By Erika Kar
Some of you, of a certain age, may remember watching after-school specials on television. They were hour-long shows targeting the 12- to 16-year-old set, with a storyline that focused on issues that many teens faced.
Those 1980s teens spent lazy afternoons lounging in front of the TV, maybe with a Tab and some Pringles, learning important life lessons usually from teen heartthrob actors with enviable feathered hair. Commercial breaks filled our minds with garbage, with the exception of the one public service announcement (PSA) that was usually at the end of the show. The PSAs had a catchy little jingle that crooned, “the more you know…”
Did those PSAs really do any good? I’d like to think so. This is why I’m going to pass one on along to you. You can imagine in your mind a chaotic scene of ambulances, police and wreckage upon a highway. Maybe some crying bystanders. Add a little dramatic music too. Now imagine a James Earl Jones sort of voiceover.
Methow citizens, we are firmly in the beginning of the summer season, which commenced with the opening of the North Cascades Highway. The season in which thousands upon thousands of vacationers come to our valley to enjoy the paradise that we get to live in every day. These vacationers bring huge economic benefit to us all, for which we are thankful.
However, they also drive differently than most of us. They drive faster and pass where they shouldn’t. They want to test the limits of their motorcycles. They are not aware of the deer, bicyclists or roller skiers that could be just around that corner.
For the safety of all, let’s slow it down a notch ourselves. Take care to be hyper-vigilant, particularly on those Sunday afternoons when the vacationers are heading west, jockeying to get around slower drivers before getting stuck behind that dreaded RV. We, Methowites, can easily pull over and let someone safely pass us. Because the life we save may be our own or the life of someone we love.
On to some more standard Mazama news tidbits:
• An anonymous Lost River resident had an aggressive doe chase her dog all the way up onto her deck, cornering the dog, and then the deer even tried to get into the house as the owner opened the front door to rescue the dog. The dog thankfully suffered only minor injuries.
• Robert Gatlin, husband of Sally, says that Sally’s beaver was only approximately 30 pounds, not the 50-60 pounds that I had originally reported. That’s still a big beaver.
• Brats and Beer Nights are back on at the Mazama Store.
• Louise Stevens, Midge Cross, David Caldwell and Nicki McCullough spent their Saturday morning working on the red outhouse at the Mazama Community Club (MCC). They are determined to save the old red outhouse, which served the school kids that attended school in the building that later became the MCC.
Weird things are happening all around, I just can’t write about them. How’s that for standard Mazama news?
