Editorial continued from page
beat and acoustic w ith horns and is great and quiet I have
seen only one other street musician, he was in a square 1
wandered upon w hile lost the other day He was standing
facing a fu ll outdoor cafe He had a small but penetrating
guitar and was playing a hot and interesting song in Spanish I
put some money in his hat, hoping fo r street karma and to ask
i f he would be there the next day He didn't seem to speak
English, or was w orking his audience and didn't have time, but
across the street his obvious girl friend was sitting on his
guitar case and sm iling She said he would be here when he
was here, and 1 couldn’ t argue with that
Innocents abroad indeed! M Twain would love this
M o n d a y in A m sterdam
M y last day was get up, dress, go down the spiral
staircase tw o floors, enter the reception/dining/bar area, sit
down after I say yes to coffee Get up from the table and my
copy o f The Guardian to get a slice o f bread and a brown
boiled egg that is to be put in the cup provided I didn't leant
until today that the square container on the table was where
one should put the pieces o f shell, but I did it right today No
one smiled either day They are very tolerant people here at
the hotel They haven't commented on strange smells in my
room or anything O f course when I try to check out they may
c u ff me and send me o ff to Devil's Island
I went back to the International Hotel Bar tonight and
had a few pints while watching the scene go down Delivery
guys w ith scooters coming out the front door o f an Asian
Restaurant and getting gassed up In Amsterdam, only, the
louder your scooter is the less likely you are to have to hit
someone Loud is nice Bikes are so quiet I barely saw one
pass me at a sw ift rate inches from my nose, among other
things "N ice try !" I called to him
There is a houseboat that I saw as I was fa ilin g to
light up w hile sitting on the bank o f a canal It came past me
and I said "A hoy" and the aging hippie at the tille r replied in
kind He was a big reddish blonde man w ith fu ll beard, full
mane and fu ll figure His craft was painted in greens and reds
and blues and yellows on port side, in the "squares o f pure
color arranged in interesting ways" school popular in the late
fiftie s and early sixties, but much more crude, and the
starboard tended to waves and flowers w ith green the
dominant color. Today I saw the craft again tied up in front o f
an Irish Pub that has music four or more nights a week There
appeared to be several people aboard this morning, when I
glanced in the window as I walked by One was rolling
something in a paper, I heard laughter
I’m back at my “ office” , and they are being very nice
to me This afternoon the bartender actually asked i f I was an
American I denied it and said I was from Oregon, but that
just confused him Anyway, I explained it was my last night
here, so I could tell them what I was doing They were
amused I told them I like the place because they didn't like
tourists They laughed Yep, I'm gonna miss this place
M ore from Paris
Peace,
B illy
O w ner«:
Jeff a> Gladys
Womack
1338 8. Hemlock
P.O .Box 988
Cannon Beach, OR
97110
(8 0 3 1436-2000
Fax (803) 43 6 -0 7 4 6
BUSINESS CARDS
SIONS & BANNERS
LAMINATING/ FLYERS
BROCHURES/ FORMS
OFFICE SUPPLIES
FAST UPS SERVICE
COMPUTER SUPPORT
INTERNET ACCESS
NOTARY SERVICE
J
WHERE TO GET AN EDGE
C annon Beach: Jupiter's Rare and Used Books,
O sbum 's Grocery. The Cookie Co., Coffee CabaAa,
Bill s Tavern, C annon Beach Book Co.. Hane s
Bakerte. The Bistro, Midtown Café, Once Upon a
Breeze. Copies A Fax H aystack Video. Mariner
Market, E sp resso B ean. Ecola Square A Cleanline
S u rf
M anzanita: Mother Nature's J u k e Bar,
C assandra s, Manzanita News A E spresso, A
N ehalem Bay Video
R ockaway: Neptune's Used Books
T illa m o o k : Rainy Day Books A Tillamook Library
Bay City: Art Space
Y achats B y-the-Sea Books
P acific City: The River House,
O cea n sid e Ocean Side Espresso
L in co ln C ity Trillium Natural Foods. Driftwood
Library, A Lighthouse Brewpub
Newport Oceana Natural Foods. Ocean Pulse Surf
Shop. Sylvia Beach Hotel. A Canyon Way Books
E ugene Book Mark. Café Navarra, Eugene Public
Library. Friendly St. Market. Happy Trails,
Keystone Café, Klva Foods. Lane C.C., Light For
M usic. New Frontier Market. N ineteenth Street
Brew Pub. Oasis Market. Perry's. R-d Bam Grocery.
