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WENATCHEE VALLEY’S
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March 2019
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look up Photographer of the stars
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Calling all
Hydro Life Learners
May 8 -10, 2019
Walk, explore and learn along with PUD biologists, hydropower experts and park guides in a 3-day program for active, senior adults. Day 1: Guided walk through the Horan Natural Area to learn about wildlife and birds that live in the area Day 2: Shuttle bus to Chelan Powerhouse and guided walk along restored rivershore Day 3: Shuttle bus trip with guided stops at Kirby Billingsley Hydro Park, Beebe Bridge Park, Rocky Reach Park greenhouses and Columbia-Wenatchee river confluence
Registration required Please call the Discovery Center (509) 663-7522
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Independence... Choices... It’s about You!
Contents
page 28
3 finns find each other in wenatchee Features
7
getting educated about family
Spring reading program book gets librarian thinking about his own family’s tragic — and secret — past
9 The good life cartoonist goes mad Yes, Dan McConnell has joined the usual gang of idiots
Chuck and Barb Dronen
10 look up
Animal and nature photographer Al Piecka has found a new interest — way, way, way out in space
14 true companions
Reaching a 50th anniversary is no piece of wedding cake
16 andy dappen is taking a Friday off
Administrators
Phone: (509) 782-7600 • Fax: (509) 782-1821
Email: epledalen@kashmircc.com 809 Pioneer Ave.
Cashmere, Washington 98815
And maybe you should, too, in celebration of WenatcheeOutdoors Day on March 22
18 the speed of dreams
The years have come and gone, but the boyhood thrill of racing is fueling a new project at 200 mph
20 ode to an apricot tree
Lief Carlsen planted an orchard years ago... all that is left is this hardy and delightful apricot tree
22 a future house
Couple builds a smart house for the future with today’s bells and whistles
28 three finn friends
Natives of tiny Finland reconnect to their roots while enjoying their new home of Wenatchee Art sketches n Dancer Nadège Margaria, page 30 n The band, Wickline, page 32 Columns & Departments 6 A bird in the lens: Puffy California Quail 13 Pet Tales: Asleep with the dog 26 The traveling doctor: Waiting for proof on medical pot 27 June Darling: Find the good in suffering 29-35 Arts & Entertainment & a Dan McConnell cartoon 36 History: Determined German sells fruit to the world 38 That’s life: Does she have Old Timer’s Disease? March 2019 | The Good Life
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OPENING SHOT
®
Year 13, Number 3 March 2019 The Good Life is published by NCW Good Life, LLC, dba The Good Life PO Box 2142 Wenatchee, WA 98807 PHONE: (509) 888-6527 EMAIL: editor@ncwgoodlife.com sales@ncwgoodlife.com ONLINE: www.ncwgoodlife.com FACEBOOK: https://www. facebook.com/NCWGoodLife Editor/Publisher, Mike Cassidy Contributors, DeeDee Cleveland, Aaron Loeffelbein, Linda Reid, Andy Dappen, Jaana Hatton, Steve Wellman, Al Piecka, Marlene and Kevin Farrell, Lief Carlsen, Diana Carty, Bruce McCammon, Donna Cassidy, Jim Brown, June Darling, Dan McConnell, Susan Lagsdin and Rod Molzahn Advertising: Lianne Taylor Bookkeeping and circulation, Donna Cassidy Proofing, Dianne Cornell Ad design, Clint Hollingsworth Video editor, Aaron Cassidy TO SUBSCRIBE: For $25, ($30 out of state address) you can have 12 issues of The Good Life mailed to you or a friend. Send payment to: The Good Life PO Box 2142 Wenatchee, WA 98807 For circulation questions, email: donna@ncwgoodlife.com BUY A COPY of The Good Life at Safeway stores, Mike’s Meats at Pybus, Rhubarb Market, Martin’s Market Place (Cashmere) and Dan’s Food Market (Leavenworth) ADVERTISING: For information about advertising in The Good Life, contact Lianne Taylor at (509) 6696556 or lianne@ncwgoodlife.com WRITE FOR THE GOOD LIFE: We welcome articles about people from Chelan and Douglas counties. Send your idea to Mike Cassidy at editor@ncwgoodlife.com
The Good Life® is a registered trademark of NCW Good Life, LLC. Copyright 2019 by NCW Good Life, LLC.
doors of perception A
By DeeDee Cleveland
s a longtime amateur photographer, I developed a passion for capturing images of doors while traveling through Washington and visiting British Columbia, California and Europe. I’m grateful to have travel companions who tolerantly wait
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as I make stops along the way to gather more photos for a book I will compile one day. I’m especially attracted to red doors and old barns. This shed is at Rio Vista Winery off Hwy 97A northeast of Chelan. I like this scene because the mix of shapes and angles, materials and primary colors. Long ago I read this line that still resonates with me: “Some say doors invite us in or shut others out.” As I see a unique door I wonder what is behind it and the
DRIVING HISTORIC ROUTE 66 Y EVENTS CALENDAR
WENATCHEE VALLEY’S
NUMBER ONE
stories the inhabitants could tell — and would I be invited in to take a peek inside? DeeDee and her husband live in the beautiful Chelan valley. Now retired, her passions include yoga, rock collecting, painting rocks and photographing doors.
On the cover
Al Piecka created this self-portrait in his home observatory. See his story about photographing the stars, on page 10.
NCW fuN iN the WiNter suN Y eVeNts CALeNDAr
MAGAZINE
August 2018
OPEN FOR FUN AND ADVENTURE
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NuMBer ONe
THERE’S GOOD NEWS TODAY Y EVENTS CALENDAR
MAGAZINE
January 2019
OPEN FOR FUN AND ADVENTURE
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October 2018
READERS’ STORIES FROM 2018 of birth, rebirth, travel & joy
now a citizen of where her heart belongs
Second look
Some of our favorite photos from 2018
plus
NUMBER ONE
OPEN FOR FUN AND ADVENTURE
Price: $3
PASSAGE TO JUNEAU They finally arrived! Brothers finish trek started 40 years ago
plus LLamas are an aging hiker’s best friend heart disease in women: more deadLy than breast cancer
Bald Eagles
monsterlove art: letting the freak flag fly
Big birds hold special place in our hearts
Bold beauty
unlikely chelan home offers stunning lake views
Hillside home is grand with generous space
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WENATCHEE VALLEY’S MAGAZINE
MY BEST DAY
becoming an american
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WENATCHEE VALLEY’S
March 2019
Mail to: The Good Life,
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editor’s notes
MIKE CASSIDY
Get out. Just get out on March 22 R
eaders will often ask how do we find stories for The Good Life. I’ll respond by saying we rely on a small group of steady writers and a slightly larger group of occasional contributors, along with being surprised almost monthly with stories that just show up in our email in basket. “I’m always amazed at the number and variety of stories that come in. We never seem to come up short,” I say. Which is almost the truth. Sometimes, especially early in the production cycle, I’ll get a little anxious this will be the month we won’t have enough material for the pages. So, I’ll email past writers to ask if they have anything for us. Which is how I happened to dispatch an email to outdoor writer Andy Dappen in late January, asking for a story that would fit the March issue, I said to him I was seeking an adventure tale foreshadowing spring without any snow in it. “Non snow-related??? What are you thinking??? March is among the best ski months!!!!” came back Andy’s thundering reply. “Anyone who doesn’t know that yet, darn well better figure that out. “Why??? “Because if you don’t ski in March, the one true God will condemn you for all of eternity. “Only by skiing in March will one find the straight-andnarrow trail — The Way — to salvation.” Yikes! Andy obviously has strong feelings about not letting go of the mountain white stuff just because crocuses are blooming
It’s Back,
St. Patrick’s Day Parade!
in the valley. (He later explained this bombast was a bit tongue in cheek. Whew! I was worried about thunderbolts from snowy mountaintops.) After some back and forth, we reached a compromise: He got to write a skiing story and I got something perfectly fitting the philosophy of The Good Life: which is, quality of life needs to be a front-burner issue. Check out Andy’s snow day on page 16, and then plan to skip work on Friday, March 22 in order to have a day playing outside. You’ll understand after reading the story.
At home, we are currently streaming Mars on Netflix. It’s a half drama about mankind’s first landing on the red planet, and half documentary about the science occurring now that will lead to that exploration. So when East Wenatchee photographer Al Piecka sent us his images of the stars — see page 10 — I was all in. I love space and the science fiction that someday soon may become science reality. When I was a kid, I dreamed of walking on the moon. Yet, in Al’s story, he notes that due to light pollution — that is, too many night lights burning brightly, “Most of our younger generations have never seen the Milky Way or even know what it is…” How sad. How can you dream expansively when you can’t see the stars? Go ahead and get out… get way out… and enjoy The Good Life. — Mike March 2019 | The Good Life
Sunday, March 17
The “Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade Route” in the World!
Corner of Orondo and Mission Street, Parade Staging 4:15-ish. Parade starts at 5:00-ish p.m. Trophy Award Ceremony at Pybus 6:00-ish.
In partnership with
HealthAllianceMedicare.com A health plan with doctors you can trust, plenty of extra perks and programs, pharmacy coverage and a whole lot more. Call today to learn more about Health Alliance Northwest Medicare Advantage. 1-877-561-1463 (TTY 711) Daily 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time Voicemail used on holidays and weekends, Feb. 15–Sept. 30 Health Alliance Northwest is a Medicare Advantage Organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in Health Alliance Northwest depends on contract renewal. Other providers are available in our network. Health Alliance Northwest complies with applicable Federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability or sex. Spanish: ATENCIÓN: Si habla español, servicios de asistencia lingüística, de forma gratuita, están disponibles para usted. Llame 1-877-750-3350 (TTY: 711). Chinese:注意：如果你講中文，語言協助服務， 免費的，都可以給你。呼叫 1-877-750-3350 (TTY: 711) med-genadWAC19-0618 (4.5 x 5.4) www.ncwgoodlife.com
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column a bird in the lens
California Quail: Equipped with natural insulation By Bruce McCammon
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hat is a plump little bird with a bouncing top-knot that runs across the road or through your yard all year long? California Quail is the answer. Gallinaceous birds — like quail, turkey, pheasant and chukar — are heavy-bodied, ground-feeding birds. California Quail are 10-inch birds that have a Bruce McCammon wingspan of is retired, color14-16 inches blind and enjoys and tend to photographing the birds in north cenrun instead tral Washington. of fly. When startled they burst into flight and can move quite quickly for short distances. Some birds prefer to eat from a suspended feeder. Other species prefer to eat off the ground. If you feed birds a seed mix in any feeder that is off the ground, you know that the birds drop quite a bit of the seed. Sometimes I think that some spar-
What Are You Laughing At? We’re looking for fresh, true stories from local people that’ll bring a chuckle to our readers.
Limit yourself to 500 to 1,000 words and send to: editor@ncwgoodlife.com
rows are designated as “seed kickers” since they seem to be chosen to land on the feeder and kick seed onto the ground for the rest of the birds. The California Quail is a ground feeder. Much like a chicken, Quail will scratch the ground to uncover seeds. When we started feeding birds in our yard, I learned that I needed to periodically move the feeders to keep the quail from totally baring the soil. I jokingly move our feeders around to areas where I think the grass needs to be thatched. The quail that visit us in the morning and evening don’t seem to mind providing this service. If you have the opportunity to observe California Quail
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through binoculars or a good spotting scope you will discover the beauty of their scaled underparts and the amazing mix of feather textures and colors. It’s easy to tell males from females since the male has a black throat that is bordered by white. The male’s top-knot is much larger than the female’s. You’ll also learn that they have a variety of calls for assembly/ gathering, to announce their presence and when they are alarmed. You can listen to the calls here: https://www.audubon.org/ field-guide/bird/california-quail. California Quail seem to be quite adaptable. The photo in this article was taken in Wenatchee in February 2017.
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March 2019
It was very cold outside as the quail came out of their juniper roost, crossed the street and climbed into our front yard. These two found a place they liked near our front porch and settled in to stay out of the wind. I admired their stamina as they faced such cold. The birds are adapted to the cold though. They start to look like puffer fish as they fluff up their feathers to increase the insulating effect. I hope you have several opportunities to watch these amazing little birds this winter. Think about setting out some nutritious feed for them if you can. Good luck.
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MY WORLD // a personal essay
Getting educated Spring Events about family a generation removed from his family’s traumatic history, he grew up surrounded by the after effects.
