BY BOB SPIWAK
Of course, it does not seem like an ordinary Monday morning. The Mazama Store was pretty well packed at the 7 a.m. opening and people just kept coming. There were about 16 big RVs and a few tents at the Edelweiss campground en route.
Saturday’s Pancake Breakfast was a booming success and all manner of accolades are due for Gay Northrup. She resurrected what appeared to be a dead event mere months ago and not only made it happen, but also had plenty of help, which has been somewhat of a rarity. There are many others who deserve plaudits, and all of you know who you are, as do those who attended.
Well, maybe not the hordes that showed up for the fun run. I have not gotten a count of participants, but cars were parked up and down Goat Creek Road on both sides, as well as at the Community Club parking area and the big parking lot by the corral where the race started.
While others have been involved, I believe June Fitzpatrick was the impetus for an event that was tied to the breakfast. It had several names, including “Mazama Days” and “Good Old Days.” I was skeptical, I must admit, and good old days for me and many others were when maybe 50 people came to breakfast.
Anyhow, this turned into a sort of fair with booths and raffles, library book sale, political enclaves for the Mazama Advisory Committee and the Move The Hut movement and a variety of other stuff, including entertainment for kids of all ages. The point is, it drew the people, both involved in and separate from the race, and all seemed to be having a grand time.
There was, and currently still is, a mystery that arose. A large poster from many, many years ago had a cartoon and advertised a fisherman’s breakfast. But who did the artwork? Opinions seemed to center on Jack Holden, founder of the worldwide Stop Continental Drift Society, or Bob Cram, ex-TV weatherman and book author, both illustrators for The Goat Wall Street Journal. Both men are expatriate Mazama-area denizens. Ms. Gloria sent a photo of the poster to each, and both disclaim any knowledge of it.
We have a couple of Brushes With Stardom, but will have to put them off until next week because from Mazama to the Washington State Department of Transportation headquarters in Olympia, people are fraught with anxiety to know the results of this year’s first car count, and I must be off, physically and mentally, to tabulate it.
The count began at the usual 10 a.m. and lasted an hour. Everything that rolled past our secret observation post was counted in both directions. (Why it is secret will be explained in the “Off The Wall” column next week.)
All told, there were 384 vehicles westbound, 77 in the first quarter-hour, 98 in the second 15 minutes, 107 the third 15 minutes and the final 15 minutes added an additional 102. Only seven motorcycles went by, three bicycles and one mallard hen, all going west.
Eastbound, there were 79 vehicles. For the quarter-hours, eastbound, there were 19, 16, 18, and 26.
For years we separated each type of vehicle within the count, but abandoned that cumbersome division in the name of accuracy and laziness.
The question always arises as to how the count compares to the year before. I cannot find the figures I carefully saved, but I would guess it’s higher by a dozen or two this year. Recreational vehicles, motor homes, pick-up trucks with trailers, and campers probably beat out automobiles by 80 percent.
Next week, the thrilling history of the car count.
