: Prompt responses will solve this problem. Then you can truthfully say, “Yes, thank you, I’ve already written you.”
DEAR MISS MANNERS: I was at a coffeehouse in my neighborhood on a Saturday morning when my congressional representative took a seat two tables over. I had seen him there before, but refrained from approaching him or speaking with him.
Actually, Miss Manners agrees that recognizable people should not have to engage with strangers when they are off duty. A quick compliment is usually appreciated, but you were proposing a political discussion. Nevertheless, it is an important part of a legislator’s job to listen to the views of constituents. He was foolish, as well as rude, to dismiss you so curtly. He could have said, “I want to hear your views, but this is not the time or place
•••
DEAR MISS MANNERS: I have always sent thank-you notes without fail. My problem is that, now, people contact me via text message to see if I have received the gift they sent me. And since that answer is almost always yes, I feel I must not only acknowledge the gift but also thank them at that time.
So now, I either have to thank them with a short text, instead of the lovely cards I purchased to write sincere notes of gratitude, or thank them
I could tell from his informal clothing that he was trying to fit in and not be noticed. But because he took a seat close by, I thought I would try to say something about a political issue that’s been on my mind.
He quickly cut me off, explaining that he was just there to eat something. I apologized and assured I would not bother him further.
I was so embarrassed that I haven’t returned to that coffeehouse. I don’t want him to see me and think that I’m stalking him. But I’ve been going to that coffeehouse for years, and he has only recently started going there. Is it OK for me to return there?
RAINIER GROCERY OUTLET
Home of Agent Buster and his sidekick Clipper. With 40% to 70% in savings on Brand name groceries, we make savings a reality.
Come and check out the newly revamped store.
Ode to Autumn
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease, For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Alaskan Halibut or Cod Fish ‘N’ Chips Award-Winning Clam Chowder
Seafood, Burgers, Steaks & Pasta Beer, Wine, Spirits & Cocktails
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep, Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers: And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep Steady thy laden head across a brook; Or by a cyder-press, with patient look, Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,— While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn Among the river sallows, borne aloft Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
LONGVIEW:
Old West Side
Neighborhood Assn
Annual Fall Meeting
Wed., Oct. 29
St. Stephen’s Parish Hall 22nd and Louisiana St. Longview, Wash. Business Meeting & Potluck 6pm Program 7pm
“Historic Homes of the Old West Side: The Neighborhood at the Heart of the Planned City of Longview.
New book by Fred J. Baxter, A.I.A. Emeritus Sale proceeds benefit Longview Library Foundation.
The old West Side, Longview, WA
LOWER COLUMBIA CURRENTS
MAN IN THE KITCHEN
CLASSICS
EASY ENTREE UPGRADE
Deli chicken, dressed up
Chicken a go-go
We’ve all seen and probably used the hot rotisserie chickens offered by our grocers. They taste pretty good most of the time. And they can be easily “elevated.”
For a recent dinner gathering, what started out as a hunt for duck ended with a lovely chicken l’orange. We envisioned the classic duck l’orange for dinner. So much for visions. Our search for fresh or frozen duck in area stores was in vain. Saddened, we lowered our scopes to the lowly pre-roasted chicken. It was so much
easier and quicker starting out with a freshly roasted bird. The orange sauce, drizzled over the bird, took it to heaven.
This recipe is fast and easy, with ingredients you probably have on hand. It’s a classy way of upgrading an otherwise-ordinary dinner.
Roasted Chicken with Sweet-Sour Orange Sauce (makes about 2 cups)
1 cup chicken stock, thickened with 3 tsp cornstarch mixed first with a little of the stock. In another pan, cook together until light brown 2 Tbl vinegar and 2 Tbl sugar. Combine with the chicken stock and cook 4–5 minutes. Add 2 Tbl; julienned and blanched navel orange rind, 1/2 cup hot orange juice, 1 Tbl lemon juice, 2 Tbl Triple Sec and salt and pepper to taste.
Place chicken in 375º oven for 15 minutes to crisp. Transfer to platter, pour sauce over the top and garnish with sprigs of rosemary, parsley and fresh orange slices. Serve additional sauce on the side.
Paul Thompson wrote his popular “Man in the Kitchen” column and other features since CRR’s first issue until he died in 2021. We re-run some of his classic recipes and column excerpts from time to time, in fond remembrance and appreciation for his friendship and role in developing CRR’s zeitgeist.
Diane Kenneway Escrow Closer / Assistant
Celinda Northrup Escrow Officer / LPO
Alison Peters Escrow Officer / LPO
Clatskanie, Ore.
Fultano’s Pizza
770 E. Columbia River Hwy
Family style with unique pizza offerings, hot grill items & more!
Dine-in,Take-out and Home Delivery. Visit Fultanos.com for streamlined menu. 503-728-2922
Ixtapa Fine Mexican Restaurant
640 E. Columbia River Hwy
Fine Mexican cuisine. Daily specials. The best margarita in town. Daily drink specials. Dine-in, curbside pickup. M-Th 11am–9:30pm; Fri & Sat 11am–10:30pm; Sun 11am–9pm. 503-728-3344
119 E. “B” St., (Hwy 30) Crab Louie/Crab cocktails, crab-stuffed avocados. 17 hot and cold sandwiches. Amazing crab sandwiches. Full bar service. Catering for groups. 503-556-9950. interstatetavern@yahoo.com
El Tapatio
117 W. ‘A’ Street
Mexican Family Restaurant. Open Fri-Sat 11am-11pm, rest of week 11am-10pm. Full bar. 8-11pm. Patio seating. 503-556-8323.
Longview, Wash.
1335 14th Avenue
18 rotating craft brews, pub fare.
M-Th 11am–9pm. Fri-Sat 11am–10pm. Local music coming soon. 360-232-8283. Wine Wednesdays: $5 pours.
