The Washington Culture

It's been over three and a half years since I last lived (and even visited) Washington State, but let me tell you, there isn't a day that goes by when I don't miss it. Moving there for the first time was quite a profound experience and one that I'll never forget.

When me and my father first arrived in the small town of Port Orchard I remember feeling alienated. I absolutely hated it and the first thoughts that went through my head were: "what a slum".

You know that Joni Mitchell song displaying the lyrics "you don't know what you've got till it's gone?" That is indeed true. I soon learned to have appreciation for the place and am disappointed and slightly embarrassed by my previous actions/thoughts.

The fact that Port Orchard was so small was easily the biggest change for me. When I left Calgary, it boasted a population of nearly one million people, meanwhile Port Orchard had just a tad under eight thousand residents. Ironically though, despite the small amount of residences, five million people were right across the water (Seattle).

Honestly, it was like a completely different world over there. Admittedly it took me a while to appreciate the way things "went" - such as being treated like a child - you know, that small town mentality? If you haven't lived in both worlds, you probably won't know what I'm talking about, but it's always a result of a smaller population. I recall this one time myself and my father where in a Office Depot and there was one of those automatic "customer service" computers made purposely for the customer to tell how good the store operations were. While my father was off photocopying something, I went to the computer thingy and pressed a few buttons. Shortly after a women employee came over and started in on a lecture about not fooling with those things. I remember telling my father and he thought the whole thing was ridiculous. In fact, we never went back to the store because of that. Hard to explain, but all you need to know is that half of the people in Saskatchewan are like this.. Similar events of such nature and attitude were indeed frequent.

Oddly enough, it's those little moments which I remember. What I also remember are these two small Chinese restaurants which we used to frequent. They were so odd and I distinctly remember that one of the two restaurants had a family who was deeply religious and liked cars. We always used to read their car magazines while waiting for the food to come up.

Sounds like a small town, eh? Indeed, but the funny thing was that it wasn't. Yes, the population density named it a "town", but it had everything you could want. An: Office Depot; Home Depot; garden centres; automobile shops; car dealers; Wal-Mart; Fred Meyers (like Superstore); various restaurants and even a movie theatre (it was cheap too!)

Furthermore, it was clean and for the most part, up to date. I suppose this was because it was in between Seattle and another city with a population of around sixteen thousand, Silverdale. And if we had the desire to visit Silverdale, it didn't take a great deal of time to get there (about thirty minutes which was not bad at all). Great place it was.

Although I should mention what made those trips to Silverdale particularly memorable was the fact that this is where my father bought a Honda S2000. The example featured a Silvestone Metallic paint job, a black leather interior, with the addition of the optional body kit and the 6 disc trunk CD changer.

Man oh man we had some great times in that little car and we even had a "special route" to put the car through. The majority of this trip followed along the water's edges and eventually led to exciting, minimal traffic back roads. Top down the whole way and the best part was the trip was in town and very close to home. God, I loved that S2000. I remember my dad acting like a sports car driver (trite, I know), but that car could certainly take the corners fast. Not to mention I remember within the back roads where the tree canopy's completed covered the sky,tThe sound of the engine bouncing off those trees at nine thousand rpm's is truly unforgettable.

Many trips were done in that S2000, even one to California where we got up to 130mph.

Once back from an exciting S2000 trip (from anywhere), I had an nice home to come back to. Actually, it was kind of strange. It was a big, big house - but quite ugly. I remember my father saying: "ugly house", I laughed and said "yep".

Anyhow the reason it was bought was mostly because of it's size, but also because it backed onto the back of a Government protected wetland/park. Very hard to explain, but essentially beyond the backyard fence was a forest.

Speaking of which, the overall land scape and scenery in Port Orchard was very enjoyable. The shore lines were a little beat up, but still quite beautiful, meanwhile trees were a plenty and to cap it off, the weather was just amazing.

I miss it all. You know, I can't recall much of what happened in the last two years, but these years in Port Orchard are embedded in my memory as clear as a photograph.

It's all gone, but must I never look back? Truthfully the occasional item sparks my memories, like for instance, The English Beat (it was there where I first heard them). When ever I listen to them It's like looking through a picture book of my memories, some which invoke a smile, some which invoke tears.

I hope there's a day when I can not only revisit the place, but live there once again.