"Hold These Truths" at ACT Theatre Hits Close to Home With This Reviewer

Actor Ryun Yu in the role of Gordon Hirabuyashi at ACT   Photo: Michael Lamont

When I attended the press opening of  Hold These Truths—a play by Jeanne Sakata about the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII—my body might have been at ACT-A Contemporary Theatre, in Seattle, but my mind was in the strawberry fields across the road from my childhood home. We lived on nearby Vashon Island, and our Japanese-American neighbors owned those fields. 

By my early teens, I was aware of the fact that this fine family, the Matsudas, had spent time in internment camps during WWII, even while their son served in the 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team, but no one talked about this during the 1960s when I picked strawberries on the Matsuda farm for a summer job, alongside my siblings and friends. It was not a topic of conversation in our home either, although initially it must have deeply upset my parents. I knew they thought it wrong. I was born as next to the youngest in a large family, but the Matsudas had always been friends, good neighbors, and went to the same church. I was brought up to respect them. I could tell that this past, the years when their modest farm house stood empty, represented a touchy subject, carrying a sense of embarrassment and shame, but it was before my time. If there had been any outrage in the community over this injustice, little trace of it remained evident during my youth.

As an adult, I read a book published in 2005 by a member of the Matsuda family, Mary Matsuda Gruenewald. She gave it the title of Looking Like the Enemy-My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese-American Internment Camps. Mary was a teenager when she, along with her parents and brother, were abruptly evacuated from their island home, as were as many as 120,000 other Japanese-Americans on the West Coast. After I read her book, I loaned it to my father, who was by then in his nineties. I will never forget how profoundly it affected him. When he read about how the Matsudas purposefully destroyed their precious family heirlooms and photographs to avoid any appearance of loyalty to Japan, he felt extremely sad, saying if he had only known he would have gladly stored and protected their belongings for them until the war's end. Whether of not it occurred to my parents or others in our community to dig into the truths of our neighbors horrible and unjust experiences, or whether or not they stopped to imagine the sacrifices involved, I cannot say. I know my father and others seemed to believe the internment actually might have protected the Japanese from violence, but who can say? Surely that protection could have been provided in a more humane way. 

My father was old enough to remember the arrival of Japanese families on the island during the 1920s and how well they were accepted, how their children and the island's other children happily attended school together and became good friends. By 1936, 37 Japanese families lived on Vashon. All contributed to and participated in that small society. The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the anti-Japanese prejudice that followed, would change everything. That it was a time of confusion and uncertainty for all does not erase the horribly wrong acts that followed.

Ryun Yu as Gordon Hirabayashi
Photo: Michael Lamont 

That change in how the government and society viewed Japanese-Americans and how it impacted the life of a young Seattleite and University of Washington student named Gordon Hirabayashi (1918-2012) is the basis for the play Hold These Truths, which opened on July 17 and runs through August 16. In this one-man show, actor Ryun Yu, in his role as Hirabayashi, tells the true story of how his character came to be one of only three Japanese-Americans to openly defy the government's orders. He refused to report for evacuation to an internment camp. For his defiance, he found himself behind bars. His first conviction was for a curfew violation in 1942 when he stayed at the university's library to study, like other students, instead of going home by 8 p.m. He turned himself in to the FBI and served 90 days in prison. Then, in 1943, his case was appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which ruled against him, resulting in his year-long incarceration in a federal prison. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit finally overturned Hirabayashi's conviction in 1987, by which time the revelations of previously hidden documents proved that there had never been any military reason for Executive Order 9066, which deprived Japanese-Americans of their rights and freedom, even for those who were born here and had full citizenship. That order, by the way, could have been applied to Americans of German or Italian heritage too, but never was. The majority of the Japanese, naturally law-abiding, complied with the order, just as the majority of non-Japanese citizens also felt the government could not be opposed, even it they truly wanted to oppose it. Then, like now, many seized the opportunity to justify their prejudices and exploit the misfortunes of others. Sometimes even good people, in difficult situations, do not know how, or if, they should become involved, regardless of their beliefs. That is why Hirabayashi, who boldly lived his beliefs, was a hero.

In addition to becoming more educated about American history, those who attend this play will experience being in another's shoes, a reminder of how we humans are far more alike than we think we are. Yu does a fine job of bringing into our consciousness the young Hirabayashi, who was no different any other college student, except for his ethnicity and perhaps the fact that he likely had more knowledge of the Constitution than his peers, and loved it. He was proud to be American born, a citizen, like them. He worried about his grades, wanted to have fun, fell in love, like them. He also became a Quaker and pacifist. 

