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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 23, 2016)
JUNE 23, 2016 // 23 BOOK SHELF // GLIMPSE // WILDLIFE // POP CULTURE // WORDS // Q&A // FOOD // FUN NW word nerd By RYAN HUME Tillamook [tɪ•lə•mʊk] PHOTO BY MATT LOVE No one has ever ordered a shot of pumpkin pie-fl avored vodka in Rod’s Bar & Grill in Warrenton. A G LIMPSE I NSIDE By MATT LOVE Rod’s Bar & Grill It was a clam tide morning in Warrenton and my associate and I strolled into Rod’s Bar & Grill after building a driftwood fort at Fort Stevens State Park. The joint was packed. In a corner booth, a birthday party unfolded for a 6- or 7-year old girl. I did a double take. I’d never seen a kid’s birthday party in a bar. I dug it. It was just mom, dad, the kid, presents, a stuff ed animal, balloons and streamers. There was a big chocolate cake, with candles, too. My associate and I ordered Rainiers in cans. We also ordered a basket of clam strips, and I asked to substitute onion rings for French fi res. The female bartender agreed with a smile. A few minutes later, the order materialized with fries and no onion rings. I didn’t say a word. A clam strip basket with fries is a clam strip basket with fries. They have real problems in Rod’s. I surveyed Rod’s liquor selection. It was some- what odd, a little lacking in spots, a little all over the place. I dug its asymmetri- cal mystery. A couple of vodka fl avors I’d never seen caught my eye: pumpkin pie, marshmallow and whipped (cream). The bot- tles had little graphics of pumpkin pie, a marshmal- low and whipping cream. My god! I thought to my- self. Who orders whipped cream-fl avored vodka on the Oregon Coast? I asked the bartender about it. She told me for a spell, whipped was hot stuff , and she couldn’t keep it in stock. Then the fad dried up just as fast. She also told me no one had ever ordered a shot of pumpkin pie. My faith in drinking humanity was partially restored right there. It was time to go. As I was leaving, a man sitting at the bar turned toward me and made eye contact. He said, “Is your name Tom?” “No.” “You look like someone I used to know, a music producer in L.A.” “That’s not me.” Or maybe it was. May- be I did have a former life in the industry, scored a hit record with Sniff and the Tears, and hung out with The Bangles. Maybe I was living incognito on the Oregon Coast, surviving on royalties from a forged song credit or two, trying to write my rock ’n’ roll memoir. I liked being mistaken for a record producer from the mid ’80s. I considered showing my appreciation for the compliment by buying him a whipped. But I just couldn’t do it. I liked him. noun 1. a native Salishan people of the North Oregon Coast or a member of that people 2. the extinct language of the Tillamook people 3. a town and coun- ty on the North Oregon Coast. The city, which is the county seat and had a population of 4,935 in the 2010 census, is located near the southeast end of a bay of the same name 4. a popular brand and cheese factory located on U.S. 101 that produces a variety of dairy products, including yogurt and ice cream. More than a million people visit the factory each year 5. Tillamook Head: a high promontory located in Ecola State Park fi ve miles south of Seaside. The jagged bluff , which rises more than a 1,000 feet above the Pacifi c Ocean, is part of the Oregon Coast Trail and is also notable as Lewis and Clark crossed it in 1806 to buy the blubber of a beached whale from natives, which is how the park got its name 6. Tillamook Rock: the larger of two basalt sea rocks lodged in the Pacifi c Ocean and visible from Tillamook Head. Tillamook Rock is famous for hous- ing a lighthouse that was operational between 1881- 1957. For many decades the lighthouse acted as a columbarium, a resting place to intern crematory remains, before its license was revoked in 1999 time that the county was created. Tillamook Head also takes its name from William Clark’s journal as he record- ed his legendary crossing of the headland to trade with the people living on the coast south of the rise in what is now Cannon Beach. The Clatsop Indian word for Tillamook Head was Nah- se-u’-su. Origin: From the Salish lan- guage. First recorded in William Clark’s journal in 1806 as both Killamook and Kilamox, other vari- ations of the name have been recorded as Killam- oux, Callemeux and Killim- ous among many others. The ‘T’ in Tillamook does not enter into the picture until the 1850s, around the — “Summer Resorts Along Oregon Coast Draw Vacation Throngs,” The Morning Oregonian, Saturday, Feb. 4, 1911, P. 3 “Seaside and Gearhart lie on a beautiful stretch of beach which is broken on the south by Tillamook Head, a wooded cape that juts abruptly into the ocean. The walk from Seaside to the point of Tillamook Head is one of the popular Clatsop Beach excursions. Those who make it are repaid by a close view of one of the most remarkable lighthouses on the American coast.” “Near Seaside, another large landslide brought down several more trees and cut more than 50 feet out of the Tillamook Head trail, leaving hik- ers to make their own route around the destruction.” —Edward Stratton, “Triage on Tillamook Head,” The Daily Astorian, June 3, 2016 Matt Love is the author/ editor of 14 books, including “A Nice Piece of Astoria” and “Of Walk- ing in Rain.” His books are available at coastal bookstores or his website, nestuccaspitpress.com SUBMITTED PHOTO “Tillamook Head Sunset” by Solfrid Price at Trail’s End Art Association.