Formerly The Carriage Restaurant & Lounge located on 14th Ave. 3353 Washington Way
Chinese & American cuisine. Full bar, banquet room stage room with balcony; available for groups, special events. Restaurant: 11am–9pm, Lounge 11am–1:00am. 360-425-8680.
Eclipse Coffee & Tea In the Merk (1339 Commerce Ave., #113) 360-998-2139. Mon-Fri 8am–4pm. Specialty coffees, teas, bubble teas and pastries....drinks with a smile. Takeout and on-site.
Freddy’s Just for the Halibut
1110 Commerce Ave.
Cod, Alaskan halibut fish and chips, awardwinning clam chowder. Burgers, steaks, pasta. Beer and wine. M-Wed 10am–8pm, Th-Sat 10am–9pm, Sunday 11am–8pm. Inside dining, Drive-thru, outdoor seating. 360-414-3288. See ad, page 25.
Hop N Grape 924 15th Ave., Longview Tues–Thurs 11am–8pm; Fri & Sat 11am–9pm. BBQ meat slow-cooked on site. Pulled pork, chicken, brisket, ribs, turkey, salmon. World-famous mac & cheese. 360577-1541.
Kyoto Sushi Steakhouse 760 Ocean Beach Hwy, Suite J 360-425-9696. Japanese food, i.e. Hibachi, Bento boxes, Teppanyaki; Sushi (half-price Wednesdays); Kids Meal 50% Off Sundays. Mon-Th 11-2:30, 4:30-9:30. Fri-Sat 11am10pm. Sun 11am-9pm. 360-425-9696.
Lynn’s Deli & Catering 1133 14th Ave.
Soups & sandwiches, specializing in paninis, box lunches, deli sandwiches and party platters. Mon-Fri 8-3, Saturday 10-2. 360-577-5656
Vault Books & Brew 20 Cowlitz Street West, Castle Rock. Coffee and specialty drinks, quick eats & sweets. See ad, pg 30
Kalama, Wash.
LUCKMAN’S COFFEE Mountain Timber Market, Port of Kalama. Open 8am–7pm. 360-673-4586.
215 N. Hendrickson Dr., Port of Kalama. A Northwest pub and unique bars serving breakfast, lunch & dinner daily. Info & reservations, bar hours at mcmenamins.com. 8am–midnight daily. 360673-9210. Indoor dining, covered outdoor seating.
Antique Deli 413N. First. M-F, 10–3. Call for daily sandwich special. 360-673-3310.
Scappoose, Ore.
Fultano’s Pizza 51511 SE 2nd. Family style with unique pizza offerings, hot grill items & more! “Best pizza around!” Sun–Th 11:30am–9pm;
Warren, Ore.
Toutle, Wash.
Roland Wines 1106 Florida St., Longview. Authentic Italian wood-fired pizza, wine, beer, specialty cocktails. Casual ambience. 5–9pm Wed-Sat, 360-846-7304 See ad, page 4.
Scythe Brewing Company 1217 3rd Avenue #150 360-353-3851 Mon-Thurs 11:30am -8pm; FriSat 11:30am -10pm. Sun 12-8pm. Family-friendly brewery/ restaurant with upscale, casual dining, lunch and dinner.
Teri’s Café on Broadway
1133 Broadway. Lunch and Dinner, full bar. Mon12–8pm. Tues-Thurs 11am–8pm, Fri 11am–9pm; Sat 12–9pm. 360-577-0717
FIRESIDE CAFE 5055 Meeker Dr., Kalama. Open Wed-Sun, 9–4. 360-673-3473.
St. Helens, Ore.
Sunshine Pizza & Catering 2124 Columbia Blvd. Hot pizza, cool salad bar. Beer & wine. Limited inside seating, curbside pickup and delivery. 503-397-3211 See ad, page 32.
Big River Tap Room 313 Strand Street on the Riverfront. Lunch/Dinner TueThurs 12–8pm; Fri-Sat 12–9pm. Chicagostyle hot dogs, Italian beef, pastrami. Weekend Burrito Breakfast, Sat 8-11, Sun 8am-3pm.
Road to the River
Turn down any lane off the 14, 4, or 30.
Drive as far as you can. When you hit a fence or the end of the track, get out and walk.
Keep walking.
You’ll smell it first, as the onshore wind freshens.
Smell of mud and crayfish shells, fish, otter spraint, and rot.
Don’t stop walking.
Don’t stop until your feet get wet.
And then, why, you’d better stop.
RIVER BUOYS
River buoys aid ship navigation and are maintained by the United States Coast Guard. Solid green buoys are odd-numbered; solid red even-numbered. Buoys are moored to the river bottom and their numbers increase sequentially from the sea upriver. They denote key navigation features, not river miles.
EMPIRE OF TREES
by Hal Calbom
AMERICA’S PLANNED CITY AND THE LAST FRONTIER
Hexoctagonal
Among the flights of fancy (and engineering prowess) contrived by the founders was a paving method still seen in Longview but rarely in other places. The interlocked shapes left room for expansion but knitted the concrete together in a pleasing pattern that’s proved it was built to last. The popular and unusual concrete design was soon dubbed “hexoctagonal” by the locals, a wonderful bit of pioneer wordsmithing.
Prim etymologists and fastidious mathematicians have noted over the years that the “hextagonals” are mutations— neither six-sided nor eight-sided as are the true hexagon and octagon, respectively. Pioneer poetic license!
Note: Author’s comment is not in the book itself.
WORDS AND WOOD
PACIFIC NORTHWEST WOODCUTS AND HAIKU
This page and pg. 5 feature excerpts from
by Debby Neely
Little creatures hide Great Horned Owl I
Owls calling across the field
CRRPRESS was founded in 2020, with the first printing of Tidewater Reach, followed by Dispatches from the Discovery Trail (see current episode, page 5), Empire of Trees, Words and Wood, and A Lifetime of Art.
Purchase info, see page 2, 39.
