Last week Josh Farley
wrote about the plaque that’s missing from
the Manette Bridge. We don’t weigh in on crimes and such, but this
theft seems to me to be a real loss. I say that recognizing that
the seven years I drove the bridge before I ventured to walk it I
never knew it was there.
That’s what happens in this line of work, sometimes. We see things we didn’t notice by getting places in different ways. Sometimes we take alternate paths to the office, sit in different places at meetings, or drive places just because we haven’t seen it. Out of that, not necessarily often, we get story ideas.
It happened when one day I walked the bridge, a walk I made just because I had never done it and it was a nice day. You can read that story here, if you wish. One part says this:
During that walk I saw that it was dedicated on June 21, 1930. With a little research I’ve found that the only person born in Kitsap County on that day died 30 years ago, but still has at least one relative living nearby. I still haven’t tracked down the whereabouts of the girl given the honor of dedicating the bridge. She’d be in her 90s now.
Seeing that plaque launched the idea for the story we had about people turning 80 this year, about the bridges in their lives that took them from one place to another, more specifically to Kitsap County.
Bob McNeill’s most significant bridge was his fiance. For Jane Laskoski, it was roller skating. Pat Emel found hers when she came home to Bremerton.
A bridge connects something to something else, but metaphorically it can also help turn something into something else.
The Manette has a sidewalk, but it’s hard to call it pedestrian friendly. Nonetheless that sidewalk got me to that plaque, which got me to find those people who talked for that story. It’s a small thing, but if I hadn’t met those people, that’s something I would have missed, and those were meetings that meant a lot more to me than a plaque.