E
By Aaron Loeffelbein
very day, we are inundated with a flood of sensationalized headlines and click-bait articles of dubious veracity. On the one hand, we are annoyed and on the other, we can’t resist the dash cam crashes and cute cat videos. We get sucked in by a catchy headline only to be bombarded with an onslaught of advertisements. Yes, we need to be discerning of the digital content that we consume. However, I think this skepticism has caused us to often doubt the stories people tell us. When a gripping new memoir is released, readers often question the truthfulness of the story. I saw this built-in skepticism play out recently as I prepared to read the memoir Educated by Tara Westover, which was one of the most talked about and acclaimed books of 2018. It chronicles Westover’s journey from growing up in a survivalist family in Idaho with no formal education to earning a PhD from Cambridge University. It is North Central Regional Library’s featured book for its NCRL Reads program this spring and the author will be coming to Wenatchee and Omak in April. I like to approach a new book by getting some background first. I look for reviews to see what I’m in for before committing. I noticed when I started to read reviews of Educated that many people questioned the
authenticity of Westover’s story. It was too incredible. It wouldn’t be possible to overcome so much. Such intense and traumatic Aaron Loeffelbein experiences including repeated car accidents and burns couldn’t have all happened to one family. Something triggered in me, I had to read this book! I would venture to guess that most families have not had this number of tragic, life-altering accidents. My family has. I am fortunate enough to be a generation removed from my family’s traumatic history, but I grew up surrounded by the after effects. For a long time, there were things we did not talk about at family gatherings. There were questions left unanswered and secrets held close, only hurting those who kept them. My grandfather worked in auto-wrecking yards and raced cars as a hobby. When my dad was about eight years old, he was helping grandpa in the shop and at one point spilled flammable liquid on his coveralls. Later, he and his brother were doing what I’ve heard them call “experiments” (playing with fire), and my dad’s coveralls caught
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fire. His brother put the fire out and they went to the hospital. At least, that’s the story I’d always heard when I asked dad about the scars on his face and hands. What I didn’t hear until I was an adult was that instead of going to the closest hospital, they had to go to one much farther away. My grandpa had previously had a falling out with staff at the local hospital, preventing them from seeking help as quickly as possible. The infection that spread due to the delays nearly took dad’s life and did take a large portion of his ear. I never heard much about the hospital drama with grandpa and each of my dad’s four siblings has a different recollection of this story, similar to the way Westover shares the various versions of her family history that she and her siblings remember. In another family story I’d heard bits and pieces of through the years, there was a terrifyingly tragic car accident. In the aftermath of this accident, my dad was actually pronounced dead. No one in my family talked about what happened for decades. Last summer at our family reunion, my dad and his siblings shared the story.
very spring, North Central Regional Library hosts a oneread program, encouraging everyone to read the same book, discuss it in their book groups or at forums held at local libraries, and then hear the author speak. It’s called NCRL Reads. This year, NCRL is asking everyone to read Educated by Tara Westover and then will be bringing the author here in April. Born to Mormon survivalist parents opposed to public education, Westover never attended school and spent her days working in her father’s junkyard — until she decided to get an education and experience the outside world.
The guilt, anger, loneliness and fear that they carried ate at them, triggering debilitating depression and anxiety. It was a foggy day and my dad and a few other family members were driving between Pendleton and Milton-Freewater, Oregon. They were all in a pickup, the driver was a foster child that
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She was 17 when she first set foot in a classroom. After that first encounter with education, she pursued learning for Tara Westover a decade, graduating magna cum laude from Brigham Young University in 2008 and subsequently winning a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. She earned a Masters of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge in 2009 and in 2010 was a visiting fellow at Harvard University. She returned to
my grandparents had taken in, underage and not licensed. He tried to pass the car in front of them and a horrific accident ensued. The accident was on the books for decades as one of the deadliest car accidents in Oregon’s history. There were several fatalities and initially, one of those was my dad. What’s important to know here, more than the details of my family’s tragedies, is how holding on to these secrets has affected my dad and his siblings. The guilt, anger, loneliness and fear that they carried ate at them, triggering debilitating depression and anxiety. Only in finally sharing these stories, so many years later, did they begin to find freedom and healing together. They lost their childhood to these tragedies. The reality of death loomed so large in their lives, they were robbed of their innocence. Seeing their precious little brother’s face, forever altered, my dad’s siblings were faced with their own mortality and humanity. Their shared history, now spoken out loud and no longer a secret, has knit my family
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Cambridge, where she was awarded a PhD in history in 2014. Educated is her first book. Speaking dates are: Available at library April 12, Wenatchee High School, 7 p.m. April 13, Omak Performing Arts Center, 7 p.m. Copies of her book are available at all 30 North Central Regional Library branches or order a copy online at www. ncrl.org.
members together. They are no longer alone with their painful memories. Sharing these stories has eased the guilt, fear and anxiety they carried alone for so long. Together, they find hope and peace that they all survived, even my dad, and they still have each other. While reading Westover’s memoir, Educated, I felt a sense of camaraderie with her. Her story deeply resonated with me and the stories of my family. To the skeptics, I say, please listen. Yes, the intensity of the human experience can often seem unbelievable, but you can’t make this stuff up. Listening to each other’s stories can bring us all together as individuals, families and communities. I challenge you to read Educated and also to go talk to your neighbors, coworkers, friends. Ask questions, listen to their stories. In sharing our stories, we realize how much we have in common. Aaron Loeffelbein is a branch group manager at North Central Regional Library and lives in Ephrata with his cat, Isadora.
The Good Life cartoonist goes By Dan McConnell After about 50 years of yearning to be one of MAD magazines “Usual Gang of Idiots,” as of Jan. 2, I achieved my dream. I started cartooning in 1980 with my Apple Andy weekly cartoon strip, went on to work for Marvel Comics as an inker, then did local political cartoons, and of course my 12 years of doing Then & NOW for The Good Life magazine. Subsequently, after 10 years of submitting gag cartoons to magazines and several trips to New York to submit work to Bob Mankoff at the New Yorker and Sam Viviano at MAD’s New York office, I finally hit pay dirt when MAD moved their offices to Burbank, CA. There’s Gold in those Hollywood hills! I contacted MAD Editor Allie Goertz on the internet and met her on a trip to New York during a Society of Illustrators meeting. When I got home I submitted about 50 cartoons over the course of three or four months. Eventually, Allie suggested I become a part of the MAD morning crew, which is a quick
way to submit directly to MAD online each day before 10 am. I did a few submissions there and I think the second or third submission was the Big Bird Box cartoon that parodied the Netflix movie Bird Box by exchanging the actors from the movie with Muppet characters. Subsequently there have been several more so I feel like it wasn’t a once-in-a-lifetime lightning strike that hit Paul Lander, the cartoon writer, and me. Our next big break-through is into the magazine itself, which is still published six times a year.
I became a member of the National Cartoonists Society on Sept. 12, 2012. I feel so fortunate to have become a member and to be able to rub shoulders with some of the best cartoonists in America and around the world. At the NCS Reuben award events, I became friends with Nick Meglin, who held the raucous helm at MAD magazine for 40 years. He loved to tell stories and groups of us would gather around for his tall tales about artists and writers and life and of his vacation exploits with William Gaines, the founder of MAD. Those trips were wild and crazy adventures going to places like Cuba, Venice, Rome, Tahiti and Mexico. In Venice, Nick Meglin scrutinized his admission ticket to the Palace of the Doges. “What does it say?” he was asked. “It says,” answered Meglin, “you may have already won this palace.” While I’ve enjoyed being a regular idiot most of my life, it feels so excellent to finally be an authentic Idiot in the “Usual Gang of Idiots” who contribute to MAD. And especially since that gang was headed by my mentor and friend the late Great Nick Meglin for so many years.
For more MAD cartoons, visit: madmagazine.com
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›››
Want to take a great picture?
Look up
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By Al Piecka
hen I was teaching photography, I used to say, “If you can’t find something to Al Piecka at his home observatory.
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The Cave Nebula is a diffuse nebula in the Constellation Cepheus. It is 2,400 light years away.
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shoot, look down.” Now days with the new digital cameras, everyone has pictures of bears, birds, fall flowers, landscapes and the like so I changed my philosophy to: “If you can’t find something to shoot, look up.” I since have gone to astro-imaging. I thought with my background in photography this would be an easy transition… could not have been more wrong. The learning curve was (and still is) straight up. The sky is in constant motion and most of what you want to image is not even visible to the eye when looking through a telescope. The galaxies and nebulas are very dim, therefore multiple long exposures, compared to normal photography, must be stacked to bring out the image. Finding a target in the vast expanse of the sky makes finding a needle in the haystack like duck soup. www.ncwgoodlife.com
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The Western Veil is a supernova remnant in the constellation Cygnus. It is 1,470 light years from earth. Light from the original explosion probably reached earth 5,000 years ago. A nebula is a truly wondrous thing to behold. Named after the Latin word for “cloud,” nebulae are not only massive clouds of dust, hydrogen and helium gas, and plasma; they are also often “stellar nurseries” — the place where stars are born.
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Rosette Nebula is a giant stellar nursery about 5,200 light years away and 130 light years across.
Finding a target in the vast expanse of the sky makes finding a needle in the haystack like duck soup.
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Unlike Deep Sky imaging, the use of fancy cameras, motorized mounts, tracking scopes and long exposures are not necessary for many planetary objects like the moon. This image was taken with a 12 inch Orion Dobsonian telescope and an iPhone 8 hand held at the eyepiece.
Image processing can be even worse. That doesn’t mean it isn’t fun… if you enjoy the challenge and sometime the frustration. Thank goodness there is A light year is a unit of length, plenty of help in just as is an inch, a mile or a the local asmeter. But it is a very large unit. tronomy group that meets every It is the distance that light would travel in one year. Friday at noon 1 light year equals about at Arby’s in East Wenatchee. Dues 5,878,625,373,200 miles. are reasonable… One of the fastest objects free. people have ever sent into I have recently space, the Voyager I space built a small obprobe, is presently leaving the servatory at my home. I typically solar system at 17.1 kilometers per second. At that speed it use a Celestron would take 17,532 years to travel 9.25 HDEdge one light year of distance. scope equipped with a hyperstar that increases the field of view and reduces the time necessary to capture images. Typically exposures are 3 to 10 minutes as opposed to 10 to 30 minutes without the attachment. As many as 10 to 30 plus images are re-
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quired to make the image visible. Six separate filters can be used to capture the various colors and detail, which means as many as 180 to 200 images can be taken and stacked into six master images prior to final processing. Whew… ain’t this fun. But don’t be discouraged… it could get worse. But, I think the results are worth it. It is amazing what is up there that we can’t normally see. I also rent time on a scope in Australia where the skies are still dark(er) and where they have more clear nights. How do you rent a telescope in Australia you might ask? Surprisingly there are many such opportunities (services) available
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Al Piecka is a long-time resident of East Wenatchee and has spent many years as a freelance photographer, teaching and leading photography workshops in the lower 48, Alaska and Peru.
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›››
look up
around the world as well as in the U.S., New Mexico for example. Do a computer search and you will find them. I assume most may be visited but I know the one I use doesn’t want the exact site made available for security reasons. The images are taken there and the unedited files transmitted to me for processing. Light pollution is making it almost impossible to do quality imaging in Washington as well as the U.S. Most of our younger generations have never seen the Milky Way or even know what it is… by the way it’s still up there and hopefully we will someday be able to see it again.
The Silver Dollar Galaxy is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor which is 11.42 million light years from earth. The light we see tonight left NGC253 11.42 million years ago.
PET tales
Tells us a story about your pet. Submit pet & owner pictures to: editor@ncwgoodlife.com
J
ax Reynerson, 2, above, is at Grandmama and Pappas’ house in Cashmere, snuggling with one of his favorite buddies, Scooter. Scooter is a 7-year-old Boxer Mastiff mix. When Jax is visiting from Chelan, he and Scooter are inseparable, said Grandmama Yvette Matson. “They both are pretty tired out from romping around. Jax loves to play and run around and pat Scooter’s head and giggle.”
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ith a break in the weather in mid-February, Max and Barbara Ohrn of Wenatchee, at left, slipped out for a walk along Riverfront Park. Max is a Schnauzer mix and around six years old, said Barbara. He was acquired from the humane society. “He is not friendly and does not like people,” said Barbara. “But he is fun at home.”
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True companions What does it take to reach a 50th anniversary? What the newlyweds didn’t know the golden celebrants understand Few would be likely to say “physical attraction” was the lasting secret for them.
By Linda Reid
Sometimes life has an in-
teresting way of bringing us to a point in time where we take a deep breath and push “pause.” If we have been blessed to live long enough, it can remind us that we have a much shorter time ahead of us than we see behind us when we look at our lives through the rear-view mirror. This “pause” experience happened to me near the end of 2018 when my husband Ken and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. On Friday, Dec. 13, 1968 (Yes! We actually got married on Friday the 13th. Who does that?) I woke up to the realization that I was a bride whose short walk down the aisle that very evening would change my life permanently. We were only 19 and 21 and too young to understand what was really required of us to make that kind of life-long commitment. Obviously, it worked out for us, but we always advised our daughter and son, especially when they got to their late teen years, not to follow in our footsteps regarding early marrying. On Dec. 13, 2018 we woke up on a cruise ship just arriving in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. What a contrast to that stormy, Friday the 13th night when I had to put galoshes on over my white satin wedding shoes and run across the street from the church’s bridal dressing room, in the pouring down rain with someone running beside me with a giant umbrella. In between those two days of celebration we had experienced a 50-year journey together that sculpted us into the “true
Linda and Ken Reid: Married on Friday the 13th and still together today.
companions” we had naively imagined and hoped we would become. We were blessed to have had parents and grandparents who modeled longevity for us in their marriages. We were able to celebrate Ken’s parents’ 50th
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anniversary just a few months before his Dad lost his five-year fight with lymphoma. My parents reached their 50th but we chose not to have a big event since my Dad was five years into his Alzheimer’s diagnosis and having lots of people around was confusing for him.
