Been kinda wet here in the great northwest lately, more so than usual. Here's a little something I came up with upon returning to Seattle.
Bumped
His Head When He Went To Bed (A Seattle Primer)
BJ Neblett
© 2009, 2022
Rain poured down the day
I arrived. Big deal you say, it rains all the time in
In
1958, an unusually wet summer dampened my school vacation and washed out nearly
a quarter of the Philadelphia Phillies home schedule. Despite the rain, Richie
Ashburn had a career-making season, leading the league in several categories. The
next year went dry and so did Ashburn and the Phillies. Then he retired.
The
main difference in
South
Florida (more than 60 inches) has much the same routine as
Everyone
knows about
Nearly
every day you can wake up to overcast skies and a light mist or drizzle. By
late morning the front has moved on and the sun coyly reveals itself. It’s
great for hangovers, easing you into the pain. I think it’s where Carly Simon
came up with the line …clouds in my
coffee/.
Considering
the northern latitude, the shy sun doesn’t hang around very long in
That
doesn’t mean the Great Northwest never gets wet. Sometimes it comes down so
hard Saint Swithin would feel at home. Some days you feel like building an ark.
Overcast and gloomy, it’s the number of days leaving your headlights on in the
office parking lot category where
The
natives like it like that. No fooling. The web-footed denizens of the area are
proud of their reputation for wet weather. They perpetuate and encourage the
stories, and why not? It kept them nice and secluded for decades. Lewis and
Clark heard about the rain, turned southwest, and wintered in
Once,
if you asked the average American to locate
Then
came the ‘80’s, and Reganomics, and greed is good, and the “me” generation.
Somebody spilled the coffee beans. Astute investors in
By
the time the smoke cleared in the ‘90’s the damage had been done; in more ways
than one. The rest of the country was wise to the fact that
Yes,
Hippies. Ok, maybe not half a million, but the largest aggregation since
Woodstock.
You
remember the Delphian 60’s and the corybantic 70’s, right? Well, if you do you
probably weren’t doing it right. But you know what I mean: long hair, sandals,
beads (and that was just the males); blacklight posters, candles, incense;
peace, love, and recreational chemicals. In 1977, at the first appearance of
lighted dance floors and platform shoes; with thumpus uninteruptus
echoing in their foggy brains, the entire Hippie population of the
You
wondered what happened to the Hippies, didn’t you? They’re all here, lock,
stock, and New Age bookstores. You don’t have to look too hard either: that
bearded guy serving you your double tall skinny mocha; the girl with the pretty
blonde hair and large natural melons. The great damp northwest and the counter
culture generation are a common-law marriage made in heaven. The area is
perfect for them to grow their organic…crops.
So,
the next time someone tells you about rainy
And
don’t go for the lines about earthquakes either!
Seattle,
WA
August,
2009
