I talked to the
coffee stand‘s owner and the property owner. Didn’t find out
much about the sudden disappearance of the stand in Gorst.
I did check with the state’s Department of Revenue. No back taxes
owing.
Today I wrote a story on the little I know. It should be up on the Kitsap Sun’s Web site soon.
Chris Henry, South Kitsap reporter
May 11: Here’s the link to the story.
Warning: This post contains a word that, while anatomically correct, may be offensive to some.
When I was talking to John Robbecke today about his putting Al’s Grocery on the market after its 50 years in business (story to run tomorrow), we got to talking about the annual Polar Bear Plunge off the bridge above Olalla Lagoon, across from the store.
John and 10 other charter members of the plunge decided in 1984 to ring in the New Year in a totally new and crazy way. A lot of what he said about the experience of jumping into 52 degree water in the middle of winter, I couldn’t put in the paper or on the web version of the story (only partly because of space constraints). With my assistant editor’s permission, and John’s, I bring you the uncensored version.
“New Year’s Day is kind of amateur drunk day on the couch. If you’re not drinking, what do you do? And if you don’t like sports, you’re pretty out of it. So we said, ‘OK guys, if you have enough testicles, come on down and join us, and we’ll do something different. We thought, at high noon, we’d jump off the bridge.”
John described how “invigorating” it is to feel to icy stab of the water on your various appendages as you jump or cannonball in. “You go, ‘Woah!’ You’re swimming under water before you reach the top. Once you pop out of the surface, you’re like a windmill. Once you get out of the water, you dance around and stand by the bonfire warming your buns and shake out your hair. It’s a fun time.”
Like a class reunion, the event brings together people who only see each other once a year. Some people dress in costumes. John remembers one woman whose marriage had gone sour and who jumped into the salty brine in her wedding gown. Another guy in a business suit set down his briefcase, jumped off the bridge in a businesslike way, calmly swam to shore, picked up his briefcase and drove away without so much as a shiver.
I asked John if anyone ever jumped in the nude. Yes, indeed, he said. However, “They don’t do it again, because if you’re male, and you’re climbing out of that ice cold water, and some woman says, ‘Is that it?’ you ain’t coming back.”
Jim Freeman is a salesman by trade. His vocation is real estate, but his avocation is locally produced food. Spokesman for the Kitsap Community and Agricultural Alliance, Freeman today (Saturday, April 24) will launch a radio program about local food.
I asked Freeman if he has a background in radio. He said not, but he’s willing to try anything once. The programs will be broadcast on KITZ 1400 AM from various local food venues around Kitsap County. Today’s inaugural program comes from Monica’s Waterfront Bakery and Cafe in Old Towne Silverdale.
If you are out of KITZ’s, you can listen live on the internet at http://wwwBuyLocalRadio.org
Here’s what Jim has to say about Monica’s.
“If you live on the peninsula join us at Monica’s for a full blown party. Monica and Mark Downen have been baking up a storm since 4:00 am this morning and they will have a full table of complementary (this means no charge) baked goods and treats. There is a regatta being held on the waterfront 2 blocks away and of course our launch of Buy Local Radio with stories, music and surprises as we explore buy local land.”
Free baked goods, wa-hoo.
Find out more about KCAA on their website, http://www.BuylocalFoodInKitsap.org.
Pass the word to any homeless or couch surfing young people you know. I’ll be at this even and do a story about homeless youth in Kitsap County, currently set to run Monday.
StandUp for Kids Hosts Youth Event Saturday
By Chris Henry
chenry@kitsapsun.com
SILVERDALE
The Kitsap Chapter of StandUp For Kids, a national organization
advocating for homeless youth, will hold an event 7 to 11 p.m.
Saturday at Silverdale’s Waterfront Park in conjunction with the
annual 48 Hours on the Streets event.
Across the United States, chapter members spend 48 hours on April
23 through 25, raising awareness and reaching out to homeless
youth.
Kitsap’s event, 48 Kitsap Youth Street Concert, will feature live
music by the band “Snakebite” and a display of custom motorcycles
by Rottweiler Bikes.
Local organizations dedicated to helping the homeless will have
information and referrals on hand. There will be food from CJ’s
Evergreen Catering and distribution of backpacks with snacks and
hygiene supplies.