Ryun Yu as Gordon Hirabayashi
Credit: Michael Lamont 

It cannot be easy to be the sole actor on a stage set with nothing but three wooden chairs for props and enhanced by some dramatic lighting, both designed by Ben Zamora, but Yu manages to stimulate the imagination to the point of painting his own scenery with words, under the direction of Jessica Kubzansky. At times, he uses the voices of others with whom he has conversations, and that aspect was the cause of my only slight concern. The accents he used were right on for some of these invisible characters, but as a native of the Northwest, I was puzzled when a milder version of a southern drawl, or perhaps a Hollywood cowboy western drawl, seemed to tint his renditions of our Northwest dialect. Someone else, I know who saw the play more recently did not notice this.

I highly recommend Hold These Truths for its ability to both move us deeply and enlighten us, through personalization, on the topic of one of our nation's most shameful and ugly periods. The seriousness of the subject made the play's many moments of humor surprising and a relief. Yu is convincing as Hirabayashi and will cause you to go home with respect and admiration for this hero, his courage and convictions. 

Ryun Yu as Gordon Hirabayashi
Photo: Michael Lamont 

Writing this, my memories of three generations of the Matsuda family swirl through my head. No finer, more honorable, members of our community ever existed. I am a better person for having known and worked for them during my childhood. In fact, my father always said, "The Matsudas helped me raise my kids," referring to their examples of a strong work ethic, commitment, fairness, and other virtues. When some other kids quit picking as the summer heat came on and the berries grew smaller and the fields dustier, we stayed, taught that employment was a two-way street. The Matsudas paid us for picking, but they also counted on us to be there to help bring in the crop. Even though our government had let them down, our parents were not about to let us do the same, even on such a small scale.

In the prologue to Looking Like the Enemy, author Mary Matsuda Gruenewald, who was nearly 80 years old when she wrote the book, penned words she might have said to her innocent four-year-old self as seen in an old photo, a happy and secure child. 

"Have faith in your family and the ultimate goodness of people," would have been her advice. "Especially have faith in yourself to survive the catastrophic events yet to come. In spite of all the terror, pain, depression, and tears in your future, you will reach a final hopeful conclusion."

I am so glad I saw Hold These Truths. The real facts of history, like a strawberry on a vine too close to the ground, sometimes become soiled with dirt that hides the truth. Only when we brush it away, turn it over, examine it's shiny redness in the honest light of the sun, then taste it for ourselves, can we perceive whether it is bitter with decay or filled with sweetness. The lives of all people, and the nations they live in, always contain a portion of both.

Please visit and "like" Good Life Northwest on Facebook.

ROGER FERNANDES, NATIVE AMERICAN ARTIST AND STORYTELLER TO VISIT VASHON ISLAND JAN. 24

photo courtesy of Roger Fernandes and VMIHA

Roger Fernandes, or Kawasa, as his fellow members of the Lower Elwha Band of S'Klallam Indians near Port Angeles call him, has strong feelings about how stories should be shared. This tribal historian, artist, and teacher specializing in Coast Salish art, does not believe stories should be trapped inside books.

"The true power of storytelling comes when the moisture of the teller's breath gives life and power to the story," Fernandes says.

Prepare to experience the power for yourself. 

Fernandes will visit Vashon Island on Saturday evening, January 24, to share stories in the way he believes is best, as he presents a special program called "Teachings of the First People." This FREE public event takes place at 6:30 p.m. at the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust building at 10014 SW Bank Road, and will include legends, myths, creation stories, and flood stories meant to bring a sense of Northwest Native American culture to the children and adults who attend and help them understand it better. 

This evening of storytelling is offered in conjunction with the Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Association's museum exhibit called "Vashon Island's Native People: Navigating Seas of Change," and is sponsored by VMIHA, Humanities Washington and others*. The museum exhibit runs through March 15, 2015, at 10105 SW Bank Road, in the heart of the town of Vashon, but the story telling event takes place only on January 24 at the Land Trust building. 

A trip to the island and an evening of storytelling would be a nice way to spend some quality time with your family and a learning experience that will enrich your own life. To get a taste of the talents of Roger Fernandes, listen to a few tales here. To see some of his artwork, please click here. And for your convenience, here is the ferry schedule.

For more information~

Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Association

10105 Bank Road SW

PO Box 723

Vashon Island, Washington 98070
206-463-7808
admin@vashonheritage.org

Additional sponsors are:

4Culture

Puget Sound Energy

DIG

Beth de Groen

Rick's Diagnostic & Repair Service

The Hardware Store Restaurant

John L. Scott Real Estate

Northwest School of Animal Massage

Please visit Good Life Northwest on Facebook.

MUSEUM EXHIBIT ON VASHON ISLAND REVEALS ITS FIRST NATIVE INHABITANTS

Artwork by Shaun Peterson

I am proud that my ancestors were among the earliest pioneers to settle on Vashon Island in Puget Sound, literally camping under a gigantic fallen tree until they could build a house, but now I'm reassessing the significance of their bold adventure in light of a new exhibit at the Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Association's Museum. The truth is, other people's ancestors precede mine by thousands of years. Yes, thousands. I grew up on the island as the fifth generation of my family there and am learning from this exhibit, called "Vashon Island's Native People: Navigating Seas of Change," running now through March 15, 2015. The co-curators are Laurie Tucker and Rayna Holtz.