Poem by Robert Michael Pyle • Photograph by Judy VanderMaten • Production Note by Hal Calbom
Thin sliver of moon
Photo courtesy of longview Public library
Q
UIPS & QUOTES
Selected by Debra Tweedy
If we open a quarrel between the past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future.
--Winston Churchill, British statesman, 1874-1965
Until you know their reasons, how do you know whether they have acted wrongly?
--Epictetus, Ancient Greek philosopher, died 135 AD
The general population doesn’t know what’s happening, and it doesn’t even know that it doesn’t know.
--Noam Chomsky, American professor and philosopher, 1928
He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.
--George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright and activist, 1856-1950
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
--Arthur C. Clarke, English science fiction writer, 1917-2008
If I won’t be myself, who will?
--Alfred Hitchcock, English film director, 1899-1980
What people commonly call fate is mostly their own stupidity.
--Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher, 1780-1860
The first duty of a human being is to assume the right relationship to society—more briefly, to find your real job, and do it.
--Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American writer and sociologist, 1860-1935
Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing in the tempting moment.
--Benjamin Franklin, American statesman and diplomat, 1706-1790
returned to her hometown in recent years, largely due to Lake Sacajawea and the Longview Public Library. Newly-relocated to Springville, Utah, to be near family, she remains part of CRR’s editorial team from afar.
BESIDES COLUMBIA RIVER READER...
What are you reading?
Destiny of the Republic A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President Candice Millard
Review by Tom Larsen
Destiny of the Republic follows the events surrounding the assassination of President James A. Garfield. As disturbing as the assassination attempt were the events that followed.
At the Republican Convention in 1880, Garfield, a hero of the Civil War and an Ohio congressman, was nominated to run for president despite his many attempts to convince the party he was not interested.
Around the same time, Charles Giteau, an itinerant con man with delusions of grandeur, began his circuitous route toward Washington, DC. The book chronicles Giteau’s descent into madness, culminating on July 2, 1881, when he fired two bullets into the now 20th President of the United States. The first shot passed through Garfield’s right arm, but the other remained lodged in his back until his death.
Dr. Willard Bliss was summoned by Robert Todd Lincoln, who had watched Bliss attempt to save his father sixteen years earlier. Bliss arrived on the scene and immediately took charge. Garfield was moved to a room in the White House. Millard explains, “As unsanitary as the White House was, hospitals of the day were far worse.” The renowned British surgeon Joseph Lister had made huge advances in the field of antiseptic medicine, but most American doctors—Bliss included—routinely discounted them.
ATTENTION READERS
Read a good book lately? Share your impressions and thoughts with other CRR readers. Email alan@alan-rose. com or publisher@crreader. com for info. Writers and non-writers welcome, editing services provided, and can be based on phone miniinterview if preferred.
Garfield developed massive infections, the result of the constant poking and prodding to find the bullet, the doctors using their fingers or surgical instruments, none of which had been properly sanitized. The constant oozing of foul-smelling pus from several locations on his body was hailed by Bliss and his team as “the body healing itself.”
Garfield died on September 19th, the result of the overwhelming infections that riddled his body..
Tom Larsen is the author of six novels in the crime fiction genre. His short fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen
Longview native Debra Tweedy has lived on four continents. She and her husband
Mystery Magazine, Mystery Tribune, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, and Black Cat Weekly. Three of his stories have appeared in the anthology Best Mystery Stories of the Year from Mysterious Press. Tom will be reading at WordFest on November 11
1. Remarkably Bright
Creatures
Shelby Van Pelt, Ecco, $19.99
2. I Who Have Never Known Men
Jacqueline Harpman, Transit Books, $16.95
3. Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir, Ballantine, $22
4. The Life Impossible
Matt Haig, Penguin, $19
5. Demon Copperhead
Barbara Kingsolver, Harper Perennial, $21.99
6. The Frozen River Ariel Lawhon, Vintage, $18
7. The Thursday Murder Club
Richard Osman, Penguin, $18
8. Intermezzo
Sally Rooney, Picador, $19
9. The City and Its Uncertain Walls
Haruki Murakami, Vintage, $19
10. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
James McBride, Riverhead Books, $19
Brought to you by Book Sense and Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, for week ending Sept. 28, 2025, based on reporting from the independent bookstores of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. For the Book Sense store nearest you, visit www.booksense.com
PAPERBACK NON-FICTION
1. On Tyranny
Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
2. Braiding Sweetgrass
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $22
3. The Wager
David Grann, Vintage, $21
4. Nexus
Yuval Noah Harari, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $25,
5. How Books Can Save Democracy
Michael Fischer, Trinity University Press, $12.95
6. All About Love bell hooks, Morrow, $16.99
7. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine Rashid Khalidi, Metropolitan Books, $19.99
8. All That the Rain Promises and More David Arora, Ten Speed Press, $17.99,
9. A People’s History of the United States
Howard Zinn, Harper Perennial Modern Classics,$23.99
10. The Body Keeps the Score Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., Penguin, $19
BOOK REVIEW
1. Alchemised SenLinYu, Del Rey, $35
2. What We Can Know Ian McEwan, Knopf, $30
3. The Secret of Secrets Dan Brown, Doubleday, $38
4. This Inevitable Ruin Matt Dinniman, Ace, $39
5. Dungeon Crawler
Carl Matt Dinniman, Ace, $30
6. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny Kiran Desai, Hogarth, $32
7. We Love You, Bunny Mona Awad, S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books, $30,
8. Circle of Days
Ken Follett, Grand Central Publishing, $40
9. James
Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28
10. Among the Burning Flowers
Samantha Shannon, Bloomsbury Publishing, $29.99
By Alan Rose
Revisiting (and renewing) the Classics
I’m always interested in what people are reading. Recently, a friend told me her book club had just finished My Antonia (1918). She had suggested it, remembering how much she enjoyed Willa Cather’s novel when she was younger. And I wondered: Why don’t we read the classics more?
