the spectator by ned piper Happy Birthday to a Rose Princess

When my dad decided to build the family home on Pacific Way, it felt like we were growing up way, way out in the country. Now it feels like a short drive. The lot was three houses from Country Club Drive. We did have neighbors, including Edith Meek and her daughter next door.They boarded a horse in the front yard, giving the neighborhood a rural feel.

My good friend Don Soderlund lived on the other side of the Meeks. Don and I walked the quarter-mile to and from Columbia Valley Gardens Elementary School nearly every day for six years. David Minthorn and family now occupy Don’s former house. I have many fond memories of visiting the Soderlunds.

The Everett Flood family lived on the other side of us. Everett owned the Washington Pulp and Timber Company. The summer that I was 18, Everett hired me as a night watchman to patrol the mill which had burned down earlier that year. There was an old dog on the property named Shep. Shep and I would take hourly tours of the property to make sure nothing untoward was going on. Nothing ever was. I do have a confession, however. On two occasions, I invited a few friends to the millsite, where we engaged in forklift races on the dike.

Somehow I learned that Everett’s wife, Marge, had been a Portland Rose Festival Princess in 1937. Our family went to Portland for several years to watch the parade. Marge was the first celebrity I’d ever known. She was a warm-hearted woman who treated us kids like we were her own. And the Rose Festival tradition is still going strong,with this year’s Grand Floral Parade set for June 10.

Everett and Marge had two sons. Allan and his younger brother Phil were around the same age as my younger brother Perry. Their cousin Ken Gollings, who was my age, spent a lot of time visiting the Floods. We became good friends. A few years ago, Ken re-connected with me, having discovered the Columbia River Reader That led to dinner in Astoria with Ken and his wife.

I called Marge recently and was pleased to learn that she remains as sharp as the proverbial tack.

Marge is turning 103