Although my relatives were among the first Caucasians to establish themselves on Vashon, a group of Native Americans called the "sxwobabc"—meaning "swift water people," part of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians—had already been on the island for so long that my family's presence occurred in what is the equivalent of the last few seconds on the time continuum of human habitation in that place of shadowy forests, meadows, and driftwood strew beaches. In their carved cedar canoes, they glided over the waters between their own villages and others in nearby places that would come to be called Gig Harbor and Commencement Bay. You can read more about the sxwobabc people Vashon History.

Ghosts must walk the beach on Quartermaster Harbor. In the same place where my ancestors first stepped ashore in 1880, the original inhabitants once lived in thriving villages and built a longhouse. During my childhood, I knew some Native Americans had lived on the island, and a few still did, blending into the background of our small town society, but I had no concept of the extent or significance of the native settlements there. 

Lucy Gerand digging clams in Quartermaster Harbor — photo courtesy of VMIHA

A baby girl born in that longhouse on Quartermaster Harbor, in 1843, grew up to be Lucy Slagham Gerand. So what happened her and to the other native residents of Vashon Island who preceded her? By the time my relatives arrived, rather late in the era of western expansion, the inevitable clash of vastly different cultures had already taken its toll on the native people. Diseases to which they had no resistance ravaged the population, and the rapid pace of white settlement saw them displaced and sent to live on reservations, all within the short span of one generation. 

As a nine-year-old, Lucy went to the mainland with her parents to witness the signing of a misleading treaty in 1854. It manipulated the Puyallup Tribe into giving up valuable land and set in motion a future that would bring a century or more of prejudice, discrimination, and hardship before they would thrive again.  Eventually, as a grown woman, she moved back to Vashon with her husband, John Slagham. The pioneers all knew and remembered her well, which means my own family members did too. In 1918, she told an anthropologist the names the sxwobabc gave to places on the island, and later, in 1927, in a U.S. Court of Claims, she further described the island villages she remembered from her childhood and provided more details of daily life. If not for this one person, we would all have remained ignorant, as ignorant as even the island's first white historian apparently was.

I grew up in an era where ideas of our country's history were still influenced by the concept of Manifest Destiny. It is chilling to go even farther back in time and look at evidence of prevailing attitudes in the past. A book published in 1935 titled "History of Vashon-Maury Islands," by O.S. Van Olinda includes the following incorrect and particularly disturbing statements: 

"The first residents of the island were, of course, Indians, but they cannot by any stretch of the imagination be called 'settlers,' because they did not settle. They wandered about from place to place, living where the living was easiest, on the game, fish, clams and wild berries and roots. They did no farming and tended no flocks. The did nothing to better their own condition. The Puget Sound Indian, in fact, is classed, even by other Indian tribes, as the about the lowest form of human existence." 

In other words, a society living simply and in harmony with nature—in a place that happened to offer a mild climate and so much natural abundance—was scorned by many of the white newcomers, even though that culture was actually ancient and complex, richly spiritual, and infused everyday life and everyday objects with art. It was seen as somehow lazy and suspect to have a culture not built on the aggressive struggle required of the pioneers. The exploitation of resources and dominance over the land and every living thing on it were seen by them as both rights and virtues, all part of a completely different way of viewing the relationship of humans to their environment. 

My ancestors were good people, and I am proud of their boldness, vision, hard work, and the community they helped to build. They did not personally displace the native population, and I know enough about them to know they would have treated all people kindly. Yet, as one who has always considered myself a "native" of the island, even though I don't live there now, I want to pay homage to the true natives whose lives were so harshly impacted by the earlier invasion of people who looked a lot like me. Although Native Americans still face challenges, the Puyallup Tribe is now prospering. You can learn more about their culture and that of Vashon's first residents through this outstanding exhibit. 

The museum is easy to find. From ferry terminals on either the north or south ends of the island, just take the main road to the one blinking traffic light in the village of Vashon and turn west onto Bank Road SW. On the next block, on the south side of the street, you'll see a little yellow former church building with the number 10105, at and that's it. If you want a map and better directions, click here.

The museum has also scheduled a presentation on September 13, 2014 by notable Native American artist and recognized expert on South Coast Salish Design Shaun Peterson, whose native name is Qwalsius. Thanks to a grant from 4-Culture, the VMIHA commission him to create the sculpture seen on the poster above, made of red and yellow cedar, steel, and glass, celebrating the ties between the Puyallup Tribe and Vashon Island. According to co-curator Laurie Tucker, "He'll be speaking about the differences between southern and northern Coast Salish art, and about Puyallup Tribe culture. He'll show photos of his work, which includes many public installations."