Probably many of us were introduced to them too early. I’ve never fully recovered from George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss in eighth grade. Such assigned works came with an implicit message that they were supposed to be “good for you,” making them the literary equivalent of asparagus, broccoli, and other largely inedible foods in the young person’s mind. I suspect we weren’t ready for some of the books.
We hadn’t lived
1. 107 Days
Kamala Harris, Simon & Schuster, $30
2. Strong Ground Brené Brown, Random House, $32
3. Good Things Samin Nosrat, Random House, $45
4. All the Way to the River Elizabeth Gilbert, Riverhead Books, $35
5. The Serviceberry Robin Wall Kimmerer, John Burgoyne (Illus.), Scribner. $20
6. Replaceable You
Mary Roach, W. W. Norton & Company, $28.99
7. We the People
Jill Lepore, Liveright, $39.99
8. The Let Them Theory Mel Robbins, Sawyer Robbins, Hay House LLC, $29.99
9. Poems & Prayers Matthew McConaughey, Crown, $29
10. The Little Frog’s Guide to Life Maybell Eequay, Summersdale, $11.99
Top 10 Bestsellers
1. Hansel and Gretel
Stephen King, Maurice Sendak (Illus.), HarperCollins, $26.99
2. Goodnight Moon
Margaret Wise Brown, Clement Hurd (Illus.), Harper, $10.99
3. Richard Scarry’s Halloween Cars and Trucks Richard Scarry, Random House Books for Young Readers, $4.99
And yet, some persist in our memories, sentimental favorites— Treasure Island, Little Women, The Secret Garden, David Copperfield—like warm recollections of a childhood friendship.
Italo Calvino said, “A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.” These are books that have stood the test of time. They speak to each new age, offering truths and insights into the human condition that continue to be relevant today. They are books that stay with us, long after we’ve finished them. In contrast, there is something ephemeral
Alan’s haunting novel of the AIDS epidemic, As If Death Summoned, won the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award (LGBT category.) He organizes the monthly Word Fest gathering (info at left). Reach him at www.alan-rose.com.
1. World of Percy Jackson: The Court of the Dead Rick Riordan, Mark Oshiro, Disney Hyperion, $21.99
2. Impossible Creatures #2: The Poisoned King Katherine Rundell, Ashley Mackenzie (Illus.), Knopf Books for Young Readers, $19.99
3. Scarlet Morning ND Stevenson, Quill Tree Books, $19.99
10. Detective Beans: Adventures in Cat Town Li Chen, Andrews McMeel Publishing, $12.99
Do you have a favorite classic?
Send the title of your book to Alan: alan@alan-rose.com or Sue: publisher@crreader.com by Nov. 5, 2025.
We will share a list of recommended classics in our Nov. 25 Holiday issue. Note: Books are great holiday gifts!
about contemporary fiction. A fun activity for a rainy Sunday afternoon: Google the list of Pulitzer Prize-winning novels of the last hundred years. I’m betting you’ve never heard of most of them; very few are read today. And beware the book reviewer who proclaims some new novel “an instant classic.” Mmm, yeah, probably not.
Maybe it’s just me. After a summer of fun, frothy, easily forgettable beach reads, one craves something meatier. Like hungering for something more substantial after eating lots of cotton candy. In my novel, The Legacy of Emily Hargraves (yet to be declared a classic), the bibliophile Ashley recommends reading one classic each year. You don’t need to lead with the heavy hitters, Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment or Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Start with
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. You may appreciate her sly, wry social commentary that you missed in high school.
Or like my friend, re-read (and rediscover) a favorite from your childhood (Charlotte’s Web, Alice in Wonderland, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) or from when you were a teen (The Hobbit, The Count of Monte Cristo, Great Expectations.) If you liked Dickens, try his unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood — I remember racing through that book to see how it doesn’t end — and then pick up Dan Simmons’s Drood (2009) which plays with the novel’s mysteries in the context of the great novelist’s final days. Or try Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, then read Percival Everett’s James (2024), which tells Twain’s classic tale from the
Revisiting the Classics from page 31
viewpoint of Jim. Want something to steady and center you in these unsteady times? Try Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. He was one of the great and few good Roman emperors, probably the closest humanity has come to a philosopher king. Feeling lusty?
Try D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover ( 1928). Somewhat tame by today’s standards, it was banned for obscenity and not published in the U.S. until 1959.
Here’s an idea: Read classic works that were published one hundred years ago in 1925. For example, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, then watch Baz Luhrmann’s lush film adaptation with Leonardo DiCaprio; or read Mrs. Dalloway, following it up with The Hours (1998), Michael Cunningham’s creative riff on Virginia Woolf’s ground-breaking novel. Some works are definitely challenging. Last year I tackled Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain (1924). It is one of those great masterpieces of Western literature that everyone should read before they die, or die trying, or maybe die from trying. Consider it a chance to practice your skim-reflex, and it’s still less habit forming than most over-thecounter sleep aids.
For next year, you could consider works published in 1926: Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Franz Kafka’s The Castle (Kafka seems increasingly relevant these days) or maybe The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.
With each book, step into a different world and into a different age. You may need to adjust to a different pace, a different style of expression, a different sense of time — time is experienced differently when traveling in horsedrawn carriages than in cars. By doing this, you may also realize how many of today’s so-called historical TV dramas are really just modern sensibilities and attitudes dressed up in period costumes (I’m looking at you, “Bridgerton”!) Choose one classic and devote yourself to it, dig into it. Ask yourself: Why is this book considered a classic? Why have people continued to read it? What might it have to say about life in this 21st century?
Try it. It will be good for you.
