I am now breaking an unintended period of silence brought on
by crashing my new electric bicycle on the first day out. The damage was enough
to require open surgery on my shoulder, but that is all I care to say on this
quite boring subject.
There are a couple of dates ahead I want to mention. Thursday, July 10th I will be speaking and
signing books at Powell’s City of Books (1005 W. Burnside St., Portland) The
event will begin at 7:30pm. I sincerely hope that there is a good turn-out of
my friends, old and new—and the ones I have yet to meet.
August 1st and 2nd I will be at the author’s
booth at the Clatsop County Fair. This will be in Astoria, Oregon, one of my
favorite places on the planet. This last year, I am happy to say, I have made
the acquaintance of Peter Grant, the great grandson of the infamous Astoria
Sailor’s Boarding Master, Peter Grant. Peter with his mother, Bridget were
prominent members of the exclusive society of
shanghaiers who worked the waterfronts of Astoria and Portland. In my
Oregon Shanghaiers book I include a photo of young Peter sitting on the lap of
his great grandfather. Peter is in the
process of returning to set up residence in his ancestral home. He is a living link
to the city’s fascinating past.
In researching my books I have spent many months digging up
skeletons in the backyard of some of Oregon’s most notorious shanghaiiers, led
on by a morbid fascination that slowly turned into affection. I now know some
of these families better than my own, and I can tell you alnost as many good things
about these scoundrels as I can enumerate their shortcomings. By immersion in old periodicals I feel as if I
have lived in 19th century Oregon. In my meanderings through these heaps of
(mostly) digital newsprint I have encountered enough great material to keep me
busy for decades (unfortunate that I am over-the-hill).