Shaun Peterson with his son Kai, with sculpture, on opening night — photo courtesy of VMIHA

Laurie also had this to say about the exhibit: "Scott Jones and Yvonne Lever have worked in museums for many years in various capacities, and we were very fortunate to have their help with the design and installation. We also met monthly with Brandon Reynon, who is an archaeologist with the Puyallup Tribe's Historic Preservation Department. He did a lot to guide our storyline, provided photos from the Tribe's collections, made corrections and answered our many questions with grace and patience. 

Sandra Noel did graphic design work, producing a wonderful 'Seasonal Round' wheel with her drawings illustrating the seasonal activities of native people, before contact with Europeans. My sister, Lissa Mayer, spent three very long days helping with the installation. Many others helped with construction, painting the gallery, building display furniture, proof-reading, opening night festivities, publicity....so much help!

Our husbands and children also helped a lot, both with support during all of the hard work and time spent planning, and with actual work during the gallery preparation and installation of the exhibit."

Her co-curator, Rayna Holtz, added: "Brandon Reynon's assistant, Nicole Barandon, has been especially warm and helpful to us in planning and publicizing the Karen Reed weaving program.  And we deeply appreciate the response of Teresa Harvey, a teacher at Chief Leschi School, who answered our invitation to celebrate the exhibit opening weekend by bringing a troupe of Chief Leschi Song and Dance students, who performed traditional dances on the grass by the Vashon Library and then toured the exhibit."

All contacts with members of the Puyallup Tribe have helped us shape this exhibit to tell the stories of their ancestors more accurately and respectfully."

After so many people have worked so hard to bring us this wonderful exhibit, wouldn't you like to see it? Of course you would. Here is all you need:

Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Association

10105 Bank Road SW

PO Box 723

Vashon Island, Washington 98070
206-463-7808
admin@vashonheritage.org

The Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Association thanks the sponsors who have made this exhibit possible, including 4Culture, Puget Sound Energy, DIG, Beth de Groen, Rick’s Diagnostic & Repair Service, The Hardware Store, John L. Scott Real Estate, and the Northwest School of Animal Massage. The exhibit will close March 15, 2015. For more information, go to www.vashonheritage.org .

Please visit and "like" Good Life Northwest on Facebook.

Hydrangeas -- Blue and (making me) Sentimental

Dear Readers,

 I know many of you love hydrangeas as much as I do, so even though this post was originally published during the month of July in a past year, I felt like offering it again. This little story makes me feel good. I hope it will do the same for you. May the rest of your summer bring wonderful experiences you will someday savor as memories, as I do my own from childhood.

The gardener learns many lessons from plants, and here are two:

1.) Life is determined to go on.
2.) Nothing is inconsequential.

I think of these lessons when I see the hydrangeas in Point Defiance Park, here in Tacoma, as well as in my own garden.

Family stories always start out on what seemed like an ordinary day. Even though I hadn’t been born yet, I can picture the day when this story began, decades ago. I can see it in my mind, partly because I know July in the Northwest, or at least what it ought to be. July is when summer’s first flush of color is over, the lawn turns brown, and everything slows down. It’s the month of wet bathing suits hanging on the clothesline, mirages of heat hovering over blacktop, and baby pears forming on the trees. It had to be July because hydrangeas were blooming. Some things never change.

Hydrangeas at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma

At our place on Vashon Island our long, graveled driveway ran east in a straight line from what everyone called “the main road" and passed right by the seldom used front entrance of our old house before heading toward the back. A few steps alongside a bed of orange and yellow nasturtiums brought you to the screen door on the utility porch, which led to the kitchen. The welcome felt humble but warm. On summer days, the inner door to the kitchen stayed open and the outer screen door slammed about every two minutes, with kids running in and out.

I picture the day when this story begins as sunny, warm, and dry. I can’t tell you what occupied my mother at that hour, but something did, one of her endless household chores. Or she might have already been outside hanging clothes on the line or weeding a flowerbed. In any case, a car pulled into driveway, raising a little dust that hung in the still, warm air and she looked up to see who it was. 

 A friend, on the way to somewhere, had picked a big blue blossom from her own hydrangea bush and pulled up to our house to give my mother this small gift. I can picture Mom’s smile, the way she stood next to the open car window, holding the hydrangea bloom in her hand while they talked. And talked. And talked. Finally, she got tired of holding the top-heavy stem with its mop of little blue flowers, and she turned around and stuck it into a flowerbed next to the house.

Now that hydrangea cutting, like a newborn baby snipped from the umbilical cord, was shocked but still full of life. My mother poked it into the rich soil right near where an outdoor faucet jutted out from the wall, a place of perpetual dampness from the hose or the filling of the old galvanized watering can. She just stuck it there while they talked some more and eventually forgot about it. The friend drove off and the day went on. The little cutting, however, felt the damp soil and at some level of cellular awareness knew to start sending out its first small hairs of roots.



