FROM THE LOWER LEFT CORNER
VicroKia SroppieLLo
Denial is not a river in Egypt
On Tuesday November 16th, your Professor is
scheduled to read from his grant project, a glimpse at
Cannon Beach's past based on anecdote and
reminiscence. The free reading commences at 7 p m in
the Cannon Beach City Hall Council Chambers. The
curious have inquired about "my book" tor some
months now. What I have, in fact, is a manuscript, a
loose higgle-piggledy tacked together with my own
glue What might become of the manuscript is anyone's
guess. Given another year of editing and sprucing up,
who knows? After sitting for 12 months in front of my
computer, I begin to detect a sourish smell rising from
the text, a fragrance not unlike spoiled meat. I do have
a pretty full basket o f verbiage now: a few plums, some
green apples.
I shuffle out of my burrow each morning like an old
badger snuffling over familiar ground, the same lanes,
neighborhoods and woodlands I've occupied almost
continuously for 4 decades. Like Wendell Berry and
Gary Snyder, I've always had a strong sense of place,
this place. If you stay put long enough, the stories swirl
around you like smoke. They permeate the very air you
breathe and get into your skin. Nothing much endures
over time. Ideas do. Stories certainly do. 1 guess this
project allows me to serve as a conduit linking "now"
with an earlier time, a medium introducing readers to
people I was privileged to know.
The Cannon Beach Arts Association asked me for a
photograph appropriate for an announcement of the
reading. I selected a photo of my long-time friend,
Gerald Sroufe, and me, preparing for a bike trip to Arch
Cape Creek in the early Fifties. I find the snapshot
particularly pleasing and apt. Sroufie has always
relished a good story. He's a journeyman story smith,
keen and witty, jocular, a compendium o f local tales and
lore. When Gerald starts a story, no matter what the
circumstance or setting, people pause, stop whatever
they're doing, and listen. Gerald remembers minutiae as
well as grand events. His wry humor, slyly satirical, has
perenially charmed listeners.
When I began my project, I realized that a paucity of
oral histories and recollections characterized our
community's reflection on its past. A few strong voices
remain: Leonard Gerritse, Jr., Bridget Snow, Mary
Gerritse, Dora Hall Hardie, George Shields, Lester
Ordway, and others. A vast number have been stilled
by death and the passage of time. Someone should be
listening and recording those stories before they're
irretrievably lost.
I hope my project suggests the nature of life in this
small north coast village in a time rapidly slipping away
from us. Gerald Sroufe will help me tell the story. He
always has.
(D O N 'T BE A VICTIM OF INFERIOR FRAMING)
AWARNING
1287 Commercial S t, Altoria, OR 97103 • Phone (5UJ) 325-5221
%
O wner«:
J eff 6 Gladys
Womack
1336 8. Hemlock
P.O.Box 986
Cannon Beach, OR
97110
(503) 436-2000
Pax (803) 436-0746
BUSINESS CARDS
SIGNS & BANNERS
LAMINATING/ FLYERS
BROCHURES/ FORMS
OFFICE SUPPLIES
FAST UPS SERVICE
COMPUTER SUPPORT
INTERNET ACCESS
NOTARY SERVICE
J
The real fight today is against inhuman, relentless exercise of
capitalistic power... The present struggle in which we are
engaged is for social and industrial justice.
Justice Louis D. Brandeis
.MARINER MARKET*
WE NOW HAVE A WIDE VARIETY OF ORGANIC PRODUCTS
TOFU A SOV CHEESE
ORGANIC PRODUCE
ORGANIC
CAGE FR EE EGGS
ORGANIC MILK
GOLD MEDAL FLOUR
ORGANIC CORN MEAL
FRESH HERBS
FANTASTIC SOUPS 4 MIXES
FREE R ANGE CHICKEN
ORGANIC CORN CHIPS
WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR
A LARGE SELECTION FROM BOB S RED MILL
....A N D M U C H M ORE
e 139 N. HEMLOCK CANNON BEACH
436-2 * 4 2 «
The First Crusade... set off on its two-thousand mile jaunt by massacring
Jews, plundering and slaughtering all the way from the Rhine to the Jordan.
“In the temple of Solomon,” wrote the ecstatic cleric, Raimundus de Agiles,
“one rode in blood up to the knees and even to the horses’ bridles, by the
just and marvelous Judgement of God!”
Herbert J. Muller
RESTAURANT
►
T
,>3¿? )
■ 74"
$
OGOS
¿Z#
cannon
n® UÄNDBKRWMI HRNBURITT e K
SUCK W WHITE MT
BLACH
JOHN D A Y . OREGON—A t the SolWest
Renewable Energy Fair welcoming dinner, 150
solar and other renewable energy technicians,
inventors, consultants and advocates were
welcomed by the ehair o f the Grant County
Commission. He spoke easily, yet seemed a man
who had been thrust into a role he wouldn't have
chosen. Spanking new jeans and a shirt w ith blue
pinstripes and pearl buttons, his burly frame, his
selection o f words, all said "rancher."