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I even remember my paternal grandparents’ celebration of their golden anniversary when I was not more than five years old. I remember thinking they were “really old” as our family gathered in my Aunt Mary’s yard to honor their half a century of years together. Physically they were a striking couple. My Grandfather, Clyde, was 6 feet, 6 inches tall and my Grandma, Jessie, was just under 5 feet. In addition to these amazing family role models we have a list of couples we know who have also somehow managed to hold onto each other for 50 years (or even more). If we were to ask each of these couples how they were able to reach that benchmark in their marriages, they would all have unique answers. Some would say forgiveness was the key. Another might say they were always open in their communication with each other. Few would be likely to say “physical attraction” was the lasting secret for them. I am fairly certain most couples our age in the “Golden Anniversary club” repeated the traditional vows to each other at their weddings. Couples in more recent years often write their own vows, which seems much more personal, but there was something about those oldfashioned promises that ignited a kind of determination in Ken and in me that stayed flickering
Life takes us all on a kind of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. (admittedly not always burning bright!) through five decades: “for better or for worse,” “in sickness and in health,” “for richer or for poorer,” and “until death do us part.” In the earlier years of our marriage we used to say, “marriage is a 50/50 partnership.” But the more years that have gone by the more we have come to understand it is often much less in balance than that implies. Sometimes it is 70/30 and sometimes it is even 90/10. When our kids were six and three, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and spent almost three weeks in the hospital. Ken was the one who had to do the heavy lifting in the marriage. When he went through several bouts of depression, it was me on the care-giving side. When I was fighting breast cancer, it was back on him again. When our son-in-law took his own life, it was both of us giving everything we had to our daughter and grandkids. Then it was our friends who were there for us to nurture and support us when neither of us could give the other one what we needed. Life takes us all on a kind of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. That ride for us has been full
of joys: children, grandchildren, friends, fulfilling work, travel, spending time enjoying the beauty of nature as well as the comfort of our home. But it has also had its share of challenges: serious illnesses, times of intense grief, financial issues, and a multitude of life struggles that present themselves to all of us in one form or another throughout our life journeys. Somehow, we were able to keep making the decision every day to keep loving each other while at the same time never letting go of who we each were individually. Reflecting on these years we have had together, we know our marriage was not a do-it-yourself project. It was also about the support we had from family and friends. Family and friends were there for us when we were young and in love, repeating our vows on that rainy Friday the 13th December night. Relationships with friends (new and old) and family (many of them not with us any more) have strengthened our marriage and enriched our lives. We are truly grateful to them all. The truth is that our 50th anniversary was not just about us!
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Linda Reid is a retired teacher and currently subbing in the Eastmont School District. She and Ken lived all their married life in Seattle until their retirement in 2016 when they moved from the dark side and bought a home in East Wenatchee.
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A Friday Andy’s not working... and maybe you shouldn’t, either is WenatcheeOutdoors Day a celebration snowballing in popularity? story and photos By Andy Dappen
“I’m taking the day off
because of you,” Mike Rolfs told me when WenatcheeOutdoors. org announced that all residents of our fair valley should not work but play outdoors in nature on the Friday closest to the spring equinox. “So what are you doing for WenatcheeOutdoors Day?” he asked. I hadn’t finalized my plans but was thinking that a long mountain bike ride was in order. “That’s a terrible idea,” Mike said. “You should join me on some powder laps in the Stemilt Basin.” How could I argue with a guy who supported us in believing that, as a society, we work too much and neglect important incidentals like exercise, opportunities to de-stress, and appreciation of nature? How could I argue with perhaps the only person in the entire Wenatchee Valley who was following our advice and using this particular Friday to celebrate outdoor recreation? I couldn’t. At 10:30 a.m. on WenatcheeOutdoors Day I met him at Midway (the mid-station at Mission Ridge). I had already taken in a morning meeting (shame on me) and had talked to the ski area’s snow sports director. She told me about all the
fifth grade students who were currently on the mountain. In March Mission Ridge brings all the fifth graders in the valley up to the mountain and gives them free lessons, rentals, and a lift ticket for the day. It’s the ski area’s nefarious attempt to peddle the cocaine of snow to these innocents and turn them into little addicts. There were classrooms of kids on the mountain for WenatcheeOutdoors Day and it gave me a warm glow to know these ne’erdo-wells were out having fun on our day. Their presence here had nothing to do with our influence, but they were embracing the spirit of the day. Mike and I, both being seasonpass holders at Mission, took the lifts to the top of the mountain. Then we hiked east along Windy Ridge to the microwave towers to start our tour. Along the way we ran into Matt Dolan and Aaron Wright. “You participating in WenatcheeOutdoors Day,” I asked? They gave us blank stares — they were here because there was semi-fresh snow on the mountain and they were doing what they always did — making quality of life a front-burner issue. Near the microwave tower we passed several acquaintances who were legal eagles, hiking with skis on their shoulders, looking for fresh powder to
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Taking a break from the office, attorneys from Jeffers, Danielson, Sonn & Aylward hike to find fresh turns at the ski area.
harvest. “You all playing hooky on WenatcheeOutdoors Day,” I asked? I soon discovered these and several other attorneys from Jeffers, Danielson, Sonn & Aylward were enjoying the firm’s yearly Ski Day.
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None of these attorneys knew a lick about our self-declared holiday but Patrick Aylward graciously offered, “If it helps promote the concept, add us to your numbers.” Now those of us observing WenatcheeOutdoors Day were
This necessitated a second run down through the basin with Mike spewing a nonstop string of whoops that clung to the air as tenaciously as his tracks clung to the powder. Mike Rolfs
Mike Rolfs enjoys his day away from work by flying over the snow at Mission Ridge.
nearly a hundred strong and, with a fortified feeling of solidarity, Mike and I left the ski resort and glided the half mile over to the Stemilt Basin. Here on southeast-facing slopes, we harvested what was surely the softest, purest stash of uncut snow to be found in the
general Mission Ridge environs on this fine day. Downward we went, finding interconnected clearings to ski for a thousand vertical feet. Slowly the clearings gave ways to glades that slowly thickened into forests that became poster children of those places where you might want to ski with a helmet. At the 4,300-foot level we completed what was a first for both of us — a descent that terminated at the Upper Wheeler Reservoir. Surely we felt the very same sense of discovery and satisfaction that consumed Balboa as he first looked upon the Pacific Ocean as we spied the reservoir and glided onto its ice-coated surface. Across the reservoir we skated, listening to the ice growl under our weight. Then, on a peninsula splitting the reservoir into distinct
lobes, we sat in the sunshine enjoying a moment of psychic well-being as we discussed our feelings about being the escapees of capitalism, even if just for the day. All work and no play, we decided, not only make Jack a dull boy, it may also make him a disturbed boy. Soon skins were stuck to skis and we started the sweaty work of climbing the 2,000 vertical feet separating us from the basin’s rim. Of course there could be no returning to town before the workday was officially over. Such a mistake might lure us back to the office where we could commit the sin of working on the “to do” list. This necessitated a second run down through the basin with Mike spewing a non-stop string of whoops that clung to the air as tenaciously as his tracks clung to the powder.
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By the time we had completed the next climb leading us to the margins of the ski area, the ski lifts had been still for over an hour and the hush of early evening hung over the hill. We each thanked the other for keeping our priorities straight; then we carved turns snaking down to the parking lot. We gloated in the luxury of it all. A glorious day was behind us and we still had an entire weekend ahead! “A person could get addicted to these three- day weekends,” I told Mike, “Maybe WenatcheeOutdoors Day needs to be a monthly affair.” Andy Dappen is a local outdoor journalist who founded the WenatcheeOutdoors.org website. Prior to this he was a contributing editor to Powder Magazine for more than a decade. He has also been a frequent contributor to both Skiing Magazine and to SKI.
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The stripped down, naked rolling chassis of Steve Wellman’s design for what he calls The Supercar of Motorcycles.
The speed of dreams The years have come and gone, but the boyhood thrill of racing pulsates on Some people say I lost my mind to racing, but I say I found my heart’s desire ... I’ve been fortunate to have raced on Washington, Oregon and Utah racetracks and have won the only trophies I have ever gotten in my life.
By Steve Wellman
What does it take for a
dream to become a reality? You might say, “The blink of an eye.” In a real way, that is correct, but it takes a certain elasticity of the mind for it to happen. The picture of my naked motorcycle is the actual depiction of the dream I had as a six-yearold boy in Portland. That year would be 1956 and I had taken a walk by myself in the neighborhood where I lived. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and the trees were green, the air was still… it was a dream world and I felt fantastic. As I walked I began to notice all the places where I spent time playing with my brothers and friends. But I was alone this time and it felt as if I was the only person in my world. I was very happy. My walking took me on the road through what we referred to as “The Woods” where our tree forts and the
Steve Wellman
creek with the crawdads lived. It was a magical place where we imagined every kind of fantastical thing took place. I strolled onward up the hill we used so many times to test our wooden coasters. We called
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them go-karts, but they had no engines and we made them ourselves of scrap lumber we scavenged from local home construction sites. The previous year my father had asked me what I wanted for
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my birthday. I replied, “A steel axle and two wheels.” He said, OK and I used them to complete my latest go-kart design. I had tested it often on that hill and endured what I later learned was synonymous with racing… crashing. There were lots of scabs to be picked later. When I got to the top of the hill my eyes were taken by a sight I had never seen before: A racing car was in the driveway of a house about two doors down from where I was. It was the naked rolling chassis of a race car, the body parts had been removed. It was low, fierce, and just pure structure with everything showing. I walked towards it like a moth to a flame. Soon I stood before it in a trance of excitement, my mind spinning. A father-son team was working on it and the father came and stood next to me and said, pointing at the engine, “That’s an Offenhauser engine, it’s used in cars that race at the
Indianapolis 500.” He went on to describe all the various other parts of the car but I wasn’t listening anymore, my hearing had gone away and it was just me and that naked race car left in the world. Shortly, I turned and walked down the driveway absolutely convinced some day I too would have a vehicle just like it. What happened after that? Did I start working on it immediately and at the age of 12 did I have my first prototype? Well, in a way, yes. Although on the outside I had a “normal” upbringing — suburban home, mom and dad, brothers and sister, school and summer vacation and the like — but I lived in a constant, guided dreamlike trip that started with model cars and wound its way through my first motorcycle, my Triumph TR3, my ’57 Chev station wagon, two different universities, getting married, having a son, my first job teaching… and then? A lot of people describe what happened as “Life.” There were times when my dream guided me, and there were times when it felt like it had left me high and dry. At the best of times I felt, again, like I was on a tour of vehicle design: cars, motorcycles, trucks — many, varied, some dull, some massively interesting. I still have a Saab 900 Turbo. I don’t drive it in the winter any more because they put salt on the roads these days. So I drive my diesel GMC pickup.
Steve has a dream vision of going over 200 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah.
I had a Porsche 356B, a Chevy SSR, and then there were the motorcycles. My first was a Yamaha 100 twin; owning it was like starting a love affair with freedom. Next was a Yamaha 650 and then, after a long pause, my first custom bike based on a Honda Hurricane. That bike quickly blossomed into my first race bike: a Suzuki GSXR 600. Some people say I lost my mind to racing, but I say I found my heart’s desire and at the age of 60 I earned my first Road Racing License at Portland International Raceway.
Steve McQueen said, “Racing is life, everything that happens before and after is just waiting.” The wisdom in those words has not been lost on me. I’ve been fortunate to have raced on Washington, Oregon and Utah racetracks and have won the only trophies I have ever gotten in my life. Now I want to go to the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah and go over 200 mph on my own creation. I’ve been planning and building it for over five years. It’s at a stage where I’m proud to show it to the world. It started life as the dream of a
six-year-old boy, 63 years later I have it. Though it is a motorcycle and not a car, it is the culmination of a lifetime of dreaming… and it feels like the blink of an eye. Steve Wellman is a retired high school teacher who lives in Wenatchee and is building the race version of what he calls The Supercar of Motorcycles for the street. He is taking it to the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah in August for testing at over 200 mph. His team is creating a crowdfunding campaign for a feature length documentary and can be accessed at: GetWellmanToBonneville. com.
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An ode to an apricot tree “I think that I shall never see...”