Do you ever think of how life is like a kaleidoscope, each colorful little piece of it ready to be shifted and changed at the slightest touch? When a branch is broken or pruned, growth takes off in a new direction. The encouraging or discouraging word affects the child’s mind. Intentionally or not, everything we do turns the cylinder just enough to tumble those pieces into a whole new design. The thoughts of a friend, the gift of a flower, the contact with moist soil, all worked together in an act of creation, and the next spring my mother noticed that the little cutting hidden among the weeds had rooted and lived and was sending out new growth. Over the summer it grew larger. By the next year, we had a hydrangea bush next to the house.

That hydrangea, embodying the hue of the sky on a perfect summer day, became part of home and my childhood. I can’t picture riding my bike down the driveway, being up in the limbs of the adjacent willow tree, or looking out the sewing room window without seeing it there, beautiful and enduring. Like my mother, its glory shone without pretension. Not as delicate or fussy as a rose, not as fragile as a lily, it graced our home in a quiet, charming way, always reliable, never demanding, just there. Maybe we took both it and her for granted.

That hydrangea witnessed the growth of a family. It witnessed kids learning to ride bikes. It witnessed teenaged daughters being kissed by the boyfriends who walked them to the door on summer nights as crickets chirped in the moonlight. It caught the sun's first rays from the east, at dawn. It made a good hiding place for cats seeking shade in the heat of the afternoon. I have a photo of myself standing in front of it with my brother, both of us in new clothes. It was taken on some September morning, our first day back at school. The flowers seemed to last forever, but when they finally turned tan and dry, and winter came, we always knew that in a few months buds would swell on the branches once again.

Now I am older than my mother was on that day long ago. I don’t live on the island anymore, but I still love hydrangeas. I even have a few in my own yard. As lovely as they are, they can only be reminders of the one at our old place, and the lessons it illustrated in shades of summer sky blue. Still, I’m grateful for this reminder that life pulses all around us, nature struggling against the abuses it endures, always hopeful, always attempting renewal.

 So how, today, will you shift the pieces of the kaleidoscope of your life? What will you do today to create a small change that can become a big change in a garden, the life of a child, the depth of a relationship, or the future of the planet Earth? The blue and sentimental hydrangea still has lessons to teach, if you only open your eyes and your heart.

Copyright 2012 Candace J. Brown 

If you enjoyed this post, please "like" Good Life Northwest on Facebook or subscribe to receive posts by email. Thank you!

"CATS™” Has Theatre Fans on Vashon Island Purring

Good Life Northwest congratulates Drama Dock and Director Elizabeth Ripley, as well as a great cast and crew, on their production of the musical CATS™ .


Photo by Tom Hughes               Graphic art by Lillian Ripley



As I took the ferry from Tacoma to Vashon Island on Friday night to see a show, such delightful serendipity awaited. Elizabeth Ripley, an independent musical and vocal director, certified, Meisner Acting Teacher, and Pacific Northwest Representative of Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York has done it again, only more so. Not everyone could take a cast of 41 young thespians (as young as age eleven) and pull off such a grand production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's famous 1981 musical CATS™, the second longest to ever run on Broadway. I would strongly encourage you to make the trip to the island to see it, except it sold out early. No wonder.

While serving as artistic director of Drama Dock, a non-profit community theatre on Vashon Island, Ripley founded Drama Dock's Youth Theatre Initiative in 2010. CATS™ is the Initiative's sixth production and topping this one won't be easy. She told me it would be "an epic production" and it is.

Every second of the show displayed six week's worth of hard work, dedication, and discipline by everyone involved, but how they accomplished so much in that time I do not know. The choreography stunned. How mesmerizing to see all those "cats" moving together with such synchronization when called for, or leaping, twisting, caressing, so beautifully. The effects of live music, directed by Christopher Overstreet, the  scenery, lighting, costumes, makeup (distinctly different for each of 41 cats), and some powerful singing made it magical. Maya Krah's rendition of the song "Memory" in her role of the old cat Grizabella, enraptured the audience with its beauty. All the singing was excellent. At other times, we gasped over acrobatics and marveled at how well all those complex lyrics were delivered.

I could go on and on, but let it be enough to say that some exciting things are happening with this Youth Theatre Initiative on Vashon Island. Don't let a short ride on a ferry keep you from experiencing what this community has to offer to the arts scene in the Pacific Northwest. Pay special attention to Elizabeth Ripley. Who knows what she will produce next? After already devoting 35 years of her life to theater, she has many more surprises in store.

For more details see Elizabeth Sheppard's article in the Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber.

 

Now you can "like" Good Life on Facebook.