A co-worker plying his trade on a Saturday decided to take a break in the place that is one of the breakiest of the break places in downtown Bremerton, the Harborside Fountain Park.
The park, besides its whale spouts and imported trees and rocks, has a sound system that when employed provides an atmospheric backdrop that says, well I’m not sure what it says. It just plays music.
Said co-worker happened to be there on a day when said music was the kind that contains several references to human intimacy in rather non-discreet language, applying a common term that generally refers to intimacy to things that are incapable of being intimate, such as cars, homes and accountants.
If you still don’t know what I’m talking about, think of Ralphie when the lugnuts flew, and not because someone shot them.
Said co-worker told me of said incident, when diaper-clad kids could splash to the sounds of a story about women who are not particularly choosy and tend to display improper manners. It caused me to make three trips to the fountain park. When I went, though, all I heard was music inoffensive, unless you count Billy Squire. (I do, but not for the same reasons.) The broadcast was from the Sirius satellite network, which doesn’t have to concern itself with Federal Communications Commission standards. If Janet Jackson had experienced that malfunction on the Sirius radio, if that were possible, she wouldn’t have been fined.
I talked to Wyn Birkenthal, Bremerton’s parks and recreation director, about the Saturday experience of my co-worker and he was appropriately aghast. It’s not something he wanted repeated. Staff has been instructed to only employ channels that “provide music without profane lyrics or questionable DJ commentary.
You’re children are safe from potty mouth entertainers, at least in Bremerton‘s parks.
You’re welcome.
I can’t protect them from bad musicians, though.
With any luck, maybe you’ll hear this guy:
Apparently the old girls weren’t good enough for the discriminating tastes of Sixth and Naval.
Yes, I know this is trite and sophomoric, but I couldn’t resist the low-hanging fruit. Besides, that’ll teach Gardner to go soft on Port Orchard next time he passes an “Etterman Jackets” sign.
I am on vacation this week, riding herd on the family member we call “El Nino,” who is out on spring break. Keep an eye on Grimley and Gardner for me.
New coffee? Heck yeah, let’s not re-use those grounds.
Chris Henry, South Kitsap reporter … and proud of it.
Sounds too good to be true? Believe it.
MoonDogs, Too – Spirits & Fine Grub will reprise its $1 holiday meal service from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday. Owner Darryl Baldwins says it’s his staff’s way to say “happy holidays” to the community. The event is also a fundraiser for South Kitsap Helpline. Those who feel so inclined can donate cash, clothing or food to the food bank.
Twenty-five volunteers, including Mayor Lary Coppola, will help serve food, bus tables and do dishes.
Baldwin said the event has doubled each year since it began in 2007. Last year, they served 140 for Thanksgiving and 135 for Christmas, despite a major snow storm. This year, they’re planning for 300.
Everyone and anyone is welcome, said Baldwin. He especially wants to get the word out to people in the Navy, senior citizens and others who may be far away from family.
Some folks use the event as an excuse to get out of the kitchen on Thanksgiving. They bring their guests down to MoonDogs and donate the money they would have spent to Helpline. Last year, between the two holidays, Moondogs collected $3,000 and three barrels of food and clothing for the food bank.
Partner businesses include Minder Meats of Bremerton, which donated $150 worth of turkey, and Morningside Bread Co., which donated rolls.
Because Kitsap Transit has eliminated service on Thanksgiving and Christmas, MoonDogs is working with local churches to find rides for people.
There are enough volunteers for Thanksgiving, Baldwin said, but MoonDogs could use more help for Christmas.
For more information, call (360) 895-2300.
Many of you know that I live in McCormick Woods, but you may not know the reason we moved here is for Halloween. The streets are wide,the houses close together and the neighbors (usually) generous, making it a great place to trick-or-treat. And I’m not telling you what hundreds of families in South Kitsap don’t already know.
We came to McCormick Woods many a Halloween before moving here in 2002. But I was especially excited to make great costumes for the kids our first year in the neighborhood. (Cue ominous music here.)
Now, I’m no good with a sewing machine, but I do have an active imagination. The martian costume I made out of a cardboard box, worn on the head, had holes for the eyes and pipe cleaners for antenae. Who needs Walmart? I’ve got the recycle bin.
