Seattle Stories

Stories from the road
July 20, 2016
Seattle, WA


The waterfront had changed since 1962. In those days Seattle was an industrial city with lots of bars that served pigs feet and Olympia Beer. On a cross county jaunt I worked at the Space Needle for a month before heading back to New England.

Now the city was shining with high-rise buildings, which overlooked the scenic harbor. Tourists crowded Pike’s Marker, and it seemed there was a trendy place to eat every few yards.

Before driving to Olympia we are spending a couple of days in Seattle. Our hotel is the Inn at the Market, which has a good location and terrific rooms. We are walking the city, and I won’t see my rental car again, until we are ready to leave. Today we hope to hit some outdoor shops and a glass exhibit at the Space Needle.

There are a lot of homeless young people who appear to be “on the road”. Their handmade clothes, old musical instruments, and dogs provide them with a vagabond appearance.  I wondered if some were disillusioned with road life, since they seemed spiritless and tired. One group was singing some punk rock songs for money. They weren’t very good, and I thought people were giving them money out of compassion rather than an appreciation of their sound.

Our bellman, John, was a nice guy. He grew up in Idaho and was a river and mountain person. I had fun talking with him about many of the same places we had been. Like Portland Seattle seems to be a city of young people and has an energy that is contagious.