 

TO LET IT ROT, OR NOT — TACOMA TOTEM POLE CONTOVERSY NEARLY IGNORES PRESIDENTIAL HISTORY

                           postcard image loaned by Reed Fitzpatrick

One hundred and ten years ago today, citizens of Tacoma stood around and gawked at a spectacle—the raising of the totem pole whose fate the city now ponders. But the city does so without a full appreciation of the circumstances surrounding that event, thereby ignoring some very significant local history. Sensitivity to native cultures, political correctness, and practicality combine to create a controversy here, because the pole is rotting and no one seems to know what to do with it. But, to my amazement, the most important part of the story is the part getting the least attention, and that is the pole’s relationship to the visit of former President Theodore Roosevelt.

See News Tribune articles:

Let Tacoma Totem Pole decay publicly, committee says

Old Tacoma Totem Pole 'should be laid to rest' 

Tacoma's Totem: Sometimes a pole is just a pole

In 2010, skilled researcher and writer Michele Bryant and I coauthored a book titled “The President They Adored—Washington State Welcomes Theodore Roosevelt in 1903.” (It is out of print but will soon be available again as an e-book.) While working on the book, the fanfare surrounding the president’s tour of 17 cities and towns in Washington, and the extravagant preparations made, astounded us. Coming up with a totem pole taller than Seattle’s 60-foot model was typical of the many, sometimes outlandish, ways jurisdictions vied for the president’s attention. This totem pole, carved on the shores of Vashon Island, did get his attention during a visit that included a parade, a lavish banquet, the laying of the cornerstone of the Masonic Temple, and two 21-gun salutes. But before I get into all that, let’s return to the almost frantic totem pole scene the day before.

By the afternoon of May 21, 1903, the crowd at the base of 10^th Street in Tacoma had grown to several thousand. Tense anticipation charged the atmosphere as a crew of twenty men attempted to raise the approximately 100-foot, 15,936-lb. totem pole—claimed to be the largest in the world—to stand in front of the Tacoma Hotel. At any moment it could fall and splinter into pieces. Already, just as the pole began to lift, a hook had broken off and done some damage.

Daily Ledger newspaper clipping from 1903

The Tacoma Daily Leger reported:

“The descending block made a dent in the figure of the bear man at the base of the pole, but nothing but can be readily repaired. Had the pole been a foot higher at the breaking of the gear, it must necessarily have broken in two over the supporting false work about midway of the length. A second start and the strain on the five-sheave tackle was seen to be too great, and hoisting was stopped and the pole backed while the lower block was made fast to a point higher up the pole, giving a greater purchase with less strain.

The inch-and-a-quarter hoisting rope was run taut by twenty men with a smaller five-sheave tackle, making the purchase require for twenty meant to hoist the pole equal to ten bocks. The strain drew the main rope small, but the higher the pole went the less grew the strain until when erect and towering to nearly the height of the Tacoma hotel alongside, it took back-ropes to prevent the pole coming forward of its own weight.”

Daily Ledger newspaper clipping 1903



And that was only the beginning of the excitement that gripped the city for two days. Here are some excerpts from “The President They Adored” concerning Roosevelt’s stop in Tacoma:

~All of Tacoma waited for the resident’s train that afternoon of May 22, 1903, with citizens crowded into all possible vantage points, “… above the housetops, or dipping from every window,” according to the Daily Ledger, a copy of which cost a nickel at that time. Men swung their hats and women and children waved their flags. A twenty-one gun salute fired from Puget Sound as the Commander in Chief stepped from this train.

Soon a procession rolled toward Wright Park with the president in his carriage, sometimes standing, sometimes sitting, talking, laughing, smiling, and showing his teeth. He stepped onto an elevated platform to address a sea of thirty thousand upturned faces.

~From Wright Park, the procession approached the Masonic Temple building site, so the president could lay its cornerstone. The stand was decorated with bunting, and a large American flag stretched over the president’s chair. Hundreds of Mason, wearing their traditional white aprons, watched as Brother Roosevelt stepped from the platform to the stone, picking up the trowel and placing some mortar on its underside, his inexperience causing laughter and words of encouragement. After a short speech and the traditional scattering of corn, wine, and oil—emblems of plenty, joy, and peace—the Tenino sandstone cornerstone was swung into place.

~The masses cheered as the president’s carriage approached the Tacoma Hotel with many following the procession along the guard ropes. The banquet reception boasted Northwest floral beauty at its finest, with decoration of pink roses, Solomon’s seals, asparagus fern, huckleberry, Oregon grape, white lilacs, kinnickkinnick, tall palms, and rhododendrons—the Washington State flower. Outside the hotel, dogwood and Scotch broom framed a large American flag draped over the doorway.

~The totem pole captivated Roosevelt with its distinctive carvings and enormous size. As his carriage passed by, he raised his arm, pointing at the pole’s features from top to bottom and seemed to honor it by removing his hat.