LONGVIEW
U.S. Bank
Post Office
Forever Fit - 1211 18th Ave
Bob’s (rack, main check-out)
In front of 1232 Commerce Ave
In front of 1323 Commerce Ave
In front of Elam’s 1413 Commerce
Teri’s on Broadway (side entry)
Where to find the new Reader
It’s delivered all around the River by the 15th of each month. Here’s the handy, regularly-refilled sidewalk box and rack locations, where you can pick up a copy any time of day ... and even in your bathrobe:
WOODLAND
The Oak Tree
Visitors’ Center
Grocery Outlet
Luckman Coffee
CASTLE ROCK
In front of CR Blooms Center
Cowlitz St. W., near Vault Books & Brew
Visitors’ Ctr, 890 Huntington Ave N., Exit 49, west side of I-5
Cascade Select Market
Fibre Fed’l CU
VADER
Little Crane Café
RYDERWOOD
Café porch
In front of Freddy’s 1110 Commerce
YMCA
Fred Meyer (rack, service desk)
Grocery Outlet, OB Hwy
Fibre Fed’l CU - Commerce Ave
Monticello Hotel (front entrance)
Kaiser Permanente
St. John Medical Center (rack, Park Lake Café)
LCC Student Center
Columbia River Reader Office 1333 14th Ave. (box at door)
Omelettes & More (entry rack)
KELSO
Visitors’ Center / Kelso-Longview Chamber of Commerce
KALAMA
Etc Mercantile
Fibre Fed’l CU
Kalama Shopping Center corner of First & Fir
Columbia Inn
McMenamin’s Harbor Lodge (rack)
Luckmans Coffee, Mountain Timber Market, Port of Kalama
TOUTLE
Drew’s Grocery & Service
CLATSKANIE, ORE
Post Office
Mobil / Mini-Mart
Fultano’s Pizza
WESTPORT
Berry Patch (entry rack)
RAINIER
Post Office
Cornerstone Café
Rainier Hardware (rack, entry)
Earth ‘n’ Sun (on Hwy 30)
El Tapatio (entry rack)
Grocery Outlet
Senior Center (rack at front door)
DEER ISLAND
Deer Island Store
COLUMBIA CITY
Post Office
ST HELENS
Chamber of Commerce
Sunshine Pizza
St. Helens Market Fresh
Olde Town (near 2-Cs Vendor Mall)
Big River Tap Room
Safeway
WARREN
Warren Country Inn
SCAPPOOSE
Post Office Road Runner
Fultano’s Ace Hardware
WARRENTON
Fred Meyer
CATHLAMET
Cathlamet Pharmacy
Tsuga Gallery (entry rack)
Computer Link NW Puget Island Ferry Landing
SKAMOKAWA
Skamokawa General Store
NASELLE
Appelo Archives & Café
Johnson’s One-Stop
Oakie’s (rack inside)
ILWACO
Time Enough Books (entry table)
OCEAN PARK
Ocean Park Chamber of Commerce 1715 Bay Ave.
COLUMBIA RIVER READER
Crisp in your hands
Doesn’t break if you drop it
Hand-crafted page-by-page
Old-school standards
A month of enjoyment
Where do you read
THE READER?
Backyard reading Mel Keele of Castle Rock, Wash., celebrating his June 29th birthday and enjoying the Reader in what was, presumably, a gag gift built by his friend Stanley. Photo by Mike Petersen.
Horsing around and hiking, July 2025 Vince Lee reading the Reader on Hadrian’s Wall, the largest Roman archaeological feature on Britain, running a total of 73 miles. He wrote that he and his wife, Susi,“really enjoyed our two weeks in Scotland and then hiking Hadrian’s Wall in Northumbria, England.” The two are reading the Reader with the Kelpies near Edinburgh. They are a pair of monumental steel horse-heads between the Scottish towns of Falkirk and Grangemouth.
Coming through the old hometown Amy and Craig Alexander, and dogs Milo and Maisie, reading CRR while visiting family in Longview this summer
WHERE DO YOU READ THE READER?
Send your photo reading the Reader (high-resolution JPEG) to publisher@crreader.com. For cell phone photos, choose the largest file size up to 2 MB. Include names and cities of residence. Expect an acknowledgment within 5 days of submission; otherwise, please re-send. Thank you for your participation and patience, we usually have a small backlog!
Our escrow officers and underwriters have the experience to help you navigate the most challenging details. That expertise, paired with our unrivaled experience in the market, makes for a smooth transaction and lets you focus on what really matters: providing celebratory closings. Experience a new level of simple. Contact us today.
Port of Kalama
page 17
new and growing small businesses. Unlike the Port’s larger industrial properties, which start at 10,000 square feet, these suites provide a vital steppingstone for local entrepreneurs, much like the commercial spaces inside the Port’s Mountain Timber Market.
Spanning 70 acres, Spencer Creek Station is zoned for a mix of light industrial, business, and commercial uses. Areas near Interstate 5 are planned for commercial ventures like lodging, retail, and convenience stores, while those closer to Haydu Park will support businesses such as office spaces, home furnishings, electronics manufacturing, packaging services. With its charming mill town-inspired design, the site is projected to create 900 jobs, generate $40 million in payroll wages, and contribute $4.5 million in tax revenues.
This development underscores the Port of Kalama’s commitment to enhancing employment opportunities, providing exceptional business facilities, and enriching our community’s quality of life. Don’t miss the celebration—come see the future of Spencer Creek Station!
More Power Technology Group (MPTG) has been named a finalist in the 2025 MSP Titans of the Industry Awards, a recognition for excellence and leadership in the Managed Service Provider Industry.
This nomination places MPTG among a select group of top-performing MSPs and celebrates the work of every day – solving problems, building client trust, and helping businesses stay productive, protected and prepared for what’s next amid the ever-changing technology landscape. “Being selected as a finalist for the MSP Titans of the Industry Awards is a tremendous honor,” said Christopher Leiker, CEO of More Power Technology Group. “As a locally owned and operated provider serving the Pacific Northwest, we take great pride in supporting the essential IT needs of local government, healthcare and small to mid-sized businesses. This recognition reflects the dedication of our entire team and our commitment to empowering our community through secure, reliable and forward-thinking technology solutions.” MPTG is located in Downtown Longview.