Sundance Natural Foods. U o f O. A WOW Hall
C orvallis: The Environm ental Center. OSU
Salem : Heliotrope. Salem Library. A The Peace
Store
A storia KMUN. C olum bian Café. The Community
Store. The Wet Dog Cafe. Astoria Coffee Company.
Café Uniontow n, A The River
S e a s id e : Buck's Book B am . Universal Video. A
Café E spresso
Portland Artichoke M usk. Laughing Horse
Bookstore. Act III, B arnes A Noble. Belmonts Inn.
Bibelot Art Oallery. Bijou Café. Borders. Bridgeport
Brew Pub. Capt'n B eans (two locations). Center for
the Healing Light. Coffee People (three locations).
Common Grounds Coffee. East Avenue Tavern.
Food Front. Goose Hollow Inn. Hot Lips Pizza. Java
Bay Café. Key Largo. La P a tisserie. Lewis A Clark
College. Locals Only. Marco's Pizza. Marylhurst
College. Mt. Hood CC. M usk Millenium. Nature's
(two locations). NW Natural Gas. OHSIJ Medical
School, Old Wives Tales. Ozone Records. Papa
Haydn. PCC (four locations). PSU (two locations).
Reed College. Third Eye. Multnoma Central
Library, and moat branches A the YWCA
A shland Garo's Java House. The Black Sheep.
Blue Mt Café. A Rogue River Brewery
Cave J un ction: Coffee Heaven A Kerfcy Community
M arket
Grants Pass: The Book Shop
(Out o f Oregon)
V ancouver, WA: The Den
L ongview . WA. The Broadway Gallery
N a selle. WA Rainy Day Artistry
N ah cotta. WA Moby D kk Hotel
D uval), WA Duvall Books
B ainbridge Ialand. WA Eagle Harbor Book Co.
S e a ttle . WA Elliot Bay Book Co.. Honey B^ar
Bakery. New O rleans R estaurant. Still Life In
Fremont. Allegro C offeehouse. The Last Exit Coffee
House. A Bulldog News
San F ra n cisco , CA: City Lights Bookstore
D enver, Co Denver Folklore Cente
W ashington. D.C.i Hotel Tabard Inn
(Out o f U .5 A )
Paris. France: S h ak esi^ are A Cle
B righton. England: The Publfc House Bookstore
"A sm all paper for a sm all planet ," ______
2
>
Creating a Sense o f Community:
The Pig Party
Behind the Times continued from page "7
I
f lO R IH
ID H S I
T u n is
IR G L I
and terror and the subhead mentioned that the seven wise men
had stopped short o f “ pledging a united e ffo rt” to lift a world
economy they’ ve guided, very profitably fo r themselves and
those w ith whom they lunch, into bankruptcy. Speaking,
supposedly, for all good Americans, Treasury Secretary Paul
O ’ N eill said this: “ I think the important thing is that we’ ve
agreed that we should all be doing the things that are
appropriate and meaningful in the context o f our individual
economies.” We arc the world, business is business, every
country fo r itself.
