Ned Luce

Forty days of holidays. That is what we are experiencing. Well, “Juneuary’s” finicky weather is in there, too.

Memorial Day kicked off the holidays with somber reflection of the lives lost in the defense of our freedom. Then there was Flag Day last Wednesday, first observed in 1877. My parents observed the day as the anniversary of their wedding.

The third Sunday in June, last Sunday, was originally celebrated as Father’s Day here in Washington in 1910. Juneteenth, June 19, celebrates the end of slavery after the Civil War and is the youngest of our holidays, having been established as a federal holiday in 2021.

Then we come to the noisiest of the holidays, Independence Day on July 4. I say noisiest because of the fireworks usually accompanying the celebrations. The dogs just love the bangs and booms, don’t they!

Our son and his family came across the water from Seattle to celebrate Father’s Day with BJ and me.

On a kind of drizzly day, we headed to the Spruce Goose for a delightful lunch. While waiting for our food, there was a successful effort to identify the area on the map under the plexiglass on the table. The search was made easier when we noted that it said “Prescott,” as in Arizona, on the margin of the map.

My grandson ordered the blackberry milkshake, which came in a three-gallon glass. At least it looked like it. There was some left over even after he drank much of it and three of the rest of us had some tastes.

We then headed over to the Port Townsend Aero Museum to tour the displays of airplanes, pictures, and related items.

Every airplane in the museum is maintained and flown at least once per year. They are also used to support the youth education program of the museum. There are usually 17 teenagers who volunteer one day per week and in return receive experience and education in maintenance, restoration, and piloting of the planes. Many of the students earn their pilot’s license while still in high school.    

Two or three times a week I walk the dog, actually we still have our daughter’s dog, around our neighborhood.

It is good for the dog and I am told the walk is good for me. The nature of our neighborhood facilitates others to also take a walk, with or without canine company.

I always greet the folks I encounter either with a friendly wave or a “loud enough hello.” I have adopted this practice because I think I am a friendly fellow and I have decided that since the pandemic we are all brothers and sisters.

Folks, unless I am picking up and bagging the leavings of the dog, those people wave back!

Many of the stories of those contacts end up in this column, most of them intended to be fun and entertaining, sometimes even hitting those marks.

However, I occasionally see and interact with somebody who asks that their name not be included in this weekly rundown of my life in Ludlow for reasons not obvious to me. All I can think is that my neighborhood is lightly populated with folks in the witness protection program.

I know that to not be the situation with my friend Steven Gross as he loves to have his name and the name of his business, Port Ludlow Mini Storage, mentioned here. I am so appreciative because he has been able to provide me with much content over the years. He would also contend that the best columns are the ones with his name in them.

Hey, if you don’t like yourself, why should anybody else like you? Charles Darwin is reported to have said, “A man’s, (or a woman’s), friendships are one of the measures of his, (her), worth.”

So, let’s enjoy the folks around us or at least try. Yep, sometimes it is hard.

Love a curmudgeon and have a great week.

(Ned Luce is a retired IBM executive and Port Ludlow resident, and a man of his word, indeed. Why, just last week he offered a friendly “Helllllooooo!” and wave after his dog walk to the editor of the Leader, and left behind a small paper bag on his desk with what the editor expects to be a truly magnificent sandwich for his lunch. Contact Ned at ned@ptleader.com.)