EVENT IN ASTORIA
‘Talking Tombstones XX: Trail’s End’
The Clatsop County Historical Society proudly presents: Talking Tombstones XX: Trail’s End on Sunday, October 26 from 1– 4pm at the Clatsop Plains Pioneer Cemetery, Patriot Way, Warrenton, Ore.
With the generous sponsorship of Vancouver Granite Works, this is a FREE event. Donations are welcome. Visitors should plan to arrive no later than 3pm as the “deceased” begin to fade from view as the darkness of night draws near.
For more information about this or other Clatsop County Historical Society events, please call 503-325-2203 or e-mail cchs@cumtux.org.
Clatsop County Historical Society is a 501(C) (3) non-profit educational organization dedicated to preserving and presenting the history of Clatsop County, Oregon, and the surrounding area. The Society operates the Flavel House Museum, the Heritage Museum, the Oregon Film Museum, and the Uppertown Firefighters Museum.
I’m glad fall finally here. It’s my favorite season. Visit page 25. Reading Keats’s “Ode to Autumn,” aloud takes my breath away...especially at high altitudes.
Umbrella Man
Since 2004
Nice crinkly paper
Fun to turn pages
Never needs re-charging
Doesn’t break if you drop it
Made with love
And it’s all local
Thanks for reading
Submission Guidelines
Letters to the Editor (up to 200 words) relevant to the publication’s purpose — helping readers discover and enjoy the good life in the Columbia River region, at home and on the road — are welcome. Longer pieces, or excerpts thereof, in response to previously-published articles, may be printed at the discretion of the publisher and subject to editing and space limitations.
Items sent to CRR will be considered for publication unless the writer specifies otherwise. Writer’s name and phone number must be included; anonymous submissions will not be considered.
Political Endorsements CRR is a monthly publication serving readers in several towns, three counties, two states and beyond, and does not publish Letters to the Editor that are endorsements or criticisms of political candidates or controversial issues. (Paid ad space is available.)
Unsolicited submissions may be considered, provided they are consistent with the publication’s purpose. Advance contact with the editor is recommended. Information of general interest submitted by readers may be used as background or incorporated in future articles.
Outings & Events calendar (free listing): Events must be open to the public. Non-profit organizations and the arts, entertainment, educational and recreational opportunities and community cultural events will receive listing priority. Fundraisers must be sanctioned/sponsored by the benefiting non-profit organization. Commercial projects, businesses and organizations wishing to promote their particular products or services are invited to purchase advertising.
ADVERTISING Deadlines, see page 3. Ned Piper, Manager
Send your non-commercial community event info (incl name of event, beneficiary, sponsor, date & time, location, brief description and contact info) to publisher@crreader.com
Or mail or hand-deliver (in person or via mail slot) to:
Columbia River Reader 1333 14th, Longview, WA 98632
Submission Deadlines
Events occurring:
Nov 25, 2025 – Jan 18, 2026 by Nov 5 for Nov 25 Holiday issue.
Jan 15 – Feb 20, 2026 by Dec 26 for Jan 15 issue
Calendar submissions are considered for inclusion, subject to lead time, relevance to readers, and space limitations.
See Submission Guidelines above.
BROADWAY GALLERY
1418 Commerce Avenue, Longview Tues thru Sat, 11–4. Visit the Gallery to see new work. For event updates check our website: the-broadway-gallery.com, at Broadway Gallery on Facebook, and broadway gallery longview on Instagram.
November: Gallery artist Noel Datin McDonald, ceramic art; Guest artist Ray Baxter, paintings
Outings & Events
FIRST THURSDAY Nov 6th
5:30–7pm. Join us for New Art, Refreshments, and Live Music!
New Fall Classes & workshops available; details on our website or in gallery.
HOLIDAY OPENING Sat, Nov 15, 11–5. Music & Refreshments all day.
Unique gifts, beautiful artisan cards, jewelry, books by local authors, wearable art, original paintings, pottery, sculpture, photographs and MORE!
OPEN
Tues - Sat 11–4
Free Gift Wrap on request.
Voted one of top 3 Galleries in SW Washington.
Columbia River Reader / October 15, 2025
Book Sale Oct 17-18, 10am–4pm; Oct 19, 10am–1pm. First floor, Longview Public Library, Longview, Wash. Friends of the Longview Public Library, proceeds benefit Library programs. Info: See Letter to Editor and ad, page 4
SWW Symphony Fall Concerts Sat, Oct 18, 7pm; Sun, Oct. 19, 3pm. LCC Rose Center Wollenberg Auditorium. See ad, facing page. Northwest Voices Lidia Yuyknavitch Thurs, Oct 23. 3–4:30pm workshop, Lower Columbia College, Main 148; 5:30pm reading, Longview Public Library. Info: longviewlibrary.org. Children’s Fair for all ages, Sat, Oct 25, 10am–4pm, McBride Elementary School, Columbia Blvd. and Sykes Road, St. Helens, Ore. Activities, Info, entertainment. 40+ vendors, agencies, activities, treats, all for free. Balloon creations and The Reptile Show. Come in costume if you choose.
Harvest Fest at Stella Lutheran Chapel Oct 25, 4–6pm, 124 Sherman Road, west of Longview via Ocean Beach Hwy. Turn on Germany Creek, 2 miles, follow signs. Smoked bratwurst dinner, silent auction, raffles, door prizes. $15 Donation. Info 360-703-1656. Menu and other details, page 38.
Agnes of God thru Oct 26. Fri-Sat, 7:30pm; Sun, 2pm. Stageworks Northwest, 1433 Commerce, Longview, Wash. 360-6364488. Tickets Adults $25; Students/Seniors/ Veterans $18. Friends/Family 20% off with Code SNW20. stageworksnorthwest.org. Thought-provoking mystery wrestles with faith, trauma, and truth Best for ages 16 and older.
