> That was a good read.
Thank you. I'm not much for one-liners. If I'm going to bother reading
posts I'd like them to have some content. So I write to please myself,
I suppose. It's not my fault if people have ADD and can't get beyond
one paragraph. Someone who shall go unmentioned is like that. He skims
and scans everything because he can't pay attention ....he can't pay
anything else, either. LOL...
I wasn't aware that you were a transplant to the
> Pacific Northwest.
I can't believe it was 14 years on June 28. I'll be lucky if I live
another 14 years. The time here as flown by and it seems like about
7...
The east side of the Washington Narrows, where you
> live, is not what I think of as Bremerton,
Neither do I...I'm close to Tracyton and quite removed from the gloom of
the Old Town. Even if it was all fixed up, I still wouldn't much like
it over there....or around Gorst. :'(
but then what does it
> matter what I think. Bremerton thinks as it wishes. LOL.
Well, you have a right to an opinion....a "degreed" Urban Planner and
Architect such as yourself. You probably could have this town shaped up
if they'd asked what you think.
Bremerton, to
> me, is the entire miserable area west of the Manette Bridge, clear to
> 3.
I agree. I like it down around Bachmann Park, but just wouldn't want to
live on that side of town at all. Around here, I make sure to tell
people I live in EAST Bremerton. But for people across the country,
they wouldn't know the difference anyway.
The waterfront homes are great along the various inlets, but half
> of them are abandoned or beat to shit. It's no one's fault, sad
> really.
At one time Reader's Digest published that Bremerton, WA was the best
place in the entire country to live.
What's a town to do when the jobs go away overnight...I read
> the history of the downtown area owned by Bremer and the way Olympic
> College let it all deteriorate. Very interesting.
I'm not aware of that....how could Olympic College have that affect on a
town? I was told by a former mayer here that Bremerton had the
opportunity to have the Kitsap Mall and surrounding businesses but they
fought against that kind of development and so the Kitsap Mall was built
at Silverdale....the little sleepy egg farm town. It's got everything
now. I never have to shop beyond Silverdale. Bought all my furniture
there. They have every store, restaurant and business that I need. And
downtown Bremerton is still dying, in spite of a few places trying to do
something. They'll never recover now that Silverdale is where it's
at... At least the waterfront and ferry terminal has been
improved...and now the new condos.
.
> Yes, you do live in a beautiful place, and only a handful of human
> beings have what you have.
I zero'd in on Kitsap County...it seemed ideal after Vashon, Whidbey and
Bainbridge Islands. They were too expensive for me and unhandy. I
decided to start out where I am until I could figure out where I
*really* wanted to be. After 2 years of searching all over, I decided
to stay where I was.
To come from the Cold North and find
> pleasure here, good on you.
It wasn't the COLD back there as much as the stifling heat and humidity
in summer....and the 3 month growing season. I had a geranium on my
patio that had a blossom on it ALL winter this past year. I have many
rose bushes here that need nothing but a little pruning in Jan/Feb.
Back in WI it was unusual to even get a rose bush to winter over, no
matter how much it was wrapped and sheltered. I was fed up with the
mosquitoes (3-4x as big as here) and being unable to ever sit outside
after dark, sometimes in the daytime. The humidity back there really
got to me after I developed a breathing problem and struggled for breath
all the time, in spite of meds and inhalers. I don't take any meds here
and don't even think about breathing problems. When I got off the train
in Milwaukee 2 years ago, it only took me a couple of minutes to
remember WHY I LEFT...that d*mn humidity hit me.
I lived quite a bit south of here back in WI. But it's almost tropical
here...Monkey Trees, cactus, the ground never freezes in winter.
Don't tell anyone back home how nice it
> is. :)
I tell EVERYBODY and encourage them to move here. So many people out
here are transplants, but now they don't want anybody ELSE to move here.
I was never made to feel welcome when I settled in here. WA residents
don't want anybody from back East to come here; meanwhile the
Californians have been swarming in and bringing their lifestyle and
driving attitudes with them. Like Bremerton, WA residents are making
the wrong decisions about who they discourage from coming here. It must
be the Navy's fault. They are always sending local shipyard employees
down to San Diego to work. ;')
> Have you ever seen that documentary on Channel 9, the one about the
> guy who filmed 20 years of himself living alone in that cabin in
> Alaska?
Yes I have. I think he has since died.
He had a woman and his mail flown in every so often, along
> with staples. He was 50 when he moved there, I believe.
Way too spartan for my taste. I'm not big on "roughing it". When I go
camping, I want ALL the amenities and conveniences of my travel
trailer...including microwave and air-conditioning and full bathroom.
No tents for me...
He must have liked what he was doing because he had no intention of
leaving...so I give him credit for following his heart like that.
>
> Funny to think War Babies are turning 70. Christ.
Was I a War Baby? I remember Pearl Harbor. I was three+ years old.
I wonder how I got here to 70 so soon? It's true...inside every 70 year
old is a 25 year old who wonders "What Happened?" I've discovered that
life is like a roll of toilet paper; the closer it gets to the end the
faster it goes...I wish I could make young people understand that. The
future is NOT unlimited as we think it is when we're young. I no longer
can look forward to "someday" when it comes to things I want to do.
Most everything has to be done soon, or I probably won't ever do it.
One of the joys of my old age is that my favorite grade school teacher
(2-6) is still alive, living in Duluth, MN. She calls me several times
every year and writes, too. She's as bright as a penny and sharp as a
tack. I'm grateful to her beyond words...almost everything I do was
something that grew from what she taught me. One room country
school....12-16 students. She taught all 8 grades. I never had a
classmate in 8 years.
Karen