Then a w oman covered two topics:
Grant County, Oregon, has only eight fewer days
o f sunshine than Phoenix, Arizona, and the
w hole county had just been declared an economic
enterprise zone, triggering financial inducements
for businesses to locate there. Later we were told
Grant County has the highest unemployment in
Oregon, over two m illion acres and only about
8,000 people. M ining, timber and agriculture
have been the mainstays. M ining stopped long
ago and now the only viable timber is on federal
land. Many citizens are angry about logging
restrictions.
When I talked with the Chamber o f
Commerce representative and told her that John
Day looks prosperous compared w ith Ilwaco, she
looked at me blankly. She asked why Ilwaco was
having trouble , and I responded that the fish are
gone. Again she asked why, and I answered,
dams, timber and agricultural practices, urban and
industrial water pollution, and (the one I am
most reluctant to admit) over-fishing. She didn't
want to hear it. She was polite, but she didn't
want to hear that government regulation might
save our bacon, while lim iting theirs.
Another person commented that the
local people just can't let go o f the idea that i f
the government would get out o f the way, they'd
s till have sawmills and jobs. M y view, o f
course, is, which death do you want? A rapid
death from logging all remaining timber right
away, or a slow dwindling, w ith restricted
logging w hile you try to figure out something
else. Sooner or later you'll be out o f tim ber jobs
either way.
It's notable that we were at a renewable
energy fa ir because the question is the same fo r
all three resources— fish, tim ber and petroleum:
Shall we just use up what we have or use it
conservatively while we strategically prepare fo r
a different future? That is one o f the hopes o f the
renewables industry, whether solar, wind, or
biomass: Use petroleum carefully while
developing technologies to replace it.
There's good reason to do so: First is
that all the petroleum prognosticators estimate
world o il production w ill peak in about 15
years; after that there w ill be o il, but the supply
w ill be waning, and prices w ill become
"volatile," a euphemism for expensive. The other
reason is climate change. The scientist who gave
the global warming/climate talk, OSU
profcssorJack Dymond, showed us convincing
evidence o f the precipitous clim b in average earth
temperatures, glacier retreats, bird migrations
further north, death o f coral due to higher ocean
temperatures, etc. It was a frightening scenario o f
exponential change in a geologic eyeblink.
Dymond said there is no debate among
scientists about the climate change that is under
way, and the only "evidence" to the contrary is
propaganda manufactured to protect the fossil fuel
industries' interests. The more CO2 we produce,
which is the main component o f greenhouse
gases, the warmer the earth.
Denial. That's the word Dymond used to
describe the oil and gas industries' response. We
could say the same about ourselves in our two
impoverished counties. Big timber in Grant
County and big fish here are gone for now and
won't be back fo r a long time. Wishing fo r what
has been isn't going to do us any good. One o f
the ironies is that John Day people don't want to
hear about the salmon issue. For them, it's just
one more instance o f government meddling.
Being in favor o f salmon run restoration just
puts me in the company o f those n o good do-
gooders, environmentalists.
The John Day itself starts as a small
river near the town that bears the same name. It
flows through dry hills, creates its own colorful
gorge and eventually dipsy doodles down to the
Columbia. The waters o f the John Day come
directly past the Port o f Ilwaco w ith its empty
boat slips, and on out to sea. We arc connected-
connected by the river, by big issues like climate
change, and o f course we arc connected
inadvertently and subtly by our reluctance to face
our problems head on and change our ways.
Victoria Sloppiello is a writer living in Hwaco,
at the lower left corner o f Washington stale.
rasuaûp •Eleagni'Dinùtg5 ^
Located in the
Cannon 'Beach Motel
1116 S. Memlock,
ANTHONY STOPPIELLO
Architect-
(503)436-0908
Earth friendly architecture
Consultant - Educator
Passive solar design
Conscientious material uee
Licensed in Oregon and Washington
'foservations Suggested
Light Lunch 12:00-4:00
310 Lake S t • POB 72. Ilwaco, WA 9 6 6 2 4 ( 3 6 0 ) 6 4 2 - 4 2 5 6
Momemade soups, chowders, bread
and delightful desserts
'Dinner Served 4:00 - 9:00
A w a rd winning chowders, unique salads
pasta, seafood, steaks a n d chicken
When nations grow old the Arts grow cold
And Commerce settles on every tree.
William Blake
Monday - ^reekSp^ials
"Wednesday ■ "Pasta Specials
Closed Sunday
IflTtR. LUT EWX W BEt m
I
$
The memory of my own suffering has prevented me
from ever shadowing one young soul with the
superstitions of the Christian religion.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton