Patrick at Making Flippy Floppy got me thinking about penny candy. For me penny candy meant Walden's grocery on Cameron and Hill in Kellogg. A big cat at Walden's lay across the penny candy, but it never seemed to deter me or my friends from buying it.
It didn't deter my life long friend Don Windisch either. Don and Scott Stuart and I were on our way from Sunnyside Elementary school to Junior Choir at the United Church on a Friday afternoon. Scott and I didn't know that Don had cobbed penny candy from Walden's. We found out when he showed us the candy and said in a sixth grade criminal growl: "The hand is quicker than the eye." If Scott and I want to make each other laugh to this day, all we have to do is repeat Don's declaration of handspeed over eyespeed.
I had a dream about Walden's grocery over a month ago. Walden's was in Eugene instead of Kellogg. It was closing. The shelves were nearly empty. The beer cooler was full. Many of us were in Walden's to buy beer. It was weird to buy beer at Walden's and walk out of the store onto Blair Blvd. in Eugene.
I can't help but remember that Pat Birch, a lost soul from KHS class of '48, my dad's class at Kellogg, returned to Kellogg after being in California for quite a while and married a Walden woman.
When I was playing junior high school basketball, Pat Birch asked me if I could shoot as well left-handed as right. I knew I couldn't. This deficiency in my limited aresenal haunted me all through high school. I could always hear Pat Birch asking me about my amidexterity. I always knew I could have done more to improve the dexterity of my left hand.
Another small grocery shop in Kellogg was Swanson's. During Christmas break in 1972, Tom Arnhold, who was a senior at KHS (I was a freshman at NIC) bought the two of us a half case of Falstaff beer and we found a remote spot on the Cataldo Flats and drank the beer. We had a great talk. I don't think I've seen Tom since then. The next day I went to Spokane to drink and stay with Ed Bailey who lived in Spokane. I've only seen Ed Bailey a few times since then. I bought an LP by Argent with the song "Hold Your Head Up" on it. We also listened to Jethro Tull play "Thick as a Brick".
I missed the 1986 all-class reunion at Kellogg. I was at Shakespeare Camp. Ed Bailey picked up my sister, Inland Empire Girl, and carried her in the streets of Kellogg. I don't think she's seen Ed Bailey since then.
Ed Bailey used to tease my younger sister, Silver Valley Girl, without mercy. I think Silver Valley Girl was relieved when Ed was no longer around to tickle her and lift her in the air.
Ed Bailey and I rode in his Datsun to Blue Creek Bay for our graduation party. We listened to Elton John on his eight track player in the car. Whenever I hear Tiny Dancer, I think of leaving town that night to go to Blue Creek Bay to drink beer well beyond my capacity.
Last summer Scott Stuart and I went out in his boat and went to Blue Creek Bay. We both wanted to see what things looked like there and to remember our graduation party from thirty-four years ago.
This summer will be our thirty-fifth year since we graduated from high school. We plan to have a summer party in Kellogg and are asking members of the classes of 70,71,and 73 to join our party. I'm sure if members from other classes showed up, they'd be welcome.