I remember an afternoon in the late sixties, dnnking
wine and smoking dope (there, I ’ ve said it) wrth a biker who
was, from his perspective, probably slumming. W e’d just
begun bombing Cambodia and he’d sat listening quietly to our
revolutionary support group babble on about creating a society
that waged peace instead o f war. The anti-war movement had
recently joined forces w ith the c iv il rights movement and the
critical mass o f good intentions would soon make the world
safe fo r truth, justice and love. Yes, the dawning o f Aquarius,
the brotherhood o f Man. The biker shook his head. "T o have
a brotherhood,” he said w ith the authority o f experience, “ you
need to have brothers. Sorry, folks, but I just don’ t see it.”
W e’ re said to be at war. So be it. Enlightened
patriots choose their loyalties carefully and watch the
magician instead o f the tambourine. There is no mystery here:
no magic, only illusion. That our leader expresses indignant
surprise that anyone could hate us means he’s either dim witted
or lying or both. There’s a w orld out there that we, which is to
say the present w orld order, are eating out o f house and home.
There’s a world out there that the economic engine we’ve
created is bleeding dry w ith a mercilessness bordering on
barbarism. There’ s a world out there fille d w ith humans
without hope. O r even the hope o f hope.
This war is not a new war. I t ’s a very old war, one
fo r which i t ’ s hard to find a beginning. We would do well to
call it sim ply The War. There w ill be war until all parents can
feed their children. There w ill be war until every human on
the planet has their bowl o f rice and is left the hell alone.
There w ill be war until those w ith more than they need share
what they have w ith those who have nothing.
The wars o f recent history are, at bottom, the result o f
business deals gone bad. Treaties exist, not to bring nations
together, but to maximize trade and cash flow. There w ill be
war until the bankers and the corporations and the despots o f
all stripe are forced, peacefully i f possible, to redefine profit.
The real enemy, the ultimate terrorist, is anyone who regards
human beings as a resource: loving things and using people is
a crime against humanity. The real war is only partly about
hatred masquerading as religion; i t ’s mostly about greed
masquerading as freedom.
To what then must we be loyal? To ourselves,
certainly; to the small voice that speaks to us, to whatever
moral compass our spirit steers us by. T o our fam ily, to the
death; they are blood o f our blood, liv in g testimony to who we
are, where we’ re from , where w e’re going and w hy we’ re
here. To our friends, absolutely; they are cool water for a
thirsty soul, they feed and shelter our hearts. T o our fellow
human beings, w ithout doubt or reservation; in the new w orld
order, there is no us and them, we are all o f us peasants in debt
to the same company store. To our place, w ith fierce and
undaunted resolve; i f we have no allegiance to the planet,
which is to say fo r all o f life, all other loyalties w ill one day
cease to matter.
I remember an afternoon several years ago. The
poet/surveyor and I were bent over coffee at a sidewalk café,
his infant son burbling in a carrier on the table between us.
W e’d been sorting through matters, considering this and that,
when M ilan Kundera’s name came up. Kundera is a Czech
novelist whose work explores, among other issues o f
fundamental importance to anyone wishing to be human, the
effects o f political and social repression on the human s p irit
like LeCarré, only different.
We talked about Tomas, one o f Kundera’ s characters:
a surgeon whose lack o f political correctness, or o f politics in
general, has led, as inexorably as the turning o f the world, to
professional and social banishment, the love o f a good woman
and the discovery o f happiness. One day, washing the
windows o f a grand house which, in another life, might have
been his, Tomas experiences an epiphany o f freedom. Raising
his eyes to an empty, sun fille d sky, he thanks whatever
powers that be fo r delivering him from his missions.
M y friend the poet/surveyor nodded, handing a b it o f
bagel to his son. “ Kundera’s got it right,” he said. “ A ll I care
about these days is getting w ith my people and taking it on
down. ”
In the bravest o f brave new worlds, there’s a flag
worth rallying around.
By Evie Alburas
"Com m unity-initiated celebrations are as old as
mankind. Fun, which is comm unity oriented can be a major
force in holding a community together" (Jones 77). People gain
validation and identity through the people they share th e ir lives
with and the place they live. Folks who have fun together stay
together. So, in a transient environment, how do people unite?
