What a shock to read your article! I grew up in Custer and went to high school in Ferndale but this was a long, long time ago. But still I recognize most of what you are saying although it was different when I was a kid as it was never brought out into the open. And it was we school kids that picked the strawberries back then. Child labor laws did not apply to farmers! And although my own mother was born on the Colville Indian reservation this became a closely guarded secret, even from me, although I did have a strange affinity for our native fellow citizens. In fact one of my best friends in High School was a Lummi by the name of George Washington of all things. He was also the only male from the reservation attending high school at the time. And my Uncle worked for the county road department and it was one of his jobs to look after the roads in Point Roberts which consisted of an old ford dumptruck filled with asphalt and he and I then drove up there and patched up the pot holes as best we could. But the people who lived there at the time, (Late 40s) were so appreciative that they held a big party mainly for my Uncle, once a year in the fall after the fishing season was over.
But it was sad to hear that things have gone to hell up there. Not that I am sentimental about that part of my childhood as it was not very easy. We lost everything during the depression and still had not recovered by the time we moved up there, (1943) and the county at that time was the same. We left there in 1950, (The day the Korean war broke out) and I've only been back once so it's not as if I miss the place but there were some good people up there when I was there also. And to hear of the place being taken over by lunatics and fascists is sad indeed although how it could be different what with the leadership? we have in Washington is beyond me. And the Bellingham Herald was a fascist paper even back then. My grandfather would not have it in the house even when they tried a promotion gimmick of giving you a 6 months subscription free.
Hope you are finding your live in California a little calmer.
Darryl Bowles
Thanks, Darryl. I see you don't have an e-mail address listed, so I'll reply here.
My better half's family (Smith) had a farm at Cherry Point, and her Uncle Tom helped build Deception Pass State Park when in the CCC.
We used to pass through Port Angeles on our way to Sol Duc or La Push each fall for camping. Always liked driving along the Juan de Fuca bluff and stopping at Elwha for smoked fish and beer.
We now live in the redwoods near a steelhead stream, but miss our friends and family up north a lot. Maybe someday we'll return.
We moved to Lynden in 1995. We almost immediately realized we had made a big mistake.
Whatever lies under the surface of the town, besides contaminated wells, is surely more than we could take. Our son was a talented baseball pitcher and, once on the team at Lynden high, has his mitt and hat defacated into. No amount of complaint moved the principle to do anything about it.
At the earliest opportunity, he was put into running start at WCC.
I worked at being a guardian ad litem in the the cases anyone who knew better would not take, the powerful always won, the kid always lost, and I was stiffed for time and fees.
The fellow running the courthouse administration made sure to funnel all the $$ work to one person.
I worked with Frank James at the County at Interfaith Clinic.
I had ounded the Hepatitis C Outreach Project a few years before (the first org in the worlds, as it turns out!)
I now know what could only be guesed at then: the human livers suffers the insults of toxic environments and this virus affects the brain, is passed through tattooing, not just drug use, and science has proven what no one wants to hear [www.hcop.org/blog or whyfiles.com (tattoos)]
The prevalence of the abuse, plus the high prevalence of this virus and the consequent toxities in the environment will one day be a huge topic of discussion. I make sure of it.
Meantime, I'm in Portland OR. It feels better here. We are involved in introducing the concept of environment and public health via the liver and viral infections, obesity and other factors. The world is round and it is whole. We are of a piece with that which surrounds us.
This will take time to be accepted but, I'll keep plugging along until this becomes part of the team effort.
Multidisciplinary, multiculral, multifactoral.
Glad you escaped, hcop. Whatcom County remains a strange place.
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