~The president admired all objects of beauty and fine workmanship, including an elaborately embroidered silk cloth that was draped over his carriage. This relic, dating from the 16^th century and probably made by nuns as a cover for a catafalque, survived as a 400-year-old heirloom passed down through the family of Mr. Joseph Moore of Tacoma. Even in 1903 it was valued at thirty thousand dollars.

~A salute of twenty-one guns was fired again the next morning as President Roosevelt left Tacoma aboard the luxurious steamer Spokane. It flew the dark blue presidential flag with its golden eagle as they headed north to Bremerton, two hours away.

page from "The President They Adored"

Considering that a century and ten years is a mere blink of an eye in terms of history, how quickly events are forgotten. Whether or not you are a fan of Theodore Roosevelt, his tour through the state would have amounted to an unforgettable day for the tens of thousands of impassioned people who came to see him along the route, often climbing trees, even telephone poles, leaning out windows, covering rooftops, and crowding train stations, just for a look. When he visited Spokane a few days later, as our book describes, “… it was said that never before had so many people assembled in the vast region between the two mountain ranges of the Rockies and the Cascades, and no one there ever expected to see anything like it again.” 

I hope this background information will influence the city to preserve the totem pole, not letting it rot, but finding an indoor location where it can safely be displayed. It represents more than a rivalry with Seattle. It represents a time when Tacoma’s citizens felt a sense of unity, excitement, pride, and joy as history was made before them. We could use a reminder of how that feels.

 

cartoon from Tacoma's newspaper, The Daily Ledger, in 1903

Like Good Life Northwest? Now you can "like" it on Facebook.




Vashon Island's Emergency Preparedness is a Model For All

My Tacoma neighborhood seems safe in most respects, but I'm still nervous. Here in the Puget Sound region, we all live in an earthquake fault zone, and "the BIG ONE" we keep hearing about could happen any time. On Jan. 2 of this year, the Seattle news source SeattlePI.com published this excellent but disturbing article by staff writer Jake Ellison: "Will a megathrust earthquake strike the NW in 2013? Some clues emerging"

Earthquake damage to a sidewalk created a six-inch drop.                  photo by Candace Brown 

With so many unpredictable factors involved, even the best preparations can't guarantee safety. However, preparation does save lives, maybe yours. I just wrote an article about Vashon Island's emergency preparedness plan, and while doing my research, I acquired a new sense of urgency when it comes to adding to my home's emergency supplies, making a kit for my car, etc. But I'm far from done.

The article was published in the online neighborhood improvement journal called Neighborhood Life and you can read it here:

LIFEBOAT VASHON - An island community prepares for disaster

You will learn what is involved in starting a CERT, a Community Emergency Response Team, and receiving training from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The concept of CERT began with the Los Angeles Fire Department in 1985, based on the realization that civilians will always try to help during emergencies, but without proper training the consequences of their efforts could be injury or death. And by training civilians to assist effectively, in the of a disaster, a community can leverage the response capabilities of their more highly-trained first responders, who might be overwhelmed. 

There is a Tacoma CERT, and your community might have one as well. To find out, please follow this link to see all the CERTs in the state of Washington or search for CERTs nationwide here. 

Vashon CERT training - blanket carries          photo by Catherine Cochrane

Vashon's plan has become a model for other communities. It received the Washington State Governor’s 2012 Volunteer Service Award and the King County Executive’s 2011 Award for Community Preparedness. The isolation factor Vashon faces motivated farsighted individuals in the island community come together to develop their impressive and comprehensive plan. But it wasn't easy. Among those who were instrumental in reaching this goal were retired Brigadiere General Joseph "Joe" Ulatoski and the dynamic duo of Michael and Catherine Cochrane, a married couple who lead Vashon's CERT program.

The island's plan involves an Emergency Operations Center at the main fire station, command centers at smaller local fire stations, and many "partners" such as the Vashon-Maury Island Radio Club (VMIRC) made up of volunteer ham radio operators, a Medical Reserve Corps, and even a new equestrian CERT, plus many others. They also have NEROs, Neighborhood Emergency Response Organizations, groups of about 20 homeowners each, in clearly defined neighborhoods, who designate individuals to assist by checking on others and reporting damage and injuries to their local command center. An umbrella organization called VashonBePrepared brings all the resources together and educates the public.

photo by Candace Brown

Here are some excerpts from the article:

When individuals are prepared, the limited number of responders can focus their efforts on those who need the most help, not the general public. “That allows those people who are prepared, to hunker down and not be part of the problem, but just take care of themselves,” Ulatoski said. “That eliminates about 60-70 % of the problem.” ~

“Can it be done? You bet,” Michael Cochrane said. “Does it take a lot of motivated people who are willing to spend their time, energy, and effort, and a lot of support from the community, and people who are willing to train, and so on? It takes a bunch.” ~

Ulatoski summed it up by saying, “The most you can do is to prepare yourself the best you can, recognizing these two factors: 1.) Disasters can happen, and what has happened in the past does not necessarily mean that it’s the worst that can happen. 2.) Bad things can happen to good people.~

You can learn more by reading LIFEBOAT VASHON on Neighborhood Life. 

