Thursday, May 20, 2021

IT WAS ONCE PRETTY

I used to live there. Friends wonder just where I didn't live. I did live in Seattle. It was home for 9 months while the ship was in the yards which are gone now. We were in fact one of the last ships at Todd Shipyard alongside the Polar Star or Sea. The CHENG on there was nice enough to give me the cooks tour. I was very impressed. They lost a man coming into Puget Sound. A rogue wave set them on their beam ends. A man literally flew 90 feet across the bridge. 90 feet of fall. It's not something one survives.

I lived in West Seattle, over on California Street. We got off the train there a couple of years ago. No. I didn't recognize the city. At all. I lost my car there to an idiot. I walked most of that city from where I lived to the U district. I really didn't recognize it.

It is quite amazing how things change after a mere 30 years.

2 comments:

Rib said...

I more or less grew up there in the 50’s and 60’s, except for summers with my grandfather In OR. Back to undergrad school there after a 4 yr USMC tour, 73 - 79. Not much changed. Back to visit ‘85 enroute to Hickam. Whoa! Lots more people, CA I guess. Farm land now 7-11’s, burger joints and strip clubs. Parks now require admission fees. Back a few times for family stuff. 10 lane I-5. Don’t wanna go there anymore. Bye!

HMS Defiant said...

Many years later I heard people bitching about the traffic. It was never a thing for me back then. Then I went there for a wedding and my bro-in-law lived on that island in Lake Washington and the trip out there and back was a nightmare and so was the ride from SEATAC into downtown.