DISCOVERING SEQUIM.

Don't you love a good sign? I don't drink espresso, but this place is a stopper. We breezed into Sequim, pronounced Squim the day before yesterday, stopped at the Chamber of Commerce and the first Friday of each month is an art walk. We get downtown and enjoy a beer at the local VFW and it is hot here. Sequim sits on the other side of the rainforest. The storms hit the mountains and drop very little rain in Sequim.  Much like California summer weather.

We walked around town a bit. This sign is posted in Field Notes.


This gorgeous gourd in the Blue Whole Gallery, the only gallery right there in the hub of town on Washington Street. She didn't have a map of the First Friday Art Walk but I got one from an art supply house near by.


Home made crafts are everywhere. The people running this store are super friendly. And, to jump ahead, I found that to be true everywhere in Sequim.  We ate lunch, planning to come back for the art walk which is held from 5pm. to 8 pm. Our lunch at Sunshine Cafe had an interesting prayer on their menu:  Thank You Lord For Granting Me This New Day In My Life, Especially Since I Loused Up Yesterday So Badly. Amen.  Kids under 10 eat free.


When we got back to our camping place at the Elks CLub, we read through the Art Walk and realized the art is in each business, not 25 galleries. They stay open late, serve a little wine and cheese... We decided to stay in after our day of travel and settling in and attend the First Saturday of the month farmer's market and see the art work as we go. Above is  a picture of one half of the market.


The first booth I stopped in was Connie Rodibaugh's  sea glass jewelry. I've never seen sea glass as thick as these pieces.


She is a recycler as well. Her jewelry is often mounted on a found object, like a rusted drawer.


When I questioned the thickness of the glass she told me that people used to throw their garbage in the bay. Seagoing vessels carried huge vinegar jugs, and cider jugs of very thick glass. She has a collection of bottles with Vicks in a cone-shaped brown bottle, and early Vicks jugs for hospital use only and so on. I would liked to have photographer her collection and encouraged her to do so. She described rare and unusual bottles from a hospital, some blown glass, others in heavy stoppered bottles. She has a website at crwearables.com.



Nicole Brown uses recycled quality knit fabrics to make one of a kind sweaters and shawls. She has a local shop in Sequim cleverly named Out On A Whim.


Jim kept saying, where are the vegetables?  It is true, vegetable vendors were the minority, but so what? These heirloom tomatoes, close to the size of his hand, all organic, cost $4 a pound. He gasped at the price.


I didn't buy fresh veggies because I overstocked before we went to Hoodsport, where shopping is limited. My cousin David had diet restrictions and couldn't eat raw vegetables. We got the name of an organic farm and will stop on our way out-of-town.


The Bag Lady makes her own designer bags.


This grand rooster is part of Over The Fence, garden and home store. The store parking lot hosts the Farmer's Market each Saturday through October.


They carry a brand of knitted socks that don't exactly match. Who cares?


Wonderful pots and dish gardens.


And, Over The Fence stays open on First Friday Art Walk because art work graces their walls some for sale, and some not.


The Artisanal Bread Store faces the parking lot. It was crowded with people in line out the door. They moved aside so I could take a picture of their one painting that is part of the Art Walk.


Three kiosks had potters. This is hand-built stoneware by Michel McCarter. He owns Madrona Ridge Pottery and all of his work has an oriental theme to it.


I love pottery and was tempted to buy, but I'm trying to downsize and de-collect, not to mention the lack of room in the motor home.


Everyone enjoys getting out to the farmer's market. They sell dog items I'd never seen nor heard of before. This is Baskin and Robin. Robin (white) is eleven years old.


This painting is at a nearby Mexican restaurant.


Like most farmer's markets, musicians entertain and you can buy ready made food. We ate Filipino lumpia, Yakatori (hope I have that spelled right) noodles and teriyaki chicken on a stick. It was very tasty.


This young man is a rambler. He hit the road with his car, ran out of money and had a hard time getting back to Sequim. This time, he has welded a cart to his heavy-duty bike. His best pal rides with him. No money for gas, just enough for food. He is setting out and hoping to make it to Montana and find work. He has a small one man tent folded into the bottom of the cart.


I don't know if you can read any of this great advice, all pretty humorous, like: Treat a woman like a racehorse and she'll never be a nag. Or MATH, mental abuse to humans. Never stand behind a sneezing cow. Pretty corney.

As we wandered town, we never skip a book store. This one was special, Hart's Fine Books, etc. Celeste Bennett showed us rare finds from the Hart Family collection. Both are deceased and their estate left many treasures. This rug is from France and dates from the 1600's.


I always find something I've never seen before, and this is it. A Punch and Judy Theatre. I would never have outfitted it with a television set, though.


