(From the Lower L e ft Com er
Victoria Stoppiello
Pig Party continued from page 2 .
Saturday my friend Chris Bosch, a first-order
wood butcher, and I shingled an old M odel "A " garage in
the greater Knappa-Svensen area. I love fall shingling.
The tang o f fresh cedar shingles pulls my nose quivering
into the crisp air. I feel like an old beagle set out to run
foxes when I taste that cedar perfume cutting through a
stand o f fall-turning red alder trees.
The morning started o ff in hoo-hah fashion. A t first
light our client leapt onto the roof. Post- haste he came
bumble-stumbling down the mossy roof, sashaying and
two-stepping toward the eaves like Buster Keaton,
crumpling like a gut-shot goose into the pucker bushes
below.
Roofers have a colorful, checkeiy history around these
iarts. Jesse French, Storm Smith, Bob "The K id " Parker
aka "The Mad Roofer"), and Ed Klever are names that
come to mind. Roofers show up at jobs armed w ith six-
packs o f C olt 45 Pounders, a carton o f Marlboros, and a
dozen glazed donuts. They shun rain gear, drink their beer
like babes guzzling mother's m ilk, sometimes whuck a few
projectiles o ff the eaves to intim idate people below.
Roofmen know they're job site Kings o f tne Mountain,
cavemen w ith sly gar smiles. Roofers s tir up the
neighborhood. Roofing crews look like extras from the
film cast o f The Longest Yard. I love that.
One old ro o f shingler gave me the basic tenets lowdown
years ago:
"Shinglin's simple. Butts (the thick edges) go down.
Tips go up. Never line up two cracks at tne same time.
N ail cm twice and forget 'em. Them's the rules."
Roofing is brutal, arduous work. Stories abound: Lee
Skinner once tore shingles o ff a church ro o f in Seaside and
put on a new roof, waited two weeks for the b ill to be paid,
pulled a fit when the check failed to arrive and removed all
the new shingles. That night it rained hard. N ext day the
check arrived in his mailbox. Storm Smith one morning
packed up a bundle o f shakes on his shoulder to a roof,
somersaulted backwards o ff the ro o f clutching the shakes,
landed in a huge pile o f rusty-nailed shingle tear-off, got up,
and climbed back onto the roof. A doctor shingling nis
ro o f up the Columbia River apiece tied h im s e lfo ff w ith a
rope to the ridge, slid, tangled the rope around his neck,
and hung himself. Jesse French has been known to carry
two bundles o f shingles up a ro o f all by him self just to snow
his crew what shingling'«; all about.
I like this roofing story from V ic Olson:
"One real thick, foggy m om in' my buddy and I were
shinglin' up on ClatsopPlains. W e were shinglin' along
hucklety-buck. W ell, along about lunch tim e the sun come
out. A ll o f a sudden the ro o f caved in and the whole Mary
Anne tumbled down to the ground. W e'd shingled out 6
feet past the edge o f the roof! T h a t Goddam fog was so
thick, them blasted shingles just sat on it! W hen the fog
cleared away, down she flew."
Just last week some roofin' H igh Times transpired down
our way. An O.S.H.A. official visited a rooftop job site.
The young roofer tippy-toed stealthily o ff the ro o f and
removed the ladder! The chagrined O.S.H.A. guy found
him self stranded on top o f the roof!
Chris and I had a great day in Svensen. W e listened to
Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, and Guy Clark, great
roofing music, indeed. W e told stories and conjured old
friends. W e discussed the ins and outs o f shingling.
I believe in hand nailing cedar shingles using galvanized
shingle nails. Stapling shingles w ith an air gun on a ro o f is
for mama's boys. A guy who would staple shingles probably
eats Garden Burgers, drinks lattes, and drives a B M W .
I love busting out my Grandpa's old Plumb shingling
hatchet. I have affixed at least a m illion cedar shingles w ith
that beauty. The handle is faired and spoke-shaved to a
slim profile, a fire-cured hickory wonder. I know every
knick in its blade, each grain in the sweat-cured handle. A
cunning little gauge measures the shingle course length.