Quincy Grange Halloween Carnival Oct. 31, 5–pm, at grange hall, 78314 Rutters Rd., Clatskanie, Ore. (follow signs from Clatskanie). Games, bingo, prize store, dinner & snacks in Tombstone Cafe. Fun & affordable for the whole family. Info: Barb 503-728-4143 or Ellen 503-728-2886. Proceeds benefit scholarships, youth programs, and community events
See “story, page 32
Continuing the Harvest Clatskanie Kiwanis Annual Gala, Prime rib dinner & auction. Nov. 1, ad, page 38
Holiday Bazaar Sat. Nov. 8, 9am –3pm. Kitchen will be selling homemade Beef Stew Meal, 10am– 2pm. Rainier Riverfront Center, Rainier Senior Center, 48 W.7th. St., Rainier Ore. Info: 503-556-3889 Do your Christmas shopping early...19 vendor tables to shop from.
A Joyous Holiday Bazaar Kelso United Methodist Presbyterian Church. Sat., Nov. 8, 9am-5pm. 206 Cowlitz Way, Kelso. Homemade crafts, food, gifts, & two Santa visits. Benefits local charities. Ad, pg 37.
Translating, Transcribing, Summarizing Documents Using AI Thomas MacEntee, genealogist, author and blogger. Nov. 13. Virtual doors “open” 6:30pm. Program 7pm. Public invited, but non-members won’t have access to speaker’s handout. Join for $20/year. For link to join meeting or lower columbia Genealogical Society, contact lcgsgen@yahoo. com 24 hours prior to event.
LCC Symphonic Band Nov 21, 7:30pm, Rose Center for the Arts, Lower Columbia College, Longviiew.
Mount St. Helens Club HIKES - newcomers welcome
See schedule, page 10
watercolorized
2025
Concerts all
Saturday, Oct.18 - 7:00
Sunday, Oct. 19 - 3:00
Wollenberg Auditorium
LCC Rose Center for the Arts
A celebration of the 150th anniversary of Ravel’s birth
Piano Concerto in G Major
Thanks to generous donors all concerts this season are free! Find out more at swwsymphony.org or by calling 360-430-0960
THE MINTHORN COLLECTION OF CHINESE ART
A gift to the community from Dr. and Mrs. H. Minthorn via Lower Columbia College Foundation, The Minthorn Collection of Chinese Art encompasses a wide range of styles and is displayed in the upper level of the Forsberg Gallery in LCC’s Rose Center, open M-Th 10–3. Free.
Saturday,Nov 8, 7:30pm
Tickets: Adult $25; Senior/ Students $23, Child $20
CLATSKANIE ARTS COMMISSION
Performance at Birkenfeld Theatre, Clatskanie Cultural Center, Clatskanie, Ore.
Tickets / Info: www.clatskaniearts.org
by Hal Calbom
in the spotlight
They started singing gospel. Then they found their own voices — as instruments in the band.
This month they’re IN THE SPOTLIGHT...
Band of Brothers
Naturally 7 brings their ‘vocal playing’ to Longview’s Columbia Theatre
Sometimes people think these are real instruments,” laughed Roger Thomas in our recent phone conversation. “So for our new show we decided to break it down, slow it down, and show people how we’re really creating these sounds.”
Thomas and his Naturally 7 bring their “Closer Look” show to the Columbia Theatre on Saturday, Nov. 8.
This phenomenal septet is in fact a chorus of human-produced instrumental sounds. Their signature mixture of a cappella and astonishment they call ‘vocal playing,” has been wowing audiences worldwide for more than 25 years.
Hal Calbom is associate publisher with CRRPress,and produces CRR’s monthly “People+Place” feature, see page 19.
“Sixty-seven countries, forty-eight states,” said Thomas. “We’re still trying to get to Alaska and Hawaii.”
Seven distinct voices — each of which not only vocalizes but becomes an instrument, or several different instruments — create this remarkable ensemble.
“I don’t think anyone is ‘imitating’ a horn or drums or guitar,” said Thomas, the band’s chief arranger and founder. “We truly become the instrument, even down to the body language. We become a fullblown band.”
Raised on gospel with common roots in New York City, the founders took to a cappella, but immediately started stretching the form. “Probably the best word for our repertoire is ‘hybrid,’” said Thomas. “We do everything. And we do it differently from almost everybody else.”
They also give back. On a recent tour of the Netherlands, Naturally 7 supplemented performances with Master Classes in the afternoons. “The kids are completely fascinated with using your voice to create an instrument,” he said. And the adults love hearing their favorites voiced as never before.
You’re Invited! Harvest Fest at Stella Lutheran Chapel Oct. 25th
Enjoy a scenic fall drive west of Longview along Ocean Beach Hwy., to the historic Stella area. Turn onto Germany Creek Rd.; continue two miles, follow signs to 124 Sherman Road..
Kitchen staff will prepare a delicious Bratwurst Dinner. Visit with friends and neighbors while browsing a wide selection of silent auction items created and donated by local artisans and members of Stella Lutheran Chapel. Purchase raffle tickets for our 50/50 jackpot and be sure to hold onto your dinner ticket for a chance to win door prizes. The silent auction closes at 6pm.
Dinner, served from 4pm to 5:45pm includes Smoked Bratwurst on a Bun, Coleslaw, Sauerkraut, Chips, Pie, Coffee and Apple Cider. Suggested Donation: $15 at the door. Seating is limited; please call to make a reservation. Proceeds benefit Stella Lutheran Chapel’s Outreach Ministries. Serving the community since 1948. Phone: 360-703-1656.
the Spotlight from page 37
The group spends about 150 days a year on the road, and still counts four original members among its ranks.
I asked Thomas if, like many other musicians, he and his colleagues were impacted by the decline of recording revenue.
“I can tell you that for all intents and purposes, we’re on the way to AI destroying the recording business,” he said. “But I’m less pessimistic than I was about a year ago.”
