Monday, August 11, 2008

Packed out in Packwood: What a long strange trip it's been

Back briefly at the ol' homestead last night after a week in WA (state). Packed up the trailer and headed back out today for our traditional summer-end beach camping trip with the kids and some old friends.

Our time at the end of the week on the eastern side of the mountains in WA started off clear and hot and ended with some unusual thunder and precipitation.


Rain is big news this time of year in eastern Washington. One midday storm in Yakima put on quiet a light show -- a real barnburner.

The trip back over to the "wet side" over White Pass was really something. Overcast, showers, roaring rivers, even a road kill young elk along the way. Grabbed a quick pic of the old Lions Hall/roller rink/movie theater in the mountain/logging town of Packwood. We used to rent that hall and play dances there in the late 70's.

Our band got so popular with the Packwood locals we had to stop going up there. Oh those locals -- real Grizzly Adams type characters with Danner logging boots, bushy beards, wearing flannel and bib overalls or Lee 77 pants -- stacking beer cans on the stage, holding up lighters and generally making me very nervous about their proximity to my loaded smoke pots. The more they liked us, the more wound up they got, the more damage they did to the facility and finally it just wasn't worth it to play there. I think at the last gig we had to replace a couple broken toilets and a sink or two.

3 comments:

Jesse May said...

ooo - Packwood - I still think it was/is a good town to be raised up in. I was too young to have gone to any bands in the hall in the late 70's. I was only a grade schooler at that time.

be603 said...

Figure the odds! How'd you come across this blogpost?

Jesse May said...

My Mom still lives in Packwood, so I like to keep up on things. I have a google search "Google Alert" and your entry showed up on it.