W itn a square o f # i, straight grain, pencil-grade red
cedar shingles and that hatchet, a day o f ro o f shingling is a
sweet experience. T hrow in a little sunshine, a farm- not
ouse
lunch, a good friend, and a man feels like God pastin,
feathers on a duck's back. Whooeee! A in 't life : gram
boys?
The first party was out on Hamlet Road. Larry was
living out there at the time and had a nice piece of property. "At
first we wanted to do it Hawaiian styUbut decided it would be
a lot easier to get burlap sacks than banana leaves, so we did it
medieval style. I remember being scared shitless that it
wouldn’t be done cause it was the first year and we’d never
done it before" (Peters, Larry). It was originally called The Pig
in the Pit Party, but the name has since been shortened. It’s a
pig roast and this is the general procedure for cooking a whole
Pig:
First you need a lot of wood, more than a cord. The
gathering is being done all year now, but the first year at my
house I got the wood off o f my property. Dig a pit four feet
deep, maybe 6x4, get a fire going and burn it really hot so you
get a nice bed of coals. Then we rub the inside of the pig with
rock salt and garlic, put in the other meats and sew it up with
dental floss. Wrap it in a sheet that,s been soaking in wine, then
in burlap and then in chicken wire so it’s easy to remove from
the pit. Find a big spruce limb and lower it into the pit. Lay
down sheet metal, this protects from dirt and helps create an
oven effect. Cover with dirt and cook for about 16 hours.
(Peters, Larry)
The party has grown every year. The first year there
was no live music, just some pork and a potluck. The second
year they had the Reverend Gary Small and the Deacons. The
third year was moved to Nehalem, and some local artists,
Richard Cranium and the Pho reheads jammed on, and onto,
the porch of Dean Bonde’s house. The fourth year they had an
actual stage for the performers, and there were three bands:
Bond Street Blues Band, Kid Siegel and The Moneymakers, and
The Crackpots.
This year was the best yet, three bands, plentiful
supplies of pork, a sweat lodge, gorgeous weather and close to
200 people. This was the first year where a system of
contribution was established. You could buy a button with the
party logo for $15, in this way contributing to the cost of the
pig, the bands, and the food. There were iron-on patches of the
official emblem and, in the words of Darrin, "It was pretty cool
to parade our dinner around town" (Peters, Darrin). Yes, this
year the pig was displayed in the 4th of July parade in Cannon
Beach. A cage was built and put in the back of a flat bed truck
with some hay bales and Turpentine Willy, (the pig), replete
with his own princess, got to meet the town. I remember
Darrin saying that it was probably the first time a pig was going
to return to Reed and Hertig after being taken away.
"The pig is grown in our community. It’s fed on spent
grain that’s left over after beer is brewed at Bill’s tavern, raised
at a local farm until it’s big enough, and then slaughtered at
Reed and Hertig," (Peters, Darrin). It’s always a lot of work for
the person who owns the property where the gathering takes
place, and after the third year in Nehalem The Pig Party will
have a new locale next year. However, the sense o f community
will not have change.
"When we celebrate, we reaffirm certain values and
ideals which give meaning to our lives...the positive social
effects of celebrating may be a major force which holds a
community together" (Jones 82). Hopefully the party will go on
for years to come, but in the words of Kirk Anderson, " If things
are good, they get too good and they’re not fun anymore"
(Anderson). So, we’ll try to keep our heads about us and not let
things get too out of control and as long as the party goes on,
I’ll always return. Part of me will always be here on the coast
and the Pig Party w ill always remind me of home.
i
I
War Between Evil
Mr. Bin Laden, I’ve been thinking about you ever
since September 11.1 believe there’s something that connects
us all as human beings, and I’ve been struggling to understand
your values, motives, and actions. I’ve read that you have
strong fundamentalist religious views. You have good company
in the US. Many people who feel "my country right or wrong"
bolster their position with the belief that God has chosen their
particular brand of faith as the one, true path. I can understand
your anger with the hypocrisy in the Muslim world, but like our
fundamentalists, you seem to use a very special reading of your
sacred texts.
