Among the Methow Valley’s many delights is the prospect of finding something unexpected at the Senior Center rummage room in Twisp. Sophomore Zoe Kaltenbach made a recent discovery that not only provides cozy couture, but also a mystery — one that is solvable, I’m confident, by someone in this community.
Zoe’s new baby blue crew neck sweatshirt features the words “Methow Valley University,” the year 1991, and a crest showing the four pillars of Methow Valley recreation: cycling, skiing, hiking, horseback riding.
A Latin motto arcs above the crest — “sumus domi montus sub stellae” — which my bygone background in Spanish decoded as “we are dominant mountains under stars” but which Google Translate tells me is “we are at home on the mountain under the stars” in Latin, which not only sounds better but more accurately describes the Methow Valley’s location and character.
Inquiring minds — such as those who might have graduated from a place of higher learning like Methow Valley University — want to know about this institution. Was it tangible or conceptual? Was it a place to get schooled in Methow Valley history and tradition or was it merely a punishing program of hard climbs, steep ski runs and epic trail rides?
Who taught at Methow Valley University? Who were the students? What course of education did it offer? Does Wolf Creek Screen Printing, which printed Zoe’s sweatshirt, still exist under a different name? And — most importantly — are there other sweatshirts like Zoe’s out there in the closets of Methow Valley University alumni or is hers the sole sartorial survivor of MVU’s school spirit?
Another treasure-hunting mystery might be more easily solved, as it presented itself only a few days ago. Did you leave your “Divas Live” CD on a 20-pound bag of black oil sunflower seeds at Ace Hardware? So many questions are raised by this particular pairing of merchandise that it’s hard to know where to begin.
If you were taking some “me” time in the plastic Adirondack chairs on the hardware store patio, DiscMan in hand, chilling out to the soulful strains of pop ballad royalty, let me be the first to applaud you. You gotta be you.
As you gazed into the airbrushed faces of Celine, Mariah, Gloria, Aretha and Shania on the CD jacket, you closed your eyes and leaned back in quiet reflection, setting the CD case on the black oil sunflower seed side table next to your chair. They crooned, you swooned, and for a moment you were in the MGM Grand Garden Arena or Madison Square Garden.
When you left, the CD case was forgotten, poised so strategically above the words on the feed bag that it was not quite clear if the statement referred to seeds or singers: “triple cleaned for purity.”
