A sketch of summer
Musings on phones, people and
the city in Fort George Brewery
S
Story by MATT LOVE
he sat next
to me at
the bar and
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her phone
inside the
Fort George
Brewery in
Astoria. I
put her at
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tatted up both arms. I wrote a
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ty marooned in a big city.
We had beers at our ca-
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but dispose of a sunny sum-
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on the counter and began
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and rotary phones and four
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paper maps as guides? I see
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gether and sipped her beer.
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sure how to proceed. I was
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tions with perfect strang-
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decent at it. Now it seemed
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stories and interactions that
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impromptu human engage-
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The Fort bustled
with the summer
rush. The word is out
on Astoria. The city
of rain is hot. Please
rain soon or there
might be a million
people moving here.
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going extinct soon.
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but her response was friend-
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thor of the biography about
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ing to read him after he
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for the first time I might
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from a friend. And reading
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phones in one of the most
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ty damn good. I thought to
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ist does that anymore?
Matt Love lives in Astoria
and is the author/editor of
14 books about Oregon,
including “A Nice Piece of
Astoria: A Narrative Guide”
and “The Great Birthright:
An Oregon Novel.” They are
available at coastal book-
stores and through www.
nestuccaspitpress.com.
Photo by Matt Love
August 27, 2015 | coastweekend.com | 9