Some of the original puppets.


A rare Beatrix Potter book.The story goes, Beatrix Potter's publisher wanted to produce this set of stories, which were sketches she had written simply for the joy of writing them after she had completed the Peter Rabbit series. B.P. objected because she knew the writing was too transparent; people in her community would recognize themselves in the animal characters. However, because it meant a lot to her publisher she agreed to allow 100 copies to be printed so long as distribution was solely in the United States -- never in Great Britain. Rare indeed.

  she wanted to publish this book under a different name to see if her name sold the books or if the story would sell the book. Her publisher convinced her that Brits would recognize her writing. So, she decided to only sell this volume in America.

She had a limited autographed set to present to friends and family members. This is number 78.
Many wonderful things besides books. They can be found on-line as well, hartsfinebooks.com or celeste@hartsfinebooks.com if you want to talk to her.

ESCANABA, MICHIGAN MEANDERING

Touring the town where I had my first date, my first kiss, and attended both grammar and Jr. High Schools was a nostalgic trek for me. The people who live in this house were not at home to speak to. My sister and I and three brothers all slept in one big bedroom upstairs in this two bedroom one bath. A porch once ran the width of the front. I amazed myself at how many memories came floating back just seeing the place. If you’ve never done a trip like this, I’d recommend it.

I found one neighbor who still lived two doors down from us, Mrs. Clifford Jensen. Her husband Clifford and his sister Julie were very young,  Bob and Nancy, both deceased, were close to my age.  She kind of filled me in on changes in the neighborhood over the years.
From that house I attended St. Patricks Catholic Church, a beautiful old cathedral style church of which there are many in Escanaba. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get inside, it was boarded up, trees are growing out of the bell tower and it had been hit by lightening  a week ago. The building is for sale.  I sang in the choir here, two masses most Sundays.  I talked to the nuns about joining the convent and when  my father found out he whisked us out of Escanaba to nearby Danforth  to get me away from that Parrish with these words:  “No daughter of mine is going to make a decision like that at age 11.”

We moved back to Escanaba and lived in this duplex which also had a porch shared by both parties. Mrs. Niderost, our landlady lived in the right half. This house had a full basement.  Here I got my first kiss at age 13 from a boy named Bob Morin. (I still attended St. Patricks Church, but the subject of  a novitiate never came up again.) This house is only half a block from Lake Michigan and a neighbor facing the water would let us swim off his dock and taught me to water ski.

My date and I went to a Sunday matinée at this now closed theater in town.

And to Saykillys Sweet Shop for a tin roof sundae. My visit to Sakilly’s saddened me. The counter was removed three years ago. The booths you can barely discern at the left side of the room, long gone. the juke box, gone, but the only constant in life is change, so I shouldn’t have been surprised.  Sakillys is now home made candy and a gift shop, much expanded.

Mrs. Sakilly weighing candy. She is long gone, as is her sister, Angela Kabasic. Angela and Pete owned and ran Kabasics store where we shopped for penny candy and groceries. In those days we had credit at the store. Mom would send us for a pound of sugar or something and we’d say “put it on the bill.”

The store is much expanded, modernized, and still run by a family member, George Kabasic.  It at one time had a counter running the full width of the store. You walked up to the counter and Pete would go get what was on your list one item at a time. Talk about sloooow! It amazes me how they could wrest a living from the place. Kabasic was a butcher and he had good meat and they still have fresh meat in a case at the back of the store.

Downtown, the Ludington Hotel was considered the “Ritz”. It had bellmen. They were dressed in red uniforms similar to the little guy  who “called for Philip Morris” in the cigarette ads.  I remember wishing I could go into the hotel just to see what a hotel was like, it was so beautiful. It is on the State Historical Register, but it has lost its luster. Now, it is apartments and only a few rooms are rented out as a hotel, with a downsized dining room and bar. It was closed so I never did get my peek except through the door and a window.

Another place that fascinated me was Just Ask…

Gust Asp. Gus and I think his wife’s name was Dena, no longer own the business. I knew it was a cigar shop, or men’s shop. I never went inside. This time I did. It is a liquor store, fast food sandwiches, meat, cigs and all sorts of “stuff”. I shopped my babysitting dollars at Kresges  and Woolworths.  Woolworths had neumatic tubes that took your money to the cash handlers visable  upstairs. Then the neumatic tube delivered your receipt and change to the clerk downstairs bagging your purchases. Both stores were gone and the signage covered over.  (I made Jim take me back right after the sun set to capture this picture of the sign flashing its dual message.)

We went looking for the schools I attended. Escanaba Jr. High, expanded on the back side was still there. Escanaba High School the one we knew, no longer exists. My sister graduated from it. My Grammar School, likewise, completely gone.