Then there was the eyeball costume I made out of a plastic garbage bag filled with crumpled newspaper. I drew veins and lashes on the plastic with a felt-tip pen. The costume, inflicted on … uh, worn by my youngest, was effective, but he rustled loudly as he walked.
The year we moved into McCormick Woods, I decided said youngest son should be a mummy. My material of choice … toilet paper.
My son is 14 now and trying to make a good impression on his junior high friends. He gave me permission to relate this story if I made it clear he was an innocent bystander in the whole affair and had nothing to do with it other than a mad desire for candy.
So I wrapped him in the toilet paper head to toe. It took three rolls. For added effect, I drizzled him with red food coloring. Ta-da! I put Martha Stewart to shame.
Off went said youngest son among the prim hedgerows and manicured lawns of McWoods looking for all the world, I realized in horror, like a … well, lets just say it was far from tasteful.
Too late, and anyway, at 7 he was oblivious to anything but rushing to ring the next doorbell. Then it began to rain. My son continued his quest, leaving wads of gory toilet paper in his wake.
The moral of this story is: next year, use two-ply.
Oh, wait, he’s too old to trick-or-treat. I need more victims … uh, grandchildren.
Happy Halloween. Stop by and visit me if you dare!
Chris Henry, South Kitsap reporter and costume maker extraordinaire
Doris Worland of Olalla is old enough to remember when canning fruit was standard practice to help stretch a family’s grocery budget. So it galls her to see fruit in people’s backyards falling to the ground, rotting.
It’s bothered her for years. This year, she decided to do something about it. Earlier in the summer, Doris mounted a one-woman gleaning campaign, trying to play matchmaker between property owners with more fruit than they were able to use and local food banks.
“What I’m doing is basically harassing these people who have this stuff falling off the trees,” she said. “Most of them say you can have what you want of what they cannot or will not or are unable to use for themsleves.”
Despite some publicity and a universal response that “that’s a good idea,” she has not found enough volunteers to make her idea come to fruition, so to speak. Now, with apples and pears getting ripe, Doris, 78, has been picking fruit and delivering it herself to food banks, but a bad back is slowing her down.
“I don’t have a ladder, and I don’t think I ought to get one,” she said.
Doris is frustrated with the lack of action and the continued waste of fruit.
“I’m kind of upset, discouraged, depressed,” she said. “It’s not as if I’m a politician pressing my agenda, my religion or asking for money. It’s just that I don’t want these things to go to waste if they can be helping somebody.”
If you have fruit to give away or if you can volunteer to pick, call Doris. She is willing and able to deliver the fruit to the food bank.
Contact her at (360) (253) 851-4303 or (360) (253) 970-2047.
Will Port Orchard live up to its image as the town that inspired Debbie Macomber’s feel-good Cedar Cove series?
On Wednesday, throngs of Macomber’s fans will arrive — a good
percentage from outside the region — eager to see the real life
places and people behind the fictional town of Cedar Cove. Here’s
what Debbie had to say about the event.
Macomber, 60, sold her first book in 1982. Since then she’s hit The New York Times best-seller list multiple times, and more than 100 million copies of her women’s fiction books, also in other languages, have sold worldwide.
It’s safe to say this is a really big deal for little old PO.
Macomber once said she wants fans to see Port Orchard/Cedar Cove “warts and all.” She may get her wish. Word is, her sons, who will be bus tour guides, will tell stories on “mom.”
And as visitors roam the town, chances are they’ll encounter the dumpsters on the back side of Bay Street and bail bond businesses aplenty — serving Kitsap County’s courthouse up the hill.
Macomber, born with a “happy gene,” is not the least bit
worried.
“If you come to my house, there’s a tricky little toilet. You have
to jiggle the handle. … Whenever anyone comes to my house, I bet
they don’t remember my toilet,” Macomber said. “Everyone wishes
they were perfect. It’s a real town with real people. When company
comes, they look for the real people, not the flaws.”
So Port Orchard, during this, your big chance to make a good impression on the millions of Macomber fans worldwide who, though they can’t all be here, will surely be watching us with avid interest, my advice to you is, “Be real, be yourself … just be subtle about it.”
While most of the by-reservation events have sold out (check the
Cedar Cove Web site for availability), there are a number of
freebies (see schedule below).
cedarcove