He sees an uptick via the kind of work he does, “where we go out of the way to emphasize the human side
IConversation with a writer
’m a sucker for a good mystery and look forward to browsing at the Friends of the Longview Library’s upcoming book sale. I’ve discovered new favorite authors and picked up some good books at these sales over the years. Maybe I’ll see you at the library on Oct 17-18-19 (details, page 4).
My all-time favorite book is titled Booked to Die, by John Dunning. I was so taken by the story, and by Dunning’s skillful writing, that I wrote him a fan letter. I mailed it to his publisher, not expecting a response.
But three months later a postcard arrived from Dunning’s wife saying John had received so much mail it would be a while before he could respond to my letter.
Two months later, I received a two-pager from Dunning, thanking me for reading and enjoying his book, which had been two years in the writing.
In my letter, I’d mentioned that I, too, was a writer, unpublished, but ever hopeful that I would find a literary agent who could get one of my draft novels published.
We exchanged letters for several months. In one, I wrote something like: I was having a beer at a local blues bar and overheard a man sitting nearby tell his buddy, ‘I went to the Blue Note last night.’ His friend asked who was playing, and the guy replied, ‘I can’t remember, but he sure played a bad sax. Wow, I thought, what a great title for a book. In fact, I decided to use “Bad Sax” as the name of the novel I was working on at the time.
When I wrote to Dunning that I was excited to have finished my “Bad Sax” manuscript in only eight weeks, his letter back to me, his last, was short.
It read: Eight weeks, huh? Maybe that’s why you’re not published.
Longview resident Ned Piper is mostly retired, but assists with CRR ads and distribution — when he is not enjoying TV sports, movies, or political talk (wrangling) shows. But maybe he’ll get back to work on his unfinished/ unpublished novels.
of it. Turns out we were in a good place all along,” he noted. “Already we hear people, not just industry people, sorting out the real and the not-real.”
And no matter how adept a computer and its algorithms might be, they have yet to supplant the magic of live performance and the interactivity of a rapt audience and a performer, especially one who’s acting as his own musical instrument.
IF YOU GO Naturally 7 Sat., Nov 8, 7:30pm Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts 1231 Vandercook Way Longview, Wash.
Tickets $45/40/20 columbiatheatre.com
“We promise the audience a great show,” said Thomas. “With ‘Closer Look,’ we’ll take a number of songs, strip them down, dissect them, then build them back up.”
Few groups can offer both worldclass performances and a look inside the creative machinery, the very human machinery, of their creations.
By Alice Dietz, Cowlitz PUD Communications/Public Relations Manager
Cowlitz PUD volunteers raise $47,000 for Warm Neighbor Fund
Cowlitz PUD has announced this year’s Weekend for Warm Neighbor fundraising event raised $47,000. This milestone reflects the unwavering commitment of Cowlitz PUD volunteers, the leadership of the Weekend for Warm Neighbor Planning Committee, and the generosity of sponsors and participants.
from page 38
The event’s title sponsor was 1898 & Co. Supporting sponsors were Bell Lumber & Pole, Columbia Wellness, The Okonite Company, Pac Tech, JH Kelly, BlueScope, OneSource, Schnabel Engineering, Propel Insurance, and Lower Columbia Longshore Federal Credit Union. Their contributions helped make the achievement possible. For more than 25 years, the Warm Neighbor Fund has played a vital role in the community, offering assistance to
families in Cowlitz County who struggle to pay their electric bills but do not qualify for other aid programs. Funded entirely through donations, special events, and employee contributions, the program continues to be a lifeline for many.
This year’s success was driven by two key events:
Eat for Heat
This locally-sourced meal kit program remains a community favorite. Since its launch in 2017, it has served more than 2,000 meals, raised $80,000 for the
A Different Way of Seeing...
Warm Neighbor Fund, and supported local businesses with $70,000 in purchases from restaurants, breweries, wineries, and farms. This year, Eat for Heat partnered with United Way’s Day of Caring and FISH to expand its reach and impact.
A Weekend for Warm Neighbor
This annual event now includes the Warm Neighbor Golf Tournament, introduced in 2024, and building on the momentum of Eat for Heat. Last year’s inaugural weekend raised more than $28,000. This year surpassed
THE TIDEWATER REACH Field Guide to the Lower Columbia in Poems and Pictures
THREE EDITIONS • $25, $35, $50
By Robert Michael Pyle and Judy VanderMaten
“Tidewater Reach is a pleasure to hold; it provokes delights, both intellectual and emotional. I commend all who were involved in bringing us this treasure. It deserves a place on your bookshelf and in your heart.”
-- Cate Gable, “Coast Chronicles,” Chinook Observer, Long Beach, Wash.
DISPATCHES FROM THE DISCOVERY TRAIL
A Layman’s Lewis & Clark $35
by Michael O. Perry
that with a record-breaking $47,000, bringing the effort within reach of its annual fundraising goal of $48,000. Because of the dedication and generosity of the community, Weekend for Warm Neighbor is poised to exceed its goal and extend support to even more families in need.
Alice Dietz may be reached at adietz@ cowlitzpud.org, or 360-501-9146.
Order Form, page 2. Or call 360-749-1021 FREE local delivery. Or purchase
Books also available at:
• Columbia Gorge Interpretive Museum Stevenson
• Broadway Gallery Longview
• Cowlitz County Historical Museum Shop Kelso
• Kelso-Longview Visitor Center, Kelso
• Vault Books & Brew Castle Rock
• Tsuga Gallery Cathlamet
• Redmen Hall Skamokawa
• Skamokawa Store Skamokawa
• Appelo Archives Naselle
• Time Enough Books Ilwaco
• Marie Powell Gallery Ilwaco
• Godfathers Books Astoria, Ore.
• RiverSea Gallery Astoria,Ore.
• Columbia Gorge Discovery Center & Museum The Dalles, Ore.