I read fairly widely and my mind is open to alternative
perspectives, so I’m aware of the things the US government has
done that have brought great hardship to people in the Muslim
world, especially the Middle East. When I was offered a job in
Israel 30 years ago, I was warned that as a non-Jew, I’d have
few civil rights. So I’ve been aware that Palestinians have few
rights there, but didn’t do anything about it, not even write my
congressman.
I’ve also been aware of the great disparity in wealth in
most of the world. A college acquaintance once referred to
Mexican villagers as poor but happy. I viewed this as a
rationalization for the fact that less than 10% of the population
of Mexico controls 90% of the wealth, yet again I did nothing.
These numbers probably apply to most Muslim countries as
well.
Because I worked with students from the Middle East
in the early seventies, I learned that a system of higher
education was poorly developed in those countries. If you had
talent and wanted to serve your society, your best option was to
go abroad for an education. I enjoyed first hand exposure to
people from fascinating cultures, never thinking about the long
term consequences of enabling other governments to neglect
the educational needs of their populations.
I’ve been aware that the US government, my
government, was a major behind-the-scenes player in the
overthrow o f democratically elected leaders who didn’t want
their countries remaining de facto colonies. The most telling
example was the CIA’s role in the assassination of Salvador
Allende in Chile, probably because US-based copper
companies wanted to continue controlling Chile’s copper.
I’ve never lived in a colonial condition, unless you
count the big timber corporations owning the majority of land
in the Oregon county where I grew up. However, in the US we
have many compensations. Unlike people elsewhere, I don’t
have to worry that a family member w ill disappear because he
was acquainted with the "wrong" people, or made a critical
remark at the wrong time.
We in the US believe we don’t have a secret police, but
of course, we have the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA, agencies
which have budget items even unknown to Congress. But
again, I don’t know all they really do, and haven’t bothered to
find out. I know our press ignores a lot of things. I just found
out the trial involving the FBI bombing Judy Bari’s car is about
to begin. Ms. Bari was accused of being an eco-terrorist
because she spoke at rallies bringing together mill workers and
environmentalists. A bomb went off in her car and the FBI said
she did it to herself.. .but other facts came out later. It appears
that when you go up against big corporations anywhere in the
world, you’ll come under the scrutiny, and maybe attack, of
various arms of the US government.
Which brings me to the objects of your attack, or I
should say, the attack you inspired, for it’s quite possible that
this is all the result of a Pandora’s box you opened: the forces
are out, and you can’t get them back even if you wanted. Your
adherents destroyed the WTC and damaged the Pentagon, two
symbols of America which do not represent my values. I’m very
sad about the people who died, but the activities taking place
on the upper floors of the WTC are foreign to me. In fact,
they’re probably more foreign to me than to you; after all,
you’re the millionaire, not me. You’re the person who was
raised in wealth and privilege, not me. A lot of people killed
were janitors, clerks, delivery boys and firefighters, not the
power mongers of US capitalism.
You may think you’re involved in a holy war that you
hope will bring millions of converts to your cause while
destabilizing the flow of oil from the Middle East, but it looks
more like a vendetta to me. After all, only a short time ago,
President Reagan described you in a photo op as a "freedom
fighter" akin to the founders of the American Revolution.
Maybe this is all about unrealized expectations, wounded ego,
and losing a good-paying job with the CIA—and the thousands
who died on Sept. 11 were like unlucky bystanders at a mid-
town restaurant with checkered tablecloths.
Unless justice he done to others it will not
be done to us. - Woodrow Wilson
IN AN UNJUST WORLD...JUSTICE.
Victoria Stoppiello writes from Ilwaco,
at the lower left com er of Washington State.
Personal Injury Lawyer
GREGORY KAFOLRY
DUEBER’S,
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