I Need a Room with a View

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Every time I drive into Port Townsend to visit friends and family, I’m always noticing the changes. More than once I’ve missed turns or had to circle the block to find a certain address.  As new streets appear, some of the roads have become narrower because of bike lanes and parking spots.  New houses show up on a regular basis where I never would have thought a house would ever fit.  The trees have become taller except in the case where the trees are gone altogether.

               Of course Port Townsend isn’t unique with scenery changes. Hadlock, Chimacum, Sequim, and Port Angeles, as well as any other town you name, have all undergone remarkable makeovers through the years.  I guess I’m easily entertained because it’s always fascinated me and caught my attention.  If I can ever master the art of video-taping on my camera or cell phone, I want to have a driver with me and slowly move around the streets of my hometown to film the changes and post them on YouTube.   I’ve never been very good at making videos but I imagine I could produce something of interest. If nothing else, I’d watch it.

               I know a lot of folks who grew up in Port Townsend and left after graduation with no interest in looking back. Not me.  I love that town more every year.  I have a girlfriend up here (also a PTHS graduate) who had a visit from her sister in Oregon recently and they drove into Port Townsend to visit friends. This sister hadn’t been back to town in a long time, and she was flabbergasted, to say the least.  I’ve always wished I could be in the car with a returning Sequim graduate who hadn’t been back in decades.  Would love to see their reactions to their tiny farm community.

               I’ve lived on my street here in Angeles since 2008. The whole block across from my driveway was tall grass and scotch broom until this spring when a story appeared in the newspaper about seven families who are getting grants to build their own homes.  I go out and take pictures every now and then as the work progresses.  The people who will be in the house directly across from me have seven kids so I know the neighborhood is going to be noisier and have more traffic.  That’s okay, though; I’m still playing the lotto so I can relocate back to my beloved hometown.  I’m not getting any younger, though, so I wish God would hurry things along and surprise me before it’s too late.

               I’ve already told my kids that if I live long enough to need a nursing home, just put me back in my old neighborhood at Kah Tai. Course it’s not called that anymore but it will always be Kai Tai to me. I’m hoping for a room on the swamp side.