Also, visit the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. Then get ready.

The latest news, is that now...
You can "like" Good Life Northwest on Facebook!

At American Hero Quilts, Every Day is Veterans Day

 

The year was 2003, not the 1960s, and the scenes were in Iraq, not Vietnam, but the same old feeling of extreme distress weighed heavily on Sue Nebeker's heart as she watched television news coverage of the U.S. invasion called Operation Iraqi Freedom. The "shock and awe" reached right into her living room.

"I was very concerned and upset," she told me. "Because of my age, I remember the Vietnam War and I remember the Vietnam vets coming home and the way they were treated." About the same time, she read a newspaper story about a veteran, only in his early 20s, who could not cope with life after what he had experienced, and killed himself.

"I wanted to do something," Nebeker said. That's when an idea came to her.

Nebeker is a Washington quilter who lives on Vashon Island in Puget Sound. She knows how a quilt can offer—in addition to physical warmth—the warmth of love, the softness of an embrace, and a sense of comfort and caring. Her distress led to action.

"My husband and I went out and bought lots and lots of fabric and talked neighbors into coming and helping to cut fabric," Nebeker recalled. "And my son, who's in advertising, made posters. I asked people to come to a 'sew-a-thon' to thank our wounded warriors."

And that's how, in 2004, a non-profit organization called American Hero Quilts came into existence.

 

"We're at 12,000 quilts," she said. "We never thought it would be that much."

Once the word got out, quilts began to arrive from all over the country. When I asked Nebeker where she stores them all, I was told that they go out just as fast as they come in. Each and every month, this grassroots organization sends from 125-150 quilts to Afghanistan, plus another 100 to Fort Lewis for the Warrior Transition Battalion, and also supplies them to several other military hospitals and rehab facilities.

In Afghanistan, quilts supplied by American Hero Quilts cover wounded soldiers on gurneys, to keep them warm as they wait on the runway to board Medevac aircraft and be flown to safety and help. It's a dangerous situation, as the larger planes make easy targets.

The quilts are made by both individuals and active groups of quilters who get together regularly to work for this cause. On Vashon Island, where American Hero Quilts is based, enthusiasts meet once a month at the local quilt shop, Island Quilter, to do anything that needs to be done.

Nebeker said, "They do make quilt tops, but for the most part they sew on bindings and labels for all the quilts that are coming in. Some of the quilts that come to us are just tops, and we send those to long arm quilters." By that she means, not quilters with long arms, but those who use the types of sewing machines called long arm quilting machines, made specifically to reach into the center of large quilts.

With the demand so great, help is always needed in the form of donations of pieced tops, volunteers to sew, quilt, and apply bindings, and cash. If you are interested in contributing in any way, you can learn how through this link, where you can also read about the standard requirements for the quilts, or donate through PayPal. All use patriotic colors and are made bed size, big enough to wrap around an adult. The organization does not distribute lap quilts.



All American Hero Quilts flow through the Vashon Island headquarters, for reasons of quality control and documentation. Nebeker said, "We have a label we put on the quilts that says, 'You are our hero. Thank you.' But sometime in the future, someone is going to ask, 'Who are the people who make American Hero Quilts? What are they doing, and what is it all about?'"

After a request from the Washington State Library, she makes sure every quilt is photographed and all the information about it is preserved. Now, even far into the future, families will be able to research the quilt their loved one received.

Visable versus invisable wounds

American Hero Quilts does not forget those soldiers whose wounds can't be seen at a glance, the ones with brain injuries or Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, often called PTSD.

"They are as wounded as someone with a visible wound," Nebeker said, "so we make sure those folks are covered as well." Her organization also remembers the families who have lost beloved veterans to suicide. "That is a national shame and a national epidemic," she said. "There isn't a big recognition of their service to our country. So we make sure that we send a quilt to the family, and it state, 'With gratitude.'"

Sadly, there seems to be no end to Nebeker's work, even though it makes her happy to do it. Resigned to the inevitability of war and its consequences, she continues on.

"We want to give back to our warriors and thank them for their sacrifices," she said. "It's a way to give them a metaphoric hug. It's a way to comfort them, and it's a way for us to do something when we're at a loss as to what we can do."

 

Copyright 2012 Candace J. Brown

All photos are courtesy of American Hero Quilts

Please visit Good Life Northwest again for a related post about two wounded veterans walking many miles in the rain this weekend, to bring attention to PTSD and brain injuries. They left Bremerton this morning, on Veterans Day, traveled to the north end of Vashon Island, are walking the length of the island today, and will arrive in Tacoma via the Point Defiance ferry dock on Monday, Nov. 12. From there, they will again walk, all the way to Fort Lewis.

Please share this with your friends and "like" Good Life Northwest on its new Facebook page.