A jut of land on Little Bay de Noc uses a crib light to warn boats and ships away from danger. It took over for the Sand Point Light House in 1939.

The Sand Point Lighthouse has been refurbished and is now a museum with fully furnished living quarters. The most fascinating thing about it is the light keeper, Mr. John Terry, died the day before he was supposed to go to work in 1868. His wife, Mary Terry took over and lit the light until 1886 when she died in a mysterious fire. This complex included the lighthouse, a rescue boathouse on rails that could be pulled to the nearby water for rescue operations, a coast guard memorial, and a wonderfully done museum and archives in a separate building, all for the family price of $5. I got a line on people I knew, (one of the docents was my older sisters age) and a newspaper picture of Pete Dube, an olympic skating trainer. He died in 1963. My dad took us out to Little Bay de Noc to see Pete Dube Skate across the bay and back when he was in his seventies.

We stopped for a beer at the Eagles Club. A brewpub on the street was closed.

There are many historical buildings in this town and the Elks Club is one of them, imprinted on the building, 1925. It has a 6 lane bowling alley upstairs according to some folks at the Eagles Club. (The Elks CLub wasn’t open.) We are on picture rationing, so I’ll be doing a part two on Escanaba, tomorrow.

TEET'S FOOD STORE, VILLE PLATTE, LA.

We knew that Ville Platte calls itself the smoked meat capital of the United States and from everyone you talk to, Teet’s Store is the place to go. Yesterday, we did just that and as luck would have it, Lawrence “Teet” DeVille was in the store. In his eighties, he doesn’t work every day. His son Chris now owns and manages the store. His father started the business in 1955 advertising “Specialiste Dans La Viande Boucanee. (Smoked meats.)

Chris gave us a tour of the place. The smokehouse sits out back. Just stepping out into the yard brought up  wonderful smells.The hopper is filled with oak wood. He likes hickory and maple better, but it is hard to get. The fire is started outside the smoke house and then moved inside. It needs tending with more wood every half hour or so. It usually runs for five hours.

An employee had just started to load the meat. Some pork necks were hanging along with some ribs.

Inside the store is the good stuff. When you buy it to freeze or if you want it shipped, it comes shrink wrapped. If you want to try their specialties, they have a website TEETSFOODSTORE. Grandson Luke DeVille handles the shipping end of the business.

Or, you can buy however much you want by weight from the case. Pictured is smoked turkey sausage, smoked pork ribs, andouille and tasso on the right.

Here, pork hocks and turkey wings and necks. You will find every part of the bird  smoked in the counter. I found out that tasso is just a smoked cut of meat without bone. For instance, we bought turkey sausage in shrink-wrap to freeze, and smoked turkey thighs without bone, that is tasso.

This is Queen Bee. Chris was very modest, but she told us about their award and what a wonderful family they are. Teets other specialty is ponce, a local delicacy. It is a pig stomach stuffed with ground pork,vegetables, rice, and seasonings. The stomach contracts and the whole package is eaten sliced for sandwiches or can be eaten hot or cold. The store has won many awards over the years and was again voted Best Smoked Meat in the state  (professional category) for 2012.  Teets told us he started small, grinding carcass by hand, stuffing sausage by hand. Now everything is done with high-tech equipment.

 * After our visit to Teet,s Food Store I got the sweetest letter from Luke DeVille, the shipping manager for the store. He helped me identify the meats in the counter. I had them practically all wrong. I've corrected them so they are right now. But one thing not wrong is the fine taste. Jim and I had tasso for supper tonight cooked in a stew with vegetables, tomatoes, beans and rice. The tasso is mildly spicey and gave the dish a great smoked flavor. Yum.


We stopped by Slap Ya Mama Cajun Seasoning’s building only to learn that the spices made famous by Janet Walker and Sons are processed and packaged in Opelousas. They ship from a warehouse down the street.

Everyone in town  tells you directions:  "Go to the Red House." It is their gift store. The clerk there gave us some samples of their product. I tried it on fish last night and it is very tasty. They have mixes and seasonings. Kind of pre-packed foods with just the right flavors.

We stopped at an auto supply store and I saw this mud “house”, several of them were in their yard. The storekeeper told me it is a crawfish den. “That’s why they call ‘em mudbugs. They live in the ground, in the mud. When it rains, they come up. I’ve got ‘em all over my yard at home, too.” I tell you, someday I’m going to be an expert in the arcane.

And, I want you to know, Ville Platte is a very polite town. If you aren’t nice, you can get arrested. Don’t be showin’ your underwear. Naughty, naughty.

Can’t you just see someone’s mama shaking a finger at you?