C
By Lief Carlsen
all me sentimental. Call me a tree hugger. I prefer to see my affinity for a certain little tree on the hillside in front of my house as something of a morality tale. I have always been a sucker for fidelity. To my way of thinking, no human emotion rates above loyalty. Movie scenes that depict a character keeping the faith despite time and tribulation are sure to bring tears to my eyes. And while I am perfectly aware that trees, lacking central nervous systems, are unlikely to share our emotions, I can’t help but respond to even the appearance of fidelity. My relationship with this tree began 36 years ago. That summer I was enchanted by the idea of living off the land. I was finishing off my log cabin in the woods — a cabin whose only power source was two solar panels. We heated with wood from our land. We had two goats that supplied milk for our family. We had a small hen house for fresh eggs. We had a garden. To round out my stab at selfsufficiency, I planted a small orchard that included an apple tree, a pear tree, a cherry tree, a nectarine tree and an apricot tree. This little experiment with self-sufficiency lasted a few years. It worked well enough as far as it went but living a thirdworld lifestyle appealed more to me than to my wife. Cash was in short supply at our enclave on the hill so we followed the money — to a town where I could get a steady job. We kept the cabin in the woods. For the next 20 years we came back for brief stays once or twice a year. It saddened me on these visits to see the weeds growing in my
Lief Carlsen is grateful for the hardy and fruitful apricot tree that grows right below his home.
former garden plot. A squirrel moved into the goat barn. A belligerent grouse took up residence near the cabin and attacked us when we trespassed on “his” property. And my little orchard? Without irrigation, one by one, the fruit trees died — except the apricot tree. Not that it thrived. “Tenaciously clung to life” would be a more accurate description. Summers in Chelan are unmercifully hot and dry and the little apricot tree was on a south-facing slope to make matters worse. To make matters “worser,” deer pruned away many of the tree’s delicate leaves by summer’s end. Every year when I visited the cabin, I expected to find the tree had finally surrendered to
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It produced fruit. The first year just a handful but the next year a basketful. And what fruit! the inevitable but it stubbornly refused to do so. My feeling regarding the tree evolved from dispassionate observation to something akin to guilt. Did I not owe this plucky little tree a better life? We moved back to the cabin in 2004. Like a repentant absentee father I was determined to atone for my shameful treatment of the apricot tree. All through the hot months of that first year I lugged five-gal-
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lon jugs of water down the hill to the tree. The aching arms and breathlessness that these water deliveries entailed? Penance, maybe you would call it. The tree, in return, seemed to appreciate my attention. It grew more in the next few years than it had in the preceding 20. It produced fruit. The first year just a handful but the next year a basketful. And what fruit! Many varieties of apricot are rather bland but this tree produced large, juicy, sweet fruit with a beautiful smooth orange skin. When the tree started producing more fruit than I could eat fresh, I sun-dried the rest. When yellow jackets and chipmunks pilfered my drying racks, I screened them in. When a bear came skulking around, I moved
To keep up with this bounty of fruit I have had to get creative. My diet now includes liberal supplements of dried apricots, apricot pies, apricot shakes, apricot trail mix, apricot snacks. the racks to an un-scaleable porch. Each year since our return the tree has produced a bigger crop. A few years ago my solar drying racks overflowed so I bought some electric fruit dryers to supplement. This year I found a good deal on some larger electric dryers so I bought two more. Such is my respect for my apricot tree that I cannot bear to allow any of the “fruit of its labor” to be wasted. To keep up with this bounty of fruit I have had to get creative. My diet now includes liberal supplements of dried apricots, apricot pies, apricot shakes, apricot trail mix, apricot snacks. I have been so impressed with this tree that I have begun proselytizing to whomever will listen. Like all fruit, or course, apricots are part of a healthy diet. But there is so much more to
be said for them. As this tree has so obviously demonstrated, apricot trees are hardy. They also seem to be immune to insect and microorganism infestations — at least mine is. Other than an occasional bird peck, my fruit has always been unblemished. And pretty. To borrow a poet’s line: I think that I shall never see A poem as lovely as an apricot tree I love the bright green color of the leaves in summer, especially when they contrast with the ripened orange fruit. Each spring the tree puts on a spectacular show with thousands of white blossoms. I am also amazed at how this tree has managed to remain petite despite it’s prolific crop of fruit. In its early years I may have been shamelessly inattentive but I’ve done my best to make up for
that. It’s as if this tree and I, like an old married couple, now have a healthy respect for each other. And adding additional apricot trees to my modest orchard? I wouldn’t think of it. That would
be unfaithful. That would be… polygamy? And I’m just too loyal for that. Lief Carlsen lives with his wife, Mary, and his apricot tree in Union Valley near Lake Chelan.
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A dream house for 3, designed to last a lifetime Story by Susan Lagsdin Photos by Donna Cassidy
M
ark and Tami Jo Nerby and her sister Tracy Harrington, all clustered healthily around their late 50s, devised a solution to a big problem that hasn’t even arisen yet. They’d each witnessed the dilemma of people who stayed a few crucial years (or even a few falls) too many in a treasured but hard-to-manage family home, and they vowed to live their later years a little smarter. Hence, the move from bustling Bothell to relatively slow-paced Wenatchee and the creation of a
two-family household designed specifically to ease a foreseeable transition into elderhood. They’ve lived in the house together since last July, and so far they love that it’s working out just as they planned. Their one-level, 2,700 squarefoot house boasts two complete master suites, wide barrier-free doorways, walk-in showers, low-maintenance materials, a plethora of storage and the built-in assurance of companionship. The Nerbys live on one side; Tracy lives on the other, and they meet in the middle for communal meals and socializing — with themselves and often with a houseful of company. The optical illusion — made by a fabric panel — of French Quarter doors helps create a pool room out of an otherwise conventional dining area. New Orleans is a favorite city, and the family wanted a little more of it right at home.
In the carefully-measured kitchen three cooks can work compatibly if need be, with no hip bumping, behind this sixfoot by eight-foot quartz island. The induction stovetop (no surface heat until a pan hits it) is a safety feature.
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“We wanted a place where we could eventually take care of each other,” Tami Jo said of the grand plan. “All three of us wanted to be in Wenatchee, and it just made good sense.” She added, “I think lots of people in our situation are starting to make choices like this, alternatives that allow them to stay in their own homes much longer.” This home was not a cookiecutter, ADA-compliant floor plan picked from a catalogue. It’s an original. Meticulously designed from the start by the owners and built collaboratively with One Way Construction, it won a 2018 Tour of Homes People’s Choice award last fall. It also, Tami Jo said, proved
The spacious ranch house style is familiar, the innovative longterm plan less so. Even the driveway backup and turnaround spaces are carefully planned for multiple cars. Rocks and native plants are in the spring landscape vision.
itself before the tour in a related preview event. “We hosted a Chef ’s Tour, and the open space and kitchen worked really well. This is definitely a party house!” The Nerbys and Harrington were happy to find a level oneacre residential lot close to the Loop Trail with easy access to town and great views. “I went back to look at it one day and there was a BMW parked there, a guy looking down on the house site,” Tami Jo said. They put in their offer immediately and still smile at their good fortune. Tami Jo came into the project with an arsenal of ideas. And she had the know-how to implement them, gleaned from an engineering degree and half a career designing testing equipment followed by an interior design degree and half a career designing facilities for Puget Sound Energy. Over two years, while renting up #2 Canyon,
Distinctive antique-look wood, mitered, each piece hand-placed for variation in color and texture, wraps around the TV/fireplace area and is repeated on the pool room columns. Ceilings, only eight feet high, lend a comfy human scale.
she perfected the plans for this house. All she needed was a local builder willing to cooperate on the project, and Brandon Littrell of One Way was both intrigued by the concept and unintimidated by the owner’s expertise. Tami Jo was the on-site owner while husband Mark commuted to his engineering position on the coast, and sister Tracy, already renting in Wenatchee, was her interior choices partner. This house, a traditional ranch, doesn’t shout out its style from a distance, and its comfort doesn’t come from cutting edge innovation. What’s notable isn’t so much on the surface but on the preplanning and the close attention March 2019 | The Good Life
electricity and plumbing took extra forethought. Tami Jo points out a complex conduit system that enables the kitchen’s big quartz center island to have handy baseboard
to detail — the trio took time to analyze what features they needed and were fearless about revising when something wasn’t quite right. Because the floors are all slabon-grade, with no crawl space,
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Mark and Tami Jo Nerby, most recently from Bothell, are home at last and plan to be here a long time. With her sister Tracy Harrington they share a cooperative living arrangement that offers the best of the new house to all of them.
Lifetime house
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toe lights. She said, “There are 57 LED can lights in this house, all on dimmers.” Not many owners would have that number handy. A full-house surround sound system can be modulated in each room (“Best money I ever spent,” said Tami Jo) and the electronics were pre-wired by the vendor, a big time and stress-saver. All floors throughout are wood-grained porcelain tile; imbedded underneath are the heating pipes that warm each
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The home’s calming colors (variations of gray) and easy-care floors (porcelain wood-look tile) continue into both living suites. This master bath’s simple lines and contrasts show Tami Jo’s background in interior design.
room. The default setting was 78 degrees, a toasty treat on the freezing, snowy day of our walkabout in February. Ceilings throughout max out at eight feet — no hard-to-heat cathedral peaks here. Human scale and energy efficiency look and feel good. The layout of rooms is sensible and symmetrical, with five pocket doors contributing to good use of footage. Near Tracy’s spacious bed/ sitting room with its bath and closet are the laundry room and Tami-Jo’s craft room, with her quilting machine along one wall. At the other end of the house is the master suite — the same shape, slightly larger, and Mark’s office. Both living spaces open on to the patio, and they share colors, soft variations of gray, and style (what Tami Jo called Industrial Rustic) with some individual differences. In the bathrooms, she said, “Our tiles are different.
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One’s horizontal, the other vertical, and the glass on her pony wall is clear; ours is clouded. And — I wish I’d thought of this too — Tracy wanted, and got, a window in her shower.” Just a little bit of difference makes all the difference when you’re codesigning. Because they entertain often and Tami Jo is an avid baker, a fully-equipped butler’s pantry and prep area with a sink and a beverage refrigerator is tucked around the corner from the kitchen. Mark is the designated chef, though weekend dinners are his specialty this year. The most distinctive space abuts the entrance. It would be a dining room on floor plans, but here, with its top-grade pool table it’s transformed (with the help of tin ceiling, faux distressed walls and a wall-size fabric street scene) into a bar in New Orleans’s French Quarter. Mark is just now starting to work from home instead of
Ohme Gardens and the mountains compete for attention in the views from the one-acre East Wenatchee lot, which is high above but close by the river. One of the draws for the Nerbys and Harrington was easy access to area highways.
commuting and is looking at a smooth transition into retirement. A major feature he especially enjoys is the 1,000-square-foot garage, built to hold three cars and with plenty of dedicated storage (“Not boxes just randomly lined up on the walls”) and a fully-equipped woodshop for him. He’s already collecting furniture project ideas, eager
to try out an expanded life of leisure. Tracy, who’s worked in retail for most of her career, is now a dispatcher for Alpine Aire, and Tami Jo, who does interior design locally, anticipates working with One Way Construction as a client representative. This experiment in communal living, though it’s a life-changer for the three residents, didn’t
create any architectural oddities. The two-sided design allows flexibility: the second suite, now a sister’s domain, could also be used by a professional caretaker, a parent, a grandchild, perhaps another roommate. Or — whether owners are aging in place or simply living well in their prime, it could very well start out as spacious and
gracious quarters for overnight guests. Though Tami Jo designed this specific easy-living floor plan for her own family, it’s a concept that’s easily replicated, and she expects that more homeowners will begin to consider ways to include others in their household so that the “dream house” can live on as reality for a long, long time.
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column THE TRAVELing DOCTOR
jim brown, m.d.
Medical marijuana: Where’s clinical proof? T
here is a lot of hype these days about so-called medical marijuana. Currently, half of our states have legalized medical marijuana in some form. Undoubtedly, one reason is it is extremely profitable for the suppliers, and there are tax benefits for the states as well. In Arizona alone, it is estimated that the sale of medical pot increased 42 percent last year at a cost of $400 million dollars in revenue. In Arizona the medical marijuana sales are subject to the state’s 5.6 percent sales tax, which brought in about $22.3 million of revenue. On top of that, city and county taxes ranging from 0.25 percent
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to 4 percent brought in more. What politician would say no to tax revenues like that? Medical marijuana states experience a wide spectrum of wholesale prices for medical marijuana flower due to supply and demand. Medical marijuana is made from the cannabis flower. In 2014, in Colorado a wholesale pound of indoor grown marijuana flower was selling for $4,000 per pound. In the past year it has been selling for $900-$1,300 depending on quality. In New Mexico it is selling for $2,800-$3,000, up from $2,200 last year. Due to supply in Arizona the price has fallen from $1,500-$2,600 to $900-$2,000 a pound of cannabis flower. These are wholesale prices. I have no idea what the cost is retail or how much is it sold for per ounce now days since that is not readily available. It just seems to me this is a hefty price to pay for something not proven to be of medical value. Many physicians, including myself, are skeptical of the claims made for medical marijuana since it has not undergone the same kind of clinical trials modern pharmaceutical medicines are required to do for the safety of the patients. There are a lot of anecdotal claims about the benefits to taking medical marijuana. Many claim it reduces anxiety, chronic pain, inflammation, arthritis pain and more. You may wonder why so little research has been done on medical marijuana. For one thing, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) considers marijuana to be a schedule 1 drug, the same as heroin, LSD and Ecstasy and likely to be abused and lacking
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A concern of physicians is the FDA generally doesn’t oversee marijuana medications like it does prescription medicine. in medical value. Researchers need a special license to even study its safety. Medical marijuana uses the marijuana plant chemicals to treat a variety of conditions. The marijuana plant contains more than 100 different chemicals called cannabinoids. Each one has a different affect on the body. THC or tetrahydrocannabinol produces the “high” people feel if they smoke it or eat foods containing it. Cannabidiol (CBD) is the nonpsychoactive component that is used in many so-called medical marijuana products. The FDA has approved a drug, Epidcolex, made from CBD as therapy for severe seizures. The FDA has also approved two man-made drugs comprised of CBD to treat nausea and vomiting related to chemotherapy. A concern of physicians is the FDA generally doesn’t oversee marijuana medications like it does prescription medicine. The strength of and the ingredients put into medical marijuana can differ widely depending on where it is bought or produced. A study of medical marijuana sold as brownies or lollipops in California and Washington showed they contained much less marijuana than they claimed to contain. Hemp oil, a cannabinoid
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extract of the marijuana plant, supposedly contains no psychoactive effects. Hemp and hemp derived extracts are considered food-based products. They are not sold as drugs in the U.S. and are legal across the nation. The sellers of hemp oil, at least in Arizona, claim that it “provides relief from a wide variety of symptoms — soothing discomfort, promoting healthy living, improving mood and much more.” The suppliers say the claim is backed up by clinical trials but never mention when or where these trials took place. I am sorry, but I am a skeptic of unsubstantiated claims like this. There are a lot of things that are legal in our world but not necessarily healthy or medically beneficial, including alcohol and cigarettes that cause millions of deaths annually in our country. I don’t necessarily put medical marijuana in that category, but I would advise caution in believing the hyped claims that the suppliers of these products make. They may not be harmful, but they can be very expensive considering there is little proof of their efficacy. Jim Brown, M.D., is a retired gastroenterologist who has practiced for 38 years in the Wenatchee area. He is a former CEO of the Wenatchee Valley Medical Center.
