PORTLAND TRAVEL NOTES: THE BOOKENDS

This is the flat spot in the river bank where people used to take a break.

Whether coming up from the Columbia River, or down on the Willamette, this was the original rest stop for paddlers.

Then it grew, grew some more, and for those of us who’ve traded punches on her streets, it’s all grown up.

And it has bookends on the part people think of when they hear the word ‘Portland.’

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Call it the Clearing, Stumptown, City of Roses, P-Town, PDX, Ripcity, Bridgetown, or Little Beirut—Portland answers to them all.

The Oregon Historical Society is especially pleased to present many of its wonders in the hundreds of digital pages on The Oregon Encyclopedia and Oregon History Project.

The history of Portland has “attracted the attention” of the state’s historians, scholars, writers, and other experts, and they share what they know.

 

Big Pink On One Bookend

My prediction: One hundred years from now the airspace between the north tower and south tower will be full.

Big Pink is the north tower; Wells Fargo Center is the south tower.

In this shot it’s behind the KOIN Center.

 

History records the response to the Wells Fargo Tower when it opened as the First National Bank Tower.

“It’s beautiful but let’s never do it again.”

Click the link to a Facebook page showing the tower getting built.

The two of them, Pinkie and Stripes, are on 5th Ave.

Five blocks up my prediction is coming true with Park Avenue West and Block 216.

I’m a Portland swami? Nooooo. But . . . . .

 

 

PS:

In the near future look for photo essays about the region, from under the big umbrella, to the front porch.

I’ll be working with a photographer whose work I admire. (Hey Nicole Studios)

For this post I shot pictures from a window on the west side of an airplane coming in from Phoenix.

I’m never on the good side, but this time I was only a seat away from the window.

Apologies to my row-mate for leaning in over and over.

 

PSS:

My current aim is to show how progress happens, and how the outcomes look different than the original plans.

I’ll be posting about the progress of boomerpdx, and how baby boomers can save the kids and grandkids a lot of time by voting for better people in the current mid-terms.

Dear Boomer,

If you have feelings based on what some aged out, suited up, front man tells you, be sure and double check yourself.

Not check yourself, double check yourself.

When anyone answers another adult with, ‘This is what it is because I say this is what it is. I can do anything I want,’ they are not representing you in an American way.

Did you tell your kids the same thing, do this or that because I said so? Did the kids eventually grow resentful and want a better reason? We did.

The mid-term vote is you sassing back to an adult who thinks they can tell you what’s what based on their experience and knowledge.

Based on your experience and knowledge, vote a big F-U to the pretty boy, city dandy, who calls himself the smartest man in every room.

Why vote?

Well pardner, this is your room. You get the title, I get the title, at least when we’re alone. Right?

 

‘What’s that honey? You’re the smartest? Even when I’m alone? And I shouldn’t forget it? I think this is the part of the marriage vows that said ‘for better, or worse.’ ‘