It may be harder to feel a sense o f belonging in an area that"s
dependent on tourism. The constant fluctuation o f population
and changing o f faces is disorienting. A tourist town and one
that’s not dependent on tourism are very different places to
live, and community events are one way o f seeing this. The
contradiction is striking when comparing Astoria to Cannon
Beach. The Astoria area has a different gathering every
weekend while Cannon Beach lacks com m unity-unifying
events. Once a year in Nehalem, at The Pig Party, people from
both Clatsop and Tillam ook Counties find th eir comm unity
w ith the people they love.
The Pig Party was started five years ago by Larry and
Darrin Peters, two brothers w ith a lust for life, pork and beer.
Although it’s not a harvest festival in the traditional sense, it’s
sim ilar in some ways to The Brownsmead Corn Feed. Both take
place at the end o f summer and both are feasts, but The Com
Feed is more reminiscent o f the past. I t ’s been going on for
more than 60 years and it is a harvest festival because you can’t
eat the com u ntil it’s ready. "It started with Brownsmead
dairymen inviting members o f the Astoria Kiwanis to a corn
dinner as a thank-you fo r luncheons they had been served in
town. The trad ition continues today at the historic
Brownsmead Grange" (Foreman 12).
The comm unity pitches in to help w ith preparations:
big old-fashioned tubs (which may have been used in the first
com feed) are brought down from the Grange’s attic, gas
burners are made ready, com is picked o ff neighboring farms
and taken by wheelbarrow to the Grange, and the water is set
to boiling. There’s a down-home dinner w ith all-you-can-eat
com and the proceeds go to m aintaining the Grange, which was
b uilt in 1918. " It’s as much a celebration o f the a bility to grow
com on the coast as it is about com m unity" (Foreman 13). Due
to our coastal climate, this is no easy feat because corn needs
weather more sim ilar to that o f the valley: "hot days and warm
nights" (Foreman 13). "Traditional celebrations like Sunday
picnics or brandings were solely for the com m unity", (Jones
77) and The Com Feed is all about community.
According to the book Oregon Folklore, Sunday
picnics went something like this:
All o f the families o f the com m unity would get
together at a spot along one o f the many creeks in the area. The
food they brought was potluck. The men would set up tables
made out o f boards and sawhorses where the food would be
served. During the afternoon, the families would simply eat
and socialize w ith one another. There was generally a vast
quantity o f liqu or and beer consumed at these picnics.Jater in
the evening, when it got cooler, the men would build huge
bonfires. The men would make a dance floor out o f boards they
had hauled up to the picnic site, and anyone who could play an
instrum ent would get together w ith other "musicians" to
provide music fo r the dance. (Jones 76)
This is The Pig Party. This description fits what has
taken place the week after Labor Day for the last five years.
W ithout knowing it, we are holding up a trad ition decades old.
1997 was the first year o f The Pig Party, and it was held fo r two
rather sim plistic reasons: to celebrate the end o f summer and
to eat pork.
I spoke with both brothers about th e ir original
intentions and hopes fo r the party and they were in consensus
on one thing: "we wanted to be able to cook a whole pig"
(Peters, D arrin) and "we were hungry for pork" (Peters, Larry).
Ifs a little hokey to say that they were striving to create and
maintain a sense o f comm unity for th eir friends and fam ily, but
after w orking a summer in Cannon Beach, th a fs exactly vriiat
th e ir friends and fam ily needed. D arrin remembers that the
flyers fo r the first party said something like this: "Now that all 4
the people who came uninvited are gone, you’re invited to our
house to celebrate" (Peters, Darrin). A shared sentiment among
service workers in Cannon Beach is where did our town go?