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column moving up to the good life
june darling
Don’t waste the pain: How to use suffering Some years back, I was
kayaking with a friend when she posed an unusual question: “What would you say or ask for if you came face to face with God?” My response popped out almost immediately. It went something like this: “God, I sure hope there is a good reason for all this suffering.” We just kept paddling. My friend couldn’t have known how earth-shatteringly insightful that moment was for me. I hadn’t realized on a conscious level how deeply I was suffering — not so much from anything personally amiss, but just generally grieving about the human condition. Death, aging, illness. As I’ve gotten older, I have less interest in the “why” of suffering. I’ve become more interested in how we deal with suffering. It’s time for me, and possibly for us, to review how we can deal with suffering. Notice when I am suffering, name it. Maybe you, like me, are sometimes surprised to notice and realize your own suffering. Perhaps it’s our busy lives. We may push our pain away because it seems too fearful or silly to consider. Researchers, however, tell us that we will become more emotionally stable and strong by noticing and naming our feelings without judging them. Accept my suffering, be selfcompassionate without pitying myself. Suffering is unpleasant, even anguishing. We can accept that and be kind to ourselves when we suffer AND realize that everyone on the planet is sometimes suffering. It IS part of the human condition. We all feel pain
We can use our suffering in ways that help us become better people — emotionally, socially, (and perhaps spiritually) stronger. sometimes. There’s a great little folktale about people getting fed up with their various pain and problems. Each complained about this and that. They decided to bag up their pain for an exchange. As they opened and examined each other’s pain and problems, they bundled them back up and decided just to keep the ones they originally had. Don’t waste the suffering. This was one of my mother’s axioms. She felt that suffering could offer a gift, meaning, or growth of some sort. Some researchers talk about post-traumatic growth. We can use our suffering in ways that help us become better people — emotionally, socially, (and perhaps spiritually) stronger. Recently, I was talking with a friend who was discussing some of her serious health issues. She leaned closer to me, “I have been so physically robust most of my life. I looked down on others who had various ailments. This health downturn has made me much more compassionate.” No surprise that her vulnerability and her receptiveness to others’ suffering has attracted more friends and deepened her relationships. Another March 2019 | The Good Life
friend shared that her suffering brought her closer to God. Don’t let my suffering keep me from noticing the good stuff in my life. Some prisoners even in concentration camps were able to notice the kindnesses of others, a little flower pushing its way up in barren land, the tweet of a bird that gave them a little respite from their horror. A poster words the concept a little differently: “There is ALWAYS, always, always something to be grateful for.” If we are suffering, our attention can get hijacked so that we are hyper focused on our pain. It’s challenging to see, smell, touch, or taste anything good. If we let our suffering crowd out the good stuff in our lives, we make our suffering worse. Late in life, my mother-inlaw, Ruth, fell and broke several ribs. Ruth had lost most of her short-term memory. She forgot that she had broken her ribs; she didn’t think about it. She was able to enjoy the sunshine, the breeze, the smell of coffee, until she laughed. Then she would give a grimace or a squeal. Three seconds later she was back to enjoying life. Watching Ruth shift so quickly back and forth between pain and joy, gave me an epiphany. If we learn to occasionally turn our focus outwards, away from the suffering — toward beauty, love, gratitude, we experience the bliss of the good life even in the center of a storm of suffering. We become more whole. March is a time often used by people, particularly Christians, to reflect more deeply on the human condition. You may want to set aside some time to research or consider the causes of suffering, or you www.ncwgoodlife.com
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may want to focus on what you can do to alleviate others’ and your own suffering. You may want to experiment with noticing, accepting and not wasting your pain. You may find that you can, indeed, move your attention around and experience the fullness of life even during hard times. How might you thoughtfully consider the human condition, find helpful ways of dealing with suffering, and move up to The Good Life? June Darling, Ph.D. can be contacted at drjunedarling1@gmail.com; website: www.summitgroupresources. com. Her bio and many of her books can be found at amazon.com/author/ junedarling.
The three Finns of Wenatchee natives from tiny Scandinavian country find each other in Wenatchee By Jaana Hatton
of the United States for over 30 years, walk on that wobbly line between being he biggest delights a Finn and an American. in life are the unexpected One day I lean more one ones, those happy events way, the next day the that come your way dancother. It is mostly unintening and singing in the tional, but a reality. middle of your mundane I grew up in Finland unMonday. til I was 23, met my AmeriI was fortunate enough can husband-to-be, and to experience that twice moved to North Carolina, in my four years in initially. A few years later Wenatchee when I met we began our 25-years of two fellow Finns here. worldwide travel due to his The first encounter was work with the government. two years ago when Tiina We raised two boys along Folke, a native of Finland the way, two little gypsies and for the past 20 years, who still enjoy a plate of an East Wenatchee resiIndian food more than a dent, contacted me. She hamburger. had seen some of the arNow we are settled in ticles I had written for The Wenatchee, and I have Good Life and upon seeall the yearning to travel ing my first name, Jaana, taken out of me except for knew that I had to be a a day-trip here and there. Finn: such is my name, a Mimmi has seen the guaranteed give-away of world, as well, having my nationality. worked in Saudi-Arabia for In this case, I’m glad it some years before moving was. to the United States. She Tiina, having lived here is a laboratory technician for the length of a genera— in the medical field like tion and having raised four Tiina, who is a nurse. sons, knows the area and We all lived in Finland many of its people. She until adulthood and set introduced me to several out to see beyond our ladies who are of Finnish small country’s borders. bloodlines and we arWhile each of us ended up ranged occasional coffee in Wenatchee at a differgatherings (a very Finnish custom, that is) as time Tiina Folke, left, and Mimmi Harkola peek out from Mimmi’s backyard sauna. Every Finnish ent time and by a different route, we now share this went by. house has one. Photo by the third Finn, Jaana Hatton town with the sense of havLast year, another Finning found a home. ish lady, Mimmi Harkola, dies. In the story, I had extended started hiking and spending Embracing our Finnish likewise saw my name attached an invitation for any other Finns time together on a weekly basis. background takes nothing away to an article and sent me an in the area to get in touch with It has been reassuring finding from accepting the American email. Thankfully, I had includme. Mimmi did, and many fun friends from back home, to be life. On the contrary, we see in ed my email with that particular times with her have taken place able to speak our native tongue each other the accomplishments story — I usually don’t. since then. and uphold the little customs we have achieved in the United It was a brief story in the It’s a wonderful coincidence and mannerisms that countryStates, the opportunities that Wenatchee World of the Finnish that all three of us are close in men share. truly were to be found here. Independence Day celebration age, in our 50s, and enjoy the During this Finnish friendSome of it has required our inwe had held on Dec. 6 at the outdoors, coffee and the ocship I have come to realize how I herited Finnish grit, the relenthome of one of the Finnish lacasional glass of wine. We soon still, after having been a citizen
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... three Finns... transplants who put roots in a new country where they took hold... less will to push through when the odds aren’t in our favor. For me, that dream since high-school was to be a writer. In order to become one I had to travel through continents and cross some oceans, accumulating some years, but it all served me for the better, I believe. In Wenatchee, I haven’t stopped writing since my arrival, be it journalistic pieces or fictional work. All three of us agree that in this country, we have had possibilities which in Finland we may not have had. We have frequently compared the two countries, the cocoon-like security of Finland and the openness of the United States. We could go back and forth forever, comparing and debating which territory offers the most advantages, but this much we know: we are here, in Wenatchee, to stay. Mimmi, Tiina and I all agree and often mention how lucky we are in our lives, to have these homes and natural surroundings which many lack or only on occasion enjoy as vacationers. As I look at the confluence of the Columbia and the Wenatchee rivers, the contrast of the scented sageland along the hills and the rich riparian growth lining the river, I cannot help but think how much that is like us three Finns, us transplants who put roots in a new country where they took hold, not to invade but to comingle. Whether it’s out hiking or gathering at one of our homes to sip coffee, we celebrate this home, this friendship, this good life every day. On occasion, we sigh and talk about childhood days in Finland, the way things were. That was the good life, then.
fun stuff what to do around here for the next month NCW BLUES JAM, every second and fourth Monday. 7 – 10 p.m. Riverside Pub. Homegrown Country Jam, every first and third Monday night, 7 to 10 p.m. Riverside Pub. Upper Valley Running Club, every Tuesday, 4:30 – 6 p.m. Check-in at the gravel lot across from O’Grady’s Pantry. Maps will be available for a marked 3-mile trail route, partly along Icicle Creek. Run or walk, by yourself, with a friend or with your family. Participate 10 or more times and earn an Upper Valley Running Club tech tee. Info: sleepinglady.com. Wenatchee Paddle Club, every Tuesday, 9:30 a.m. open paddle, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6 p.m. novice kayak paddle group, Saturdays, 7 a.m. masters crew rowing. Info: wenatcheepaddle.org. 1 million cups, every first Wednesday of the month. 7:45 a.m. sharp. Entrepreneurs discover solutions and thrive when they collaborate over a million cups of coffee. Come join this supportive, dynamic community and hear from two businesses that are between 1 – 5 years old. Discover how we can help move them forward in a positive environment, fueled by caffeine. Coffee provided by Mela Coffee Roasting. Wenatchee Valley Chamber office, 137 N. Wenatchee Ave.
Jan Cook Mack retrospective A local orchard in full bloom full of bees buzzing and a carpet of balsam root will be part of a Jan Cook Mack retrospective showing at Collapse, a new gallery located at 115 South Wenatchee Ave. in the front of Radar Station. The show opens during First Friday, March 1, at 5:30 p.m. the Wenatchee Valley. Beginner lesson at the top of the hour followed by carefree social dancing. No partner necessary to join in the fun. Dance style will be 1940s swing with a bit of salsa, blues, waltz or tango thrown in. Pybus Public Market. Cost: free. Info: pybuspublicmarket.org.
Shrub-steppe poetry podium, every last Wednesday, 4 – 5 p.m. A free, poetry-only public reading. Read your own poems or the work of a favorite poet. The Radar Station, 115 S. Wenatchee Ave. Info: sfblair61@gmail.com.
Game Night, every 4th Friday. Board games, card games or any games you bring. Open to families and all ages. Hosted by Pacific Crest Church. Pybus Public Market. Cost: free. Info: pybuspublicmarket. org.
Weekly Club Runs, every Thursday check in between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. at Pybus Public Market south entrance. Either a 5k or 10k walk or run on the Apple Capital Recreation Loop Trail. Complete 10 weekly runs and receive a free shirt. Cost: free (other than a smile).
Jam at the Crow, 7 – 10 p.m. Every first Sunday. The Club Crow in Cashmere, 108 1/2 Cottage Ave. Cost: free.
