Skip to main content

I Must Learn How to Sign My Name



I will have the immense pleasure of doing some book signings in the near future. Since all my other books were self published, and not promoted in any useful manner, this will be a new experience for me. I am not sure exactly why authors do this sort of thing. Well, I know it is to sell books, but you see, I myself, have never been to a book signing. So I look forward to it. I am very grateful that someone would actually buy a copy of my book, so should they want me to sign it, I will do so gladly.

I especially look forward to meeting people who know a lot about the subject of Portland history. I know you are out there and I am dying to meet you.


While on the subject I had better mention the details:

Meet the Author Events

OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY
45th Annual Holiday Cheer Event
A Celebration of Oregon Authors
Sunday, December 2, Noon - 4 PM
Admission: $5, free for OHS members, includes admission to museum exhibits

COSTCO Aloha store
December 8th - Time to be announced
15901 SW Jenkins Road
Aloha, OR

OREGON MARITIME MUSEUM
Tom McCall Waterfront Park, between the Burnside and Morrison Bridges
December 16th
Public signing 2pm to 4pm
Members only 4pm to 6pm With a cookie swap watching the Christmas boats


COSTCO Tigard store
December 22nd - Time to be announced
7850 SW Dartmouth
Tigard, OR

More about "Blalock"


I must also get over this strong aversion to self promotion. In some future post I will tell the story of the dread "Blalock Curse." It isn't strongly related to Portland history, or maritime history,  being a North Carolina tale. But it may " 'splain a few thangs."
Mary Edith Blalock "Mom"

By way of a little appetizer, to whet your taste for the subject, here is a photograph of my mother taken in front of the sign at the entrance to the little town of Blalock, Oregon. The town platted in 1881. It was named after my grandfather's uncle, Dr. N.G. Blalock, a big wig in the Paloose of Washington State (where the hills roll as though they were painted by Grant Wood). The little burg was on the south bank of the Columbia River, near Blalock Island, and Blalock Canyon.  Both the island an the canyon remain, although the island is now about a tenth of its original size. But the town is submerged, the dwelling place of sturgeon and crayfish, beneath the waters backed up by the John Day Dam.

The town was once a going concern. It had a post office and a station for the Oregon &Washington Railroad and Navigation Company. There was a general merchandise store, two grain warehouses, some sort of plow and combine factory, a hotel, a livery stable, and a few other things. No saloon has ever been mentioned as far as I can tell. This would fit in with the name Blalock, teetotalers since the days when John the Baptist was feasting on grasshoppers, wild honey, and pure spring water. It was a nice little place, and they probably would have still built the dam, even if it wasn't named "Blalock."

Cheers! All 'ya all!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Last Word on Shanghai Tunnels - Including 14 reasons why the stories are bogus

I have never been on a tour of Portland's so-called "shanghai tunnels," so I am unable to comment on this attraction, except that I have heard that the tour is quite entertaining. Neither have I been to the Pirates of the Caribbean in Disneyland,  the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, or the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, for that matter. The closest I have come to this sort of tourist entertainment was while visiting the ancient city of York I took my family on the "York Ghost Walk." This tour is a bit of innocent fun with some old ghost stories mixed in with distorted history—just for the tourists.  It may be true that I have no experience with the tourist tours of these basements in the northwest regions of downtown, but I do know a bit about them. There is a great deal of documentation in the newspapers, and in old court records. They were built by Chinese back in the days when Chinatown was the center of gang activity related to the different tongs
16 comments
Read more

The Chinese Ghost in the Grain Elevator

A photo I took of T5 from a water taxi while doing stowage area exams on ships anchored in the Columbia In my book, "Portland's Lost Waterfront," I have a section devoted to the O. R. & N., Pacific Coast Grain Elevator System, often called the "great grain pipe." This was a system of grain elevators following the rail lines up the Columbia River basin, with tendrils reaching out as far as Idaho . Today this system is duplicated in many ways by the Japanese owned, Columbia Grain International, a company with elevators reaching as far as North Dakota . Since the 1970s this company has operated the gargantuan Terminal 5 grain elevator near the mouth of the Willamette. This one grain elevator is responsible for a large percentage of Oregon's total exports, and a surprisingly large percentage of the entire nation's wheat exports.   This industrial giant pulls grain from hundreds of railcars each day—up its whirring and rattling &qu
Post a Comment
Read more

Asthmatic Weakling Writes Book on Prizefighting in Portland

It is true, an asthmatic weakling, who used to regularly give up his lunch money as tribute to bullies, has written a book on prizefighting. Not only this, History Press has just published it! Oregon Prizefighters: Forgotten Bare-knuckles Champions of Portland and Astoria , will hit the shelves on Monday. What was it that made someone like me, born without the “sports gene,” to become interested in the bare-knuckles prizefighting of yesteryear? It was the people: brash, naïve youths, wracked by passions, ruined by limelight. Then there is the model Portlander, Dave Campbell, for many years “Our Dave,” beloved chief of the Portland fire department. He was self-educated, intelligent, measured, and fearless, and gave up a sure championship career as a boxer to fight Portland’s fires. Add to the mix the original all-time champion, Jack “Nonpareil” Dempsey (died 1895), and “Mysterious” Billy Smith—both legends in the world of boxing history—and you soon begin to wonder why these fellow
4 comments
Read more