"W hile it is true that in recent years there are more
and more official comm unity events and festivals throughout
Oregon, many o f these are prompted by boosterism and are
intended to attract a lot o f tourists to town fo r the day" (Jones
77). This sentence describes every event that takes place in
Cannon Beach. The 4th o f July parade and the Cannon Beach
Fire Department’s ham dinner are events in which locals can
get together and participate. I talked w ith K irk Anderson,
form er mayor o f Cannon Beach, about this event. " I t’s a once a
year fundraiser, a locals’ event where fifth grade students from
Cannon Beach Elementaiy w ait tables fo r tips. I f s sim ply a
matter o f supporting the CBFD. It attracts property owners,
though not considered locals, they own houses here"
(Anderson).
The Sandcastle contest has been going on for over 40
years, but it isn’t so much about locals anymore. "O riginally
Sandcastle day was for the locals, and started by locals. I think
it started after the tsunami and it was supposed to be ftin for
the kids, but it mushroomed. And it changed completely after
the Chamber o f Commerce took it over" (Anderson). Professor
Peter Lindsey remembers the first contest: "M y friends and I
won first place fo r the sculptural part. The prize was a plastic
bucket and shovel" (Lindsey). This was obviously long before
the tim e o f professional sandcastle building teams.
The Stormy Weather Arts Festival is, in essence, a
wonderful thing that supports local artists. They’re able to
share their work w ith neighbors and anyone else who loves art
and in the most romantic way it can be perceived as a
buttoning down for winter. The Festival takes place in
November, when the nights are longer, the weather’s turning
lousy and people are spending more tim e inside. So, after the
splendor o f summer artists are forced inside and have more
tim e to express themselves in ways they know best. They create
art while passing a stormy and boring Tuesday night. However,
the Festival is hugely commercial and is designed as much to
bring in tourists as to display our local talent.
So, ju s t when we start thinking we have our town back
someone always has an idea o f how to bring the tourists back.
Most people who live in Cannon Beach, all year round, are in
one way or another employed in the tourist industry. We live
there because we love it; we love the stormy, windswept
beaches, the 70 mph gusts blowing through the cracks in the
walls o f our rental, the surf pounding so loud you can hear it a
m ile away in the dark, lush forests. We struggle so we can live
there; we work our butts o ff through the crazy summers so we
can make it through the dead winters. And sometimes we don’t
want to see strange faces that don’t respect our home the way
we do, people who look at it as a resort, a Disneyland. No, we
want to see the people we worked w ith, the people who were
there for us mid-August when we needed to vent, the people
who understand and share our frustrations. So, all summer we
look forward to The Pig Party.
The Pig Party commemorates ail the hard work we put
into summer and the fact that we soon w ill have our town back.
Ifs a forehead wiping, wow, we made it through another one,
congratulatory party. We get to see people we haven’t seen
since spring, catch up, unwind, relax, not use our brains fo r a
couple days and generally ju s t party. It is the one tru ly
com m unity-unifying event that’s all about the South County
area, and the party draws fans from all over both Clatsop and
Tillamook counties.
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P P E R L EFT E DG l J]
So long as society is founded on injustice, the
function of the laws will be to defend injustice.
And the more unjust they are the more
respectable they will seem. - Anatole France
E d ito r, P u b lis h e r, J a n it o r in
absentia, W a r C o rre s p o n d e n t t
the Beloved Reverend Bifly Uoyd Hulls
P u b lis h e r/E d it n r o n t h e H o m e
F r o n t, L la m a S p it: Angela Coyne
G rap hics E d ito r, P ro o fre a d e r,
L ayout: Sally I-arltaff
B eh in d th e T im e s , U n cle M ik e ,
Z odiac: Michael Bulge»
P ro fe s s o r Lindsey: Peter Lindsey
L o w e r L e f t B eat: Victoria Stoppiello
J u n e ’s G ard en: I une Kroft
Im p ro v is a tio n a l E n g in e e r: Dr. Karkeys
M a jo r D is trib u tio n : Ambling Bear
Distribution
5888 to 6888 copies are printed and
distributed monthly in Oregon and to
points around the world.
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o f the month
Continued on page
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Peace without justice is tyranny. - W illiam Allen W hite
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