Writing for Clarity, every Thursday, 1 – 2:30 p.m. Bring a notebook and pen. Meet at Pybus Public Market in front of the community kitchen. Cost: free. Info: 393-6779 or 884-6955. 2 Left Feet, every Thursday, 7 – 9 p.m. 2 Left Feet is a loose organization of local dance enthusiasts who would like to see more dancing in March 2019 | The Good Life
Call for artists, Icicle Creek Center for the Arts, in collaboration with the Wenatchee River Institute and the Leavenworth Spring Bird Fest Art Exhibition, invites submissions for the annual Bird Fest Exhibition “Pacific Northwest Birds and their Habitats.” Deadline is 3/11. Info: icicle.org. Fiber Friday, 3/1, 1 – 3 p.m. Bring your knitting, crocheting or anything portable. We motivate each other and discuss new ideas. Peshastin Library. Cost: free. Info:
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ncrl.org. STEM club, 3/1, 3:30 – 5 p.m. Sign up to learn about coding and building robots. Wenatchee Library. Info: ncrl.org. Vox Docs Film Festival, 3/1, 7 p.m. opening night. Documentaries: Miss Veedol, exploring the impact of first trans-pacific flight from Japan to East Wenatchee, from Voortex Productions; Not For Any Price, covering the Lumi Nations’ fight to preserve sacred hunting grounds, from North 40 Productions; The Winter’s Tale, a professionally made student documentary capturing the Wenatchee Tribal creation legends of dragon Spexma, the guardian of the Columbia River. Party after films. Snowy Owl Theater. Cost: $15 advance or $17 at the door. Info: icicle.org. Special Olympics Winter state games, 3/1, 8 p.m. Opening ceremonies at Town Toyota Center. Info: skileavenworth.com/events/ special-olymics-0. First Friday Events Include: *Guided Art Tours, 3/1, 5:30 p.m. First Fridays with professional artist talks, mini lessons, and collector prints. All tours begin and end at
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The Art Life
// SKETCHES OF LOCAL ARTISTS
Pole dancing and belly dancing? Both take athleticism as well as musical timing and a creative spirit
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By Marlene Farrell
elly dancing and pole dancing might not appear to have much in common, but for Nadège Margaria, they are the two foci of an evolving passion. Nadège described the standing ovation she received after a performance in 2018 as a highlight of her belly dancing career. At the Leavenworth Film Festival she danced to El hob Kolloh, an eight-minute song featuring Arabic strings, cymbals, wind instruments and drums. “It’s a song I used in competition that I wasn’t quite satisfied with,” said Nadège. “I really wanted to do it justice.” While most of us are content to walk across a room without stumbling, Nadège’s belly dancing shows the true capabilities of the human body. She can isolate and activate muscles in sequence, creating beautiful rolls and peaking with thrusts of her shoulders, chest or hips. She brings the music’s rhythm to life in dazzling sequins and billowing silk. Her staccato movements accented the music when it was percussive with a prominent beat. When the music turned slow and melodic, Nadège’s dancing became fluid, relaxed and introspective. By the end, the applause and whistles made it clear she controlled the audience with the sinuous designs she painted with her motions. It all began back in Nice, France, where Nadège grew up. As a child she was drawn to ballet and rhythmic gymnastics. Arabic culture is prominent in France’s melting pot,
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so by the time she was a teenager, she had found what would be her first life-long passion, belly dancing. At age 23, love brought her to San Diego, where she immersed herself in the thriving dance community, giving group and solo performances at theaters and cafes and teaching classes at a gym and at the University of La Jolla. Nadège looked to add to her repertoire, and yoga afforded the balance she Nadège Margaria does a belly dance to live music at Tango Del Rey in San Diego. Photo by Bruce Meyer craved. “When I’m performing I’m very extroverted. Yoga is a more internal and introverted space. And when I love something, I want to teach it, so I became trained as a yoga instructor.” Nadège teaches Vinyasa yoga, known for its creative flow akin to dance, and Yin yoga, in which poses are held for longer periods. She and her husband had another stint in France before settling in Leavenworth right before her daughter, Chloe, now 10, was born. Pushing herself to the next level, Nadège took the opportunity in Europe to be mentored by the Bellydance Superstars and other mentors. “I learned the double veil, and refined my spinning technique and layering shimmies.” Dancing with veils, each over seven feet long, allows the dancer to make impressively intricate patterns. “Layering is when I add other movements like undulations, circles and arm movements Pole dancing is freeing itself from the gentleman’s to the shimmies (that is, fast moving hip club’s connection, said Nadège, who trained and and shoulder techniques). It creates a “wow” practiced new athletic moves at a studio in San effect. Diego. | The Good Life
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“Since beginning pole dancing I think I’ve tripled my strength.” In central Washington, Nadège has performed at a range of venues, enchanting audiences at summer theater productions, the Dangerous Women Women’s History Month celebration, the International Dance Festival, private parties and more. Then, in 2016, Nadège took her first pole dancing class, and it took over as a new obsession. This dance form, now popularized and free from its connection to gentleman’s clubs, brings together — even more so than belly dancing — the expressiveness of dance with the muscular strength and endurance of acrobatics. After hours of training and certification, Nadège began offering classes, setting up several poles in a local gym. This dance style, both sensual and empowering, also drew bachelorette party customers. Nadège climbs a pole with ease. Several feet off the ground, she’s in constant motion, extending outward and curling inward, spinning and defying gravity with only one tightly wrapped leg or arm. Grace masks the exertion required. “Since beginning pole dancing I think I’ve tripled my strength.” The pole has two positions, static and spinning. “You get momentum from the spinning pole, but you must have a really good grip,” Nadège explained. She is mostly self-taught from watching online tutorials but also has mentors in Seattle. “I value learning from someone else. Some of the moves are scary at first.” Her training sessions range from two to five hours. She begins with cardio and flexibility and then repeats new inversions, spins and choreographed routines until she does them per-
WHAT TO DO
We want to know of fun and interesting local events. Send info to: donna@ncwgoodlife.com
}}} Continued from page 29 Columbia Station. Tours help familiarize you with local art venues and artists. Opening of the Regional High School Art Show, Matthew Kimmel leads a brief discussion focused on this eclectic celebration of young North Central Washington artists. Cost: free. Info: 664-7624. *Two Rivers Art Gallery, 3/1, 5 – 8 p.m. Members show and 10th anniversary celebration. Over 50 local and regional artists. Music by Pat Thompson and Glenn Isaacson. Complimentary refreshments. 102 N Columbia, Wenatchee. Cost: free. Info: 2riversgallery.com. *Tumbleweed Bead Co., 3/1, 5-7 p.m. Refreshments served. 105 Palouse St. Cost: free. Info: tumbleweedbeadco.com. *Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center, 3/1, 5. – 8 p.m. Opening of Regional High School Art Show. Light refreshments. Info: Wenatchee.org. *Lemolo Café and Deli, 3/1, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. 114 N Wenatchee Ave.
Nadège shows her form during a photo shoot to promote her yoga and belly dance classes at Snowcreek Yoga Studio in 2011. Taken on Mountain Home Road above Leavenworth. Photo by Shane Wilder
fectly. “It’s exhausting, and I got a ton of bruises at first.” Now she’s preparing for an April Broadway-inspired performance at Emerald City Trapeze Arts in Seattle. Along with trapeze artists and aerialists, Nadège will do an original pole dance set to All That Jazz from Chicago. It’s a bit lonely, artistically speaking, in central Washington for this now-single mom. Back in France she could fill classes of adults or kids for belly dancing, but attendance in Leavenworth has been sparser. Nadège plans to maintain ties to Leavenworth but is relocating to Seattle, where she’ll have a more steady flow of classes and shows. And she’ll be closer to her fellow pole dancers. She said, “I’ve found so much supMarch 2019 | The Good Life
port, shared joy and encouragement there. It is a safe place to be completely free, express our sensuality, and feel confident.” Nadège has touched many locals through her teaching and performances. “My classes are empowering for women. They get stronger and fitter.” And her time with daughter, Chloe, who takes ballet and jazz, often includes spontaneous dance parties. “Through what I do and the path I chose, I hope to inspire Chloe to cultivate her own strength, creative spirit, drive, and a healthy lifestyle.” More about Nadège Margaria can be found on Facebook, @danceexpressionpoledancebellydance, and on Instagram, @danceexpressionyogaflow.
*Mission Street Commons, 3/1, 5 – 8 p.m. 218 S Mission St. *Robert Graves Gallery, 3/1, 5 – 7 p.m. Sexton Hall at Wenatchee Valley College, Ninth St entrance. *MAC Gallery, 3/1, 5 – 7 p.m. Wenatchee Valley College Music and Art Center, 1300 Fifth St. *Ye Olde Bookshoppe, 3/1, 5 – 8 p.m. 11 Palouse St. *Wenatchee Valley Chamber of Commerce, 3/1, 5 – 8 p.m. 137 N Wenatchee Ave. *RadarStation, 3/1, 4 – 9 p.m. 115 S Wenatchee Ave. *Collapse, 3/1, 4 – 9 p.m. Jan Cook Mack will have a range of paintings. 115 S Wenatchee Ave. (in front of RadarStation). *Pans Grotto, 3/1, 4 – 9 p.m. 3 N Wenatchee Ave. Ste 2. *Class with a Glass, 3/1, 5 – 8 p.m. 10 S Columbia St. *Mela, 3/1, 5 – 8 p.m. Nosh provided. Cost: free. 17 N. Wenatchee Ave. Cost: free.
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The Art Life
// SKETCHES OF LOCAL ARTISTS
Joy, hope and love When the Wicklines come on stage, faces smile and toes get tapping By Marlene Farrell Photos by Kevin Farrell Eight friends shared a stage for a Christmas show. Behind them, the floor to ceiling windows gave a sense they were playing, not just for their audience, but also their tunes were spilling out into the dark night. Four of the band members were family, the others connected by the invisible hands of time spent together doing something they love. Karla Jo Tupper, the flutist, insisted, “We are family.” Bob Wickline began the band, Wickline, four decades ago. Their repertoire of folk, rock and bluegrass, with hints of old time, gospel and Celtic traditional music, highlight the expressive voices of Bob, wife Lynda, and daughters, Mandi and Marcee, who take turns doing lead or backup. The other band members lend their voices and also provide lively and evocative playing on guitar, bass, flute, mandolin, penny whistle and drums. Mandi Wickline, a Leavenworth local, arranged to have Wickline play an intimate Christmas concert in Icicle Creek Center for the Arts’ Canyon Wren recital hall. For her day job, Mandi helps others perform to the best of
The band, including, from left, Sherman Hayes, Karla Jo Tupper, Dave Michalski, Lynda, Mandi, Bob and Marcee Wickline and Dave Thomas, have a lot of fun on stage while making beautiful music.
their ability. As Cascade School District’s head drama coach and co-director, she oversees three productions every year, including a splashy spring musical, and coaches the speech and debate team. For six years she has also directed the Upper Valley Connection Special Needs Theater Camp production in June. She squeezes in chances to be the one on stage. She’s been involved both behind the scenes and on stage for Dangerous Women, an original and annual Women’s History production. In addition, every year she joins Wickline for Christmas concerts. Performing was destiny for Mandi and Marcee. When each was little, they joined the band and enchanted audiences with renditions of Daddy, What If? And now they create threepart harmony with their mom, Lynda.
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While Mandi was growing up, Wickline made the rounds regionally through the summer festival circuit. It worked well with the time off from Bob and Lynda’s teaching jobs. “I travelled with my parents throughout my childhood in a big white bus,” said Mandi. “My grandparents would either come along to watch me, or I’d stay with them so I wouldn’t miss school. I loved singing at fairs.” For years Wickline gave musical education presentations at schools through the Washington State Arts Commission. “My family visited over 2,000 schools during their 18 years with the Arts Commission. We mostly played elementary schools. One of the coolest things was doing shows for parents in the evenings; they were like bluegrass picnics — very festive and community-oriented. I learned the importance of arts
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education from my parents. I also developed a love for creating community through the arts.” Every year, the Saturday after Thanksgiving is dedicated to a marathon practice session to prepare for Christmas shows, where, as Mandi puts it, “We work on Christmas songs with a folk rock or bluegrass influence. We also play a few hippy songs — because we’re hippies.” Bob’s the founder of the band, but he was quick to say, “It’s a collaborative effort. I’m working with talented people who give good input.” Bob encourages lots of audience participation during performances, noting, with charming self-deprecation, “Singers live longer. And if everyone’s singing and we make mistakes, you can’t hear them.” Lead guitar Dave said, “The greatest thing about this band is
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}}} Continued from page 31 Wild Ideas!, 3/1, 5:30 – 7 p.m. Hear three short, fun 5-minute talks on our land and water. Five minute talks: Chew on this: ecosystem restoration with beavers, introducing the amazing white-headed woodpecker and team naturaleza: bringing people and nature together. Then Land Trust Executive Director Curt Soper will talk about upcoming projects the Chelan/Douglas Land Trust has for 2019. Beer and wine available for purchase. Complimentary non-alcoholic drinks and finger foods. Pybus Public Market. Cost: free. Info: cdlandtrust.org. Dos Dudes, 3/1, 6 – 8 p.m. Live music on the railcar. Pybus Public Market. Cost: free. Info: pybuspublicmarket.org.
Mandi Wickline said, “I knew Canyon Wren would be the perfect fit for our personal show that’s like a family Christmas party.”
you never know what to expect.” Song order might change on the fly, but this extended family, who know each other’s playing style so well, make it work, seamlessly adapting. One of the final pieces during the Leavenworth Christmas concert was a special song, Could You Fall in Love on Christmas. It started as a poem written by an extended family member who was diagnosed with cancer. Mandi explained, “The poem sat on Dad’s desk forever because he was afraid he couldn’t do it justice. But when he finally picked it up to put music to it, the song practically wrote itself.” Everyone in Wickline gives much to the audience. Mandi said, “My dad isn’t afraid to show emotion on the stage.” In return, the group is treated to an authentic audience response. In Canyon Wren, everyone was singing along, tapping toes and smiling, soaking in the joy, hope and love conveyed through the music of Wickline.
