Today is my 21,914th day of Magnolia memories, and tomorrow, May 20, is the launching day for my 61st trip around the sun on Magnolia.
I say 'on' because Magnolia is not an 'in' kinda place - rather, it's an island, a mood, an atmosphere.
Back in the day, when I was first living in Magnolia, it seemed even more like an island... no overpass to the Garfield Street Bridge, no 15th Avenue West dip at Dravus...
What follows is a reminiscence focused on a lifetime of Magnolia memories and highlights, a look back on a life that has continuously centered on Magnolia. Along the way, we will also encounter a few adventures outside Magnolia - yes, such a thing is possible.
This mind-trip is a series of snapshots rather than in-depth stories. For you Bluff long-timers maybe a snapshot will do - something to trigger your own fond Magnolia memories. And if you're newer in the neighborhood, I hope there is just enough of a wide-angle to the snapshots for you to gain a flavor of the past 59.073 years of my Magnolia life.
In the beginning
It all started in a little house on 30th Avenue at Grover. That house is almost the same today, except that Uncle Vic and Aunt Fro no longer live across the street and the old, wood-floored grocery store on 28th Avenue is now a home; there is no more friendly candy counter and another house has been pushed into the lot.
An early relocation to 3225 43rd Avenue West brought Johnny's Pasture into my Magnolia life. It was so named for the last of three horses that lived in the woods between Dravus and Barrett, from the back side of the houses on 43rd west, all the way to the Boulevard - 44th Avenue did not yet go through the woods. You can still see the house on the property - it once was the only structure other than Johnny's barn - that original brick-tudor home that sat beautifually midway along the west side of 44th Avenue.
Back then the streets lights had corrugated 'straw hats' to keep the rain and snow off their lightbulbs (no sodium vapor light yet), but it didn't keep little kids from throwing rocks to break the bulbs with a pop, flash and tinkle of glass to the street below. Every Wednesday, exactly at noon, many telephone poles would erupt with the siren wails of post-war test warnings.
Snow in the '40s and '50s on Magnolia meant sledding all the way down Dravus from Viewmont to Perkins Lane. Sometimes we'd haul our sleds to McGraw or across to Dravus Street on the east hill - both sites full of kids and fun to be had. Parents stationed themselves at the bottom to protect us from the few studless (snow times hadn't been invented yet) cars tooling out and about.
Our non-snow playgrounds included Fort Lawton (now Discovery Park), playing army Dinky Toys with Bob Leisey under the water tower as well as summer day camp in Magnolia Park, with its path, now hidden by overgrowth, down to the 32nd Street beach. Other play time adventures included Indian Guides, Magnolia Boy Scout Troop 82 and Sea Explorer Scouts on the original, wood-hulled S.E.S. Propeller. I recall being 'at the wheel' as we passed through the Ballard Locks.
It takes a Village
In Magnolia Village we also had playgrounds: the five 'n' dime store (Magnolia Tree) and Magnolia Bowl (Around the Block and WSLCB Store); Duncan yo-yo contests every Wednesday after school outside J & J Pharmacy; dashing through from Smith to McGraw streets - or visa versa; as well as Magnolia Hardware (Artie Van der Wel's brick building) and the grocery store and meat market next door; having Vanilla Cokes and an order of fries with girls at Thrifty Drug (now Ace hardware) after classes at Catharine Blaine Junior High, and movies according to Mrs. Chester's rules - 'no running' in the 40's and early 50's, 'no arms on the back of the seats around a girl' and 'no kissing' later - at the huge and beautiful Magnolia Theater.
The Village also offered us our first date flowers (next to the rare, still existing gas station, a Unocal 76 Station), our first special athletic apparel (from Russ Jacobson at LeRoux - "don't worry, the teacher will tell you what it's for"), a first keepsake engraved-heart necklace for a first love (from Judy Wiester's dad's store near the Magnolia Post Office). And there was always easy chat time with Leon at the shoe repair outfit.
Growing up on Magnolia also granted safe and very innocent youthful schooling at Briarcliff Elementary, Catharine Blaine Junior High and Queen Anne High School. "Mag Pres" - aka Magnolia Presbyterian Church - was part of life; baptismal, church bible school, wedding and divorce, as well as dad's memorial service. My children, Mike and Michelle (she was delivered by Dr. McElroy in the Village), came into my life - and came into Magnolia - in the 60's.