Mobile Meals Spring Variety Show, 3/1, 7 p.m. A variety show with numerous talents performing. Show provides funds for the Mobile Meals non-profit organization. Numerica Performing Arts Center. Cost: $8-12. Info: numericapac.org. Skydive Chelan Season opener, 3/2 - 3, 8:30 a.m. A weekend of fun and skydiving. Info: skydivechelan. com. Nick’s Bricks In memory of Nicholas Vitulli, 3/2, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Jewelry, spaceships, displays, robotics all using Legos. Legos provided. Wear your flannel shirt. Music, snacks and door prizes. Pybus Public Market. Cost: free. Info: pybuspublicmarket.org. Special Olympics Winter state games, 3/2, 3. Over 1,500 athletes from across the state will converge on Wenatchee, Mission Ridge Ski Resort and Leavenworth to compete in six sports. All events to watch are free. Info: skileavenworth.com/eventsspecial-olympics-0. Vox Docs Film Fest, 3/2, 1 p.m. Love, Gilda. This film offers a unique window into the honest and whimsical world of a beloved performer whose greatest role was sharing her story. 3 p.m. Generation Wealth, Lauren Greenfield created a visual history of our growing obsession with wealth. Through riveting first-person interviews, Greenfield’s journey starts in Los Angeles and spreads across America and beyond. 7 p.m. Free Solo, filmmaker E. Chai Vasarhelyi (Meru) and March 2019 | The Good Life
world-renowned photographer and mountaineer Jimmy Chin comes a stunning, intimate and unflinching portrait of the free soloist climber Alex Honnold, as he prepares to achieve his lifelong dream: climbing the face of the world’s most famous rock … the 3,000-foot El Capitan in Yosemite National Park … without a rope. Snowy Owl Theater. Cost: $17 at the door. Info: icicle.org. Cold Winter Nights Comedy Series: Kelsey Cook, 3/2, 7 p.m. Kelsey has been on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Comedy Central and numerous TV appearance. Numerica Performing Arts Center. Cost: $22. Info: numericapac.org. Columbia Chorale presents Great Choral Classics, 3/2, 7 p.m. Western music, works by Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn Brahms and others. Grace Lutheran Church. Cost: $20. Info: numericapac.org. Opera series: La Fille du Regiment – The Met: live in HD, 3/3, 2 p.m. Bel Canto stars Pretty Yende and Javier Camarena team up for a feast of vocal fireworks. Snowy Owl Theater. Cost: $5-22. Info: icicle.org. Upper Valley Empty Bowls Gala, 3/3, 5:30 -7:30 p.m. View bowls and platters created by 22 local artists and potters. An evening of art, wine, appetizers and music. Icicle Ridge Winery in Peshastin. Cost: $20 suggested donation. Info: uvmend.org. Scientist Speaker Series: Water!, 3/5, 6 p.m. Aaron Penvose from TU will talk about the water use in the Wenatchee Valley and TU’s efforts in the region to improve instream flow. Wenatchee River Institute. Info: wenatcheeriverinstitute.org. Pybus University: Organizing mom and dad, 3/5, 7 – 8:15 p.m. Kerri Walker, Aging Life Care Manager will talk about “having the talk,” who should be on your care team and planning for the future care of your parents. Christina Davitt, attorney at Ogden Murphy Wallace PLLC will talk about the importance of financial and health care power of attorneys, living wills, trusts and advance health care directives. Followed by Q and A. Pybus Public Market. Cost: free. Info: pybuspublicmarket.org. Upper Valley Empty Bowls Online Auction, 3/6, 8 a.m. – 10 p.m. through 3/20, bid on 22 bowls
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designed and created by local artists and potters. All proceeds benefit the Community Cupboard food bank. See website: uvmend.org. Camp Fire luncheon, 3/6, noon. Linda Haglund, director of Downtown Association will be the keynote speaker of the North Central Washington Boys and Girls Annual WoHeLo Benefit Luncheon. Jenny Johnson-Smith, coach at Actualize Sports and Bill Dooley, director of Young Life will be presented with this year’s Trail Blazer award. Wenatchee convention center. Call 663-1609 or email campfirencw@ gmail.com to reserve a seat. Monthly movie on the big screen: This is Spinal Tap, 3/6, 6:30 p.m. This 1984 American mockumentary follows the fictional British heavy metal band Spinal Tap (Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, RJ Parnell, and David Kaff) as a documentary filmmaker (Rob Reiner) follows the band on their US tour. Throughout the tour the band experiences show cancellations and rescheduled shows in smaller venues, and soon tensions rise between the band and their manager (Tony Hendra). Numerica Performing Arts Center. Cost: $3. Info: numericapac. org. Meet the Author: Nancy Pearl, 3/6, 6 – 7 p.m. Best selling author, librarian, literary critic as well as a radio and television personality. Nancy is a reader and has spent her life promoting reading as one of the most beneficial and joyful experiences anyone can have. Wenatchee Library Periodical room. Cost: free. Info: ncrl.org. Lake Chelan Ukulele Circle, 3/7, 1 – 1 p.m. Play your ukulele and learn new songs and techniques. Chelan Library Community meeting room. Cost: free. Info: ncrl.org. Painted Garden Rock craft for adults, 3/7, 44 – 5 p.m. Paint rocks to make garden markers. Leavenworth Library. Cost: free. Info: ncrl.org. Sustainable cooking for young adults, 3/7, 5 – 7 p.m. Join Jen Retasket and learn how to prepare healthy and delicious meals on a budget. Wenatchee Library. Cost: free. Info: ncrl.org. Heating Up: the ethics of climate change, 3/7, 7 – 8 p.m. A discussion on how our moral beliefs about nature have led us to the brink of climate change. Cashmere
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We want to know of fun and interesting local events. Send info to: donna@ncwgoodlife.com
}}} Continued from previous page Library great room. Cost: free. Info: ncrl.org. Fiber Friday, 3/8, 1 – 3 p.m. Bring your knitting, crocheting or anything portable. We motivate each other and discuss new ideas. Peshastin Library. Cost: free. Info: ncrl.org. Movies at the library: Ant-Man and the wasp, 3/8, 3:30 – 6 p.m. Wenatchee Library. Cost: free. Info: ncrl.org. Lance Tigner, 3/8, 6 – 8 p.m. Live music on the railcar. Pybus Public Market. Cost: free. Info: pybuspublicmarket.org. Slayride Banked Slalom, 3/9, 10. Fund raiser. Stevens Pass. Cost: $175. Info: stevenspass.com. Foothills Middle School PTSA book sale, 3/9, 10, all day. Adult, young adult and children’s books, activity books and workbooks along with a selection of puzzles and games. Proceeds benefit the Foothills Middle School PTSA. LocalTel Event Center at Pybus Public Market. Cost: free. Info: pybuspublicmarket.org. Movie Monday: Zootopia, 3/11, 4 – 6 p.m. Free popcorn. Cashmere Library. Cost: free. Info: ncrl.org. ATLAS: stem club, 3/12, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. Fun activities for kids. Wenatchee Library. Cost: free. Info: ncrl.org. Fly Tying Class, 3/12, 6 – 8 p.m. Learn about fly fishing equipment, philosophy and the basic entomological connections between aquatic food sources and local fish. All materials and tools provided. Students receive 6 to 8 flies to get started on their own fishing adventures. Wenatchee River Institute. Cost: $60. Info: wenatcheeriverinstitute.org. Pybus University: Small business start-ups: tips, tricks and lessons learned, 3/12, 7 – 8:15 p.m. Shawn Hunstock will walk you through some of the options and steps in the process, discuss things that need to happen in a certain sequence, and share resources you can take and refer to later in starting your new business. Pybus Public Market. Cost: free. Info: pybuspublicmarket.org.
3D printing for teens and adults, 3/13, 4 – 5:30 p.m. Learn how to use Tinkercad 3D design software. Wenatchee Library. Cost: free. Info: ncrl.org. The Surprising, Secret life of beavers and why they matter, 3/13, 6:30 p.m. Listen and learn from Ben Goldfarb author of this book. Barn Beach Reserve. Info: wenatcheeriverinstitute.org. Lake Chelan Ukulele Circle, 3/14, 1 – 2 p.m. Play your ukulele and learn new songs and techniques. Chelan Library Community meeting room. Cost: free. Info: ncrl. org. Australia Night with down under answers, 3/14, 5:30 p.m. Presentation with travel specialist to learn about Australia and New Zealand. By AAA of Wenatchee. 221 N Mission. Cost: free. Info: wa.aaa.com/stores/store-locations/ Wenatchee. Charlie Brown, a musical, 3/14, 15, 16, 22, 23, 7 p.m. plus 2 p.m. Saturday matinees. Wenatchee High School drama performs live. Wenatchee High School auditorium. Cost: $15 adults, $10 students. Tickets: numericapac.org. Cirque Eloize: Saloon, 3/14, 7:30 p.m. This live performance has the infectious energy of folk music and strains of fiddle to set the tone for an acrobatic comedy that sweeps spectators away in a mad flurry. The Saloon doors swing open to reveal a motley cast of individuals, each with a tale to tell. Numerica Performing Arts Center. Cost: $2731. Info: numericapac.org. Guided Art Tours for kids, 3/15, 9:30 – a.m. These tours are designed for children and their caregivers seeking ways to explore interesting and fun destinations, which are easily accessed with Link Transit’s fixed-route system. All tours begin and end at Columbia Station. Decorate and eat a shamrock cookie, then board the bus for a visit to Pybus Public Market and enjoy a gelato and launch a tiny sailboard made from natural materials at the boat launch. Stay for lunch and take a later bus back to the station. Cost: free. Info: 6647624 or sdanko@libnktransitcom. Fiber Friday, 3/15, 1 – 3 p.m. Bring your knitting, crocheting or anything portable. We motivate each other and discuss new ideas. Peshastin Library. Cost: free. Info: ncrl.org. Film Friday: Annie, 3/15, 4 – 6 p.m.
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Free popcorn. Cashmere Library. Well Strung, 3/15, 7 – 9 p.m. Live music on the railcar. Pybus Public Market. Cost: free. Info: pybuspublicmarket.org. Shamrock Shuffle 5K fun run, 3/16, 8:30 a.m. Lake Chelan Lions Club sponsors this run to raise Diabetes Awareness and to raise funds to send local students with Diabetes to a Lions Club camp in Spokane, Camp Stix. Riverwalk Park. Cost: $30. Info: eventbrite. com/e/shamrock-shuffle-5k-tickets-53066746066. Health and wellness fair, 3/16, 9 a.m. – noon. Learn more about healthy aging. Wellness Place and Health Alliance Northwest will have informative booths, preventative health screening tests. Wenatchee Appleaires will perform. Fitness demos from the YMCA, SAIL program and Wenatchee School of Karate. Pybus Public Market. Cost: free. Info: pybuspublicmarket.org. Hike for health series third Saturdays, 3/16, 9 – 11 a.m. Join Chelan-Douglas Land Trust and Columbia Valley Community Health for a hike. Participate as an individual or as part of a team to improve your health. Receive raffle tickets for prizes. First hike is Dry Gulch. Cost: free. Info: cdlandtrust.org. Skydive Tandem, 3/16, 22, 29, noon – 5 p.m. Skydive and land at
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one of Chelan’s top wineries. Yes, there is a glass of wine waiting for you upon landing. Info: skydivechelan.com/winery-tandem or call 881-0687. Live performance: Mandy Harvey, 3/16, 7 p.m. The awardwinning singer, songwriter, and inspirational speaker who lost her hearing at the age of 19 returns to Icicle Creek. Snowy Owl Theater. Cost: $16-32. Info: icicle.org. A Musical Smorgasbord: Blast from the Past, 3/16, 7 p.m. The Apollo Club Men’s Choir performs music from the 50s, 60s and 70s. Pop, folk, jazz and classics. Numerica Performing Arts Center. Cost: $20. Tickets: numericapac. org. O’Grady’s St. Paddy’s 5K, 3/17, 11 a.m. This timed 5K run will stat and finish at O’Grady’s Pantry utilizing trails throughout the property. Post- run party. A portion of proceeds will be donated to Leavenworth Winter Sports Club. Cost: $40 adults, $30 12 to 20 years old and under 11 free. Info: runwenatchee.com. Derik Nelson and Family, 3/17, 2 p.m. Siblings Derik, Riana and Dalten have been performing together since childhood and garnered over 3 million views on YouTube. The innovative technical aspect of the concert takes the
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audience on an aural and futuristic visual journey through time and space performing unique arrangements of popular music. Velvety sibling three-part harmonies. A Wenatchee Community Concert Association event. Wenatchee High School. Info: wenatcheeconcerts. org. St. Patrick’s Day Parade, 3/17, 5ish. The shortest St. Patrick’s Day parade route in the world. Corner of Orondo and Mission St. Trophy award ceremony at Pybus Public Market at 6ish. Cost: free. Environmental film: The trouble with wolves, 3/19, 7 – 9 p.m. This film is an up-close look at the most heated and controversial wildlife conservation debate of our time. The film aims to find out whether coexistence is really possible by hearing from the people directly involved. It captures the controversy, as ranchers and ecologists square off with wolves caught in the middle. Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. Cost: free. No–host bar and free popcorn. Info: cdlandtrust.org. Women’s History Month Tea, 3/20, noon to 1 p.m. Learn more about our local treasure and the women who called it home. Women’s History Book dedication to our local High Schools, meet high school librarians. Wells House on WVC Campus. Cost: $10 cash or check at the door. RSVP by 3/13 to jdfeist@charter.net or 860-0659. Invaders in our foothills: help stop the weeds, 3/20, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. What do scentless mayweed, yellow star thistle, and jointed goat grass all have in common? All are noxious weeds we don’t want to find in our Wenatchee Foothills. CDLT is recruiting trail users to help us locate new populations of troublesome weeds so we can eliminate them before they spread. Find out how to identify the 15 most noxious weeds that threaten our shrub-steppe plant communities - especially after wildfire. Wenatchee Public Library. Cost: free. Info: cdlandtrust. org. Upper valley empty bowls festival, 3/21, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. Share a delicious soup supper. Leavenworth Festhalle. Sold out. Wenatchee Valley Chamber of Commerce Banquet, 3/21, 5:30 p.m. This year’s theme is Spirit of Wenatchee. Dinner at 6:30 p.m. Awards for Business of the Year and non-profit of the Year. Who
will win the Best Decorated Table Award? Wenatchee Convention Center. Cost: $65. Info: wenatchee. org/annual-banquet. Skydive Tandem, 3/22, 29, noon – 5 p.m. Skydive and land at one of Chelan’s top wineries. Yes, there is a glass of wine waiting for you upon landing. Info: skydivechelan. com/winery-tandem or call 8810687. Joe Guimond, 3/22, 7 – 9 p.m. Live music on the railcar. Pybus Public Market. Cost: free. Info: pybuspublicmarket.org. Non-Profit Day, 3/23, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Looking for a non-profit that could use your volunteer time, energy and knowledge? Want to learn more about the various programs offered by non-profits? Over 40 non-profit organizations will be on hand to tell you about their programs and purposes. Pybus Public Market. Cost: free. Info: pybuspublicmarket.org. Plain Valley Adventure Women’s Spring Social, 3/23, 4 – 6 p.m. Come meet local women who enjoy adventuring in the outdoors. Plain. Cost: free. Email: pvaw@ skiplain.com for event details.
started on their own fishing adventures. Wenatchee River Institute. Cost: $60. Info: wenatcheeriverinstitute.org. Science on tap: chumstick wildfire stewardship coalition, 3/27, 6 – 7 p.m. Join Wenatchee River Institute and Corrine Hoffman from CWSC to talk about dealing with giant wildfires in our regions. Wenatchee Valley Brewing Company. Cost: by donation. Info: wenatcheeriverinstitute. org. Skydive Tandem, 3/29, noon – 5 p.m. Skydive and land at one of Chelan’s top wineries. Yes, there is a glass of wine waiting for you upon landing. Info: skydivechelan. com/winery-tandem or call 8810687. Nate Weakly Project, 3/29, 7 – 9 p.m. Live music on the railcar. Pybus Public Market. Cost: free. Info: pybuspublicmarket.org. Mariachi Northwest Festival, 3/29, 7 p.m. Featuring Ana Barbara, Mariachi Reyna de
Los Angeles Mariachi Huenachi and Bailadores de Bronce. Town Toyota Center. Cost: $30. Info: mariacinorthwestfestival.com. Opera series: Die Walkure – the Met: live in HD, 3/30, 9 a.m. In what is expected to be a Wagnerian event for the ages, soprano Christine Goerke plays Brünnhilde, the willful title warrior maiden. Snowy Owl Theater. Cost: $5-22. Info: icicle.org. Live performance: Billy McLaughlin, 3/30, 7 p.m. The internationally recognized fingerstyle guitar pioneer who overcame focal dystonia by relearning guitar left-handed, shares his music and inspirational story. Snowy Owl Theater. Cost: $12-24. Info: icicle.org. Pickwick, 3/30, 7:30 p.m. This Black Box Concert features both the band and audience on the stage for a personal, engaging performance by one of Seattle’s hottest bands. Numerical Performing Arts Center. Cost: $25. Info: numericapac.org.
Lecture series: Chris Morgan Workshop, 3/23, 5 p.m. Learn how to capture amazing footage of bears and turn it into stories for the screen. Snowy Owl Theater. Cost: free. Info: icicle.org. Film series: Chris Morgan: Beartrek, 3/23, 7 p.m. Ecologist and award-winning conservationist, educator, TV host and film producer brings his newest film. Snowy Owl Theater. Cost: $12-22. Info: icicle.org.
adults $15 students $10
A Night at the Museum, 3/23, 6 – 9 p.m. A night of fun, food and entertainment. Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. Cost: $50 members, $60 non-members. Info: 888-6240. Eli West and Ben Winship, 3/23, 7 p.m. Two of the most talented and tasteful musicians in Bluegrass music today. A Cashmere Community Concerts event. Riverside Center, Cashmere. Cost: $3 at the door and pass the hat $8-11. Info: cashmereconcerts.com. Fly Tying Class, 3/26, 6 – 8 p.m. Learn about fly fishing equipment, philosophy and the basic entomological connections between aquatic food sources and local fish. All materials and tools provided. Students receive 6 to 8 flies to get March 2019 | The Good Life
March 14-16, 22-23
evenings at 7 p.m. • saturday matinees at 2 p.m.
Wenatchee High School Auditorium
tickets at www.numericapac.org & at the door
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column those were the days
rod molzahn
The determined German, part 2 After Ernst Wagner became weary with apple brokers, he became one, selling fruit overseas Editor’s note: In the January edition, Rod Molzahn told how German immigrant Ernst Wagner overcame one challenge after another to become a successful apple grower. Now, Rod relates how Wagner went on to grow his operations.
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rnst Wagner’s 1907 and 1908 trips to Australia and New Zealand selling apples convinced him there was good profit to be made in international exports. He held back part of his 1908 crop then shipped the apples to Japan and China in February of 1909. As always, Ernst sailed with his apples and sold 70,000 boxes. He returned with orders for 150,000 boxes of the 1909 crop. In August of 1909, Wagner ran a front-page ad in the Wenatchee Daily World seeking apples for shipment to Australia and New Zealand. He paid $1.15 per box and bought mostly Winesaps and Rome Beauties. (They traveled well.) He also took smaller amounts of Spitzenberg, Jonathan, Senator, Stayman, McIntosh Red, Ben Davis and Black Ben Davis varieties. Growers delivered the apples to Conrad Rose at Wenatchee Produce Company. Demand for apples overseas was so strong Wagner could not satisfy it with his apples alone so he enlisted Rose to help him buy up other grower’s fruit. It is an irony that Ernst Wagner, who so disliked fruit brokers, became one himself. 1910 was a big year for Wagner. In January he sailed to England with carloads of apples then on with more to his native Germany where a private yacht met his ship in Hamburg Harbor to
bring Wagner ashore for a welcome celebration. In September he returned to England with 40 carloads and to Germany with 100 carloads. In 1910, for the first time, Wagner shipped his apples to Buenos Aires, Argentina, a market he would return to yearly until 1917. He dominated the South American market by gaining control of all the cold storage needed to ship to that destination. In February of 1910 Wagner hired Leo Marchant to be superintendent of the orchards and moved with his family to a fine home on North Wenatchee Avenue. It was clear by that year that Swakane Creek was drying up and would soon be too small to provide the irrigation water the growing acreage at Wagnersburg — the name of his orchards midway between Wenatchee and Entiat — needed. In April a pair of 30-horsepower electric pumps were installed to lift water from the Columbia River for the orchards. Bad luck came with high water later that summer when the pumping plant, sitting on two scows, broke free and floated down river. It was spotted below Wenatchee but broke loose again before it could be captured. Surprisingly the pumping plant negotiated the Rock Island rapids without damage and was eventually found and retrieved near Wahluke, below Vantage. Wagner loaded it on wagons and returned it to his orchard. That October the Wenatchee Daily World reported that, with his pumps, Wagner could irrigate 320 acres.
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Ernst Wagner, photographed in 1945 at age 85, a couple of years before his death. From Pioneers of North Central Washington by Eva G. Anderson.
In 1911 or 1912 Mary and Ernst Wagner divorced. Mary continued to live in the Wenatchee Avenue house until her death in 1928. In 1913 Ernst Wagner married Susan Bishop Callahan in New Zealand. Ernst was 53 and Susan was 38. She was a widow with three young children. They moved with Ernst to Wenatchee. Wagner’s international export market continued to prosper until WWI began in 1914. Cargo space on steamships quickly became difficult to find and embargoes made it impossible to export American fruit to many countries. Wagner retired from the export market and concentrated on the domestic market until the war ended. In a Nov. 6, 1918 Wenatchee Daily World interview Wagner predicted an early end to the war. Less than two weeks later the armistice was signed. By the end of the year Wagner had 150 carloads ready to ship from New York to Europe. In 1920 Susan Wagner, a
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member of the Wenatchee Women’s Musical Club, made an important long lasting contribution to Wenatchee and the valley. She had been born and raised in New Zealand and had seen many springtime blossom festivals celebrating the island’s fruit growing history. Susan Wagner suggested to her club that they start a blossom festival in Wenatchee. Two months later, on Friday, May 7, the first Wenatchee Blossom Festival with music, Maypole winding, a Navy band, Queen Fern Prowell and a street dance on Wenatchee Avenue was celebrated by a huge crowd including delegations from Seattle and Spokane. Ernst Wagner’s adult children had taken over management of the orchards and expanded with acreage across the Columbia in the Orondo area where the family had once lived. The increasing production of the Wagner family orchards was outpacing the supply of wooden apple boxes. The Wagner’s only son, Otto, had become a legal business partner with his father when he was in his early teens. He was closely involved with all the family’s businesses including fruit and real estate investments. Now he became the point man developing new timber and lumber mill interests. In 1920, with an eye toward manufacturing their own apple boxes, the Wagners bought a small lumber mill on Loup Loup Pass between Okanogan and Twisp. In late 1922 and early 1923 they significantly increased mill capacity with a rebuild and
Fire insurance (for the mill) was available but the Wagners thought it was too costly. enlargement. Destructive mill fires were common. Fire insurance was available but the Wagners thought it was too costly. Instead they hired a man to sprinkle the mill works with water. In 1931 the sprinkler man mistakenly watered down a large electric motor. The motor exploded and fire destroyed the mill. The Wagners abandoned the Loup Loup location and built a new, state of the art mill in the town of Okanogan. In 1938 the Wagners bought the Fender Mill near Mazama in the Methow Valley. That included a box factory in Twisp. The Fender Mill was an iconic part of the upper Methow Valley but had fallen in fortune. Otto Wagner bought it for a good price. The Fender Mill had always been known for its specialty lumber. In 1927 the mill cut custom lumber for the construction of the Chelan Dam powerhouse. In 1939 Otto and Ernst moved the Fender Mill to Twisp near the box factory. The mill became the biggest employer and economic driver in the valley. Ernst Wagner died March 27, 1948 in Wenatchee at the age of 87. Susan Wagner passed away Sept. 6, 1953 in Wenatchee at age 78. On Nov. 20, 1967 Otto Wagner, age 75, was murdered, strangled in his home by his nephew. Historian, actor and teacher Rod Molzahn can be reached at shake. speak@nwi.net. His third history CD, Legends & Legacies Vol. III - Stories of Wenatchee and North Central Washington, is now available at the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center and at other locations throughout the area.
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the back page: that’s life
Hearing voices: Did she have Old Timer’s Disease? By Diana Carty
I
took care of my dear Aunt Betty for five-and-a-half years until she died at the ripe old age of 101. She lived in Kentucky her whole life and had that sweet Kentucky drawl that made one syllable words become two. One time I went to visit her and she was all upset. I asked her what was wrong and she said that she thinks she might have “Old Timer’s Disease” now. I said “Aunt Betty what makes you think that?” She said that she keeps hearing someone say “Hello Betty” and when she turns around there is no one there. She reports that had been going on for several days before I got there. She was visibly upset and as a nurse I reassured her that at age
That same fear and worry rose up out of her again... 100 she did not have Alzheimer’s Disease and that she was doing remarkable for her age. I then tried to redirect her thoughts to some fun ideas of things that we could do together while I was there. My visits there were full of running errands for her, going to appointments with her and taking her on long drives along the beautiful countryside of southeastern Kentucky. I had asked her hearing aid specialist, Donnie, to drop by the assisted living residence one day to clean her hearing aides. My aunt always loved to see Donnie. As soon as Donnie came in the room he came right
up to my aunt and dropped to his knees so that he could be eye level with Aunt Betty who was sitting in her wheelchair. Before he could ask her how she was doing she started in with, “Donnie I think I have Old Timer’s Disease.” “I have been hearing voices saying ‘Hello Betty’ over and over but no one is there.” That same fear and worry rose up out of her again that I had seen upon my arrival. Donnie patiently listened to her all the while with a big smile on his face. My aunt asked him why he was smiling and that she was very serious about this. Donnie then said, “ Miss Betty, you have the fancy kind of hearing aides and when the battery is getting low a voice will come on and say ‘low battery’ until
you change the batteries in your hearing aides.” The look of relief on Aunt Betty’s face was precious. All this time she had not been hearing “Hello Betty” but rather “Low Diana Carty is a battery.” She nurse at Confluwas so happy ence Health. In that she her free time she reached out enjoys hiking, and hugged kayaking, tennis and swimming. Donnie. We all got a good laugh out of this and she now knew that she did not have “Old Timer’s Disease.”
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