My oldest friends (sorry for giving away your age, guys) are from Magnolia: Muff Auld, Roger Bass, Lou Berg, Sue Bolenbaugh, J. DeBruler, John Hardman, Nancy Kallas, Pete Lyons, Claudia Moyer, Bruce Mitchell, Carol Oschner (deceased), Penny Packard (first kiss), Malice Rigler, Kevin Ryan, Reid Shockey, Billy Striker, Doug Walker, Kent Walter, Tommy Ward, Tommy Weingarten and Doug Will - as best my aging mind now can recall.
Magnolia also gave me the experiences of Senior Beach (now site of Palisades Restaurant), "The Pinking of Magnolia," walking every street on Magnolia over an 8 months period, my five parental homes and four homes of my own - ending, so far, with "Cottage Lynn." There's the memory of Pier 91 on the Seattle waterfront hosting Seafair's USN Fleet tours, my marvelous job at the Fishing Vessel Owners' Association on Fishermen's Terminal. And then there's my adorable companion in all that I now do, Maggie, a Shih Tzu named after Magnolia.
Some of my journeys 'off' Magnolia that round out my reflections of 60 years include the Century 21 World's Fair, which ran from April 21, 1962, to Oct 21 of that year; it was the fair that gave the Seattle Center and the Space Needle, which we watched being built from our classrooms. I later climbed the Needle's stairs for a fund raiser.
Other "upper" highlight for me have been climbing mounts Si and Pilchuck as a youth, visiting Hurricane Ridge, standing atop the Kingdome - wearing only swim shorts and a t-shirt under the giant American Flag with Seattle as my backdrop - as well as a flight on the Concorde going 1,360 miles per hour at the edge of space, 55,500 feet above the earth.
Back on earth again but high on the list of lifetime experiences are: the Hydro Races at Lake Washington, bike riding the Burke Gilman and Sammamish trails from Magnolia to Marymore Park - 60 miles roundtrip - starting from Magnolia to ride the Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic (STP) as well as the three-day Tri Island Ride from Seattle to Victoria, B.C.; then there's visits to Hidden Valley Camp, Granite Falls, Camps Woskawitz, Orcila and Calvinwood; and overseas to England, abroad to Brazil; the St. Thomas Virgin Islands, Yukon Territory, Canada and Mexico, as well as 15 of our United States (hoping to visit 33 more this year in my MG TD, with Maggie as copilot).
Time to rest, eat and remember having lunches with Rob Weller (for my birthday), legendary Seattle chronicler Emmett Watson (for 'This Our City' sake) and Ross McWhirter (in England), creator of the Guinness Book of World Records, after I served as volunteer chairman of Seafair's 'World Record of World Records'.
I have been fortunate to have met a variety of very interesting folks: Tex Johnson, who years before I had witnessed doing the famous barrel-roll of the Boeing 707 over Lake Washington; Gene Autrey, Olivia Newton-John, Don Ruckelshaus, former state senator Slade Gorton and representative Jennifer Dunn, as well as Capt. George Eyston - the man who drove an MG faster than ever imagined for that size car (a world record); Rod McKuen (who I also worked for); along with Seattle characters Frank Feeman, Mel Anderson, Morry Alhadeff and Carol Keaton.
Besides Magnolia, Virginia Mason has been the only other 'home' I've had for these 60 years. The hospital has provided great care and enjoyable friendships with doctors West, Don McElroy and Joel Baker; there is also Dr. Paul Smith, a relatively new Magnolia man who also happens to live in the family home of my youthful buddy Lorna Dyer; Dr. Randy Pritchett, who let me go home to Magnolia on my 55th birthday, May 20, just 3 days after my prostate cancer surgery. Virginia Mason is a place of special comfort for me; it was my birth place, care giver to mom and dad up to their deaths as well as a second home to me throughout my various medical challenges.
My last 'off the Bluff' recollection of 60 years is from the book "Sexless Oysters and Self Tipping Hats" by Adam Woog. I was my mom's stand-in for the book's release party at the Museum of History and Industry - she, who along with dad in the house next door to "Cottage Lynn" on Magnolia, I owe my life to... you can read all about her (sorta) in Woog's book on Northwest inventors.
Thanks, Mom and Dad for having me 'on' Magnolia 60 years ago - you couldn't have picked a more perfect spot!
Rick Malsed is, you guessed it, a lifelong resident of Magnolia.
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