An Introduction

Hi all, I'm Brian, and I’m a graduate student in library science at the University of Washington. I live in Lake City, a strippy little neighborhood on the north end of Seattle; my apartment is three blocks inside the city limits. Before coming up here for my MLIS, I lived in Portland, Oregon for six years. That was the longest I've spent anywhere in my life.

I grew up on the go. My father worked for what he always described as a "big, politically-incorrect multinational," which shipped us around the world from one hermetically sealed expat enclave to another. While the scenery changed, the place never did; every stop on the way was populated by the same clique of rich people in Moncler jackets. I wasn't a third-culture kid. I was a no-culture kid. I could tell something was missing, and when I moved to Oregon for college I resolved to stay put.

Fig. 1.1: Me, staying put. I shaved the mustache in 2017.

For the first time I'd found myself in a place that felt like a place. I was naturally curious as to why it felt that way. A couple idle questions later – what are those old railway tracks peeking through the tarmac? Why is everybody drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon? Was my dreary apartment complex really once a famous botanical garden? – and I was a full-blown local history addict. Each of those questions had a story behind it, and those stories were entertaining, but they also taught me about broader trends that had shaped the region in which I live. This blog is about those questions and about what the answers can tell us.

My silly title comes from an address by the great regional historian Dorothy O. Johansen. Speaking of the sundial in downtown Longview that commemorates Washington statehood, DoJo hoped that even if the physical monument is “destroyed by the heavy finger of time,” the ideas it represents will not be forgotten. I hope this blog helps you think about the ideas, the personalities, and the forces that made the places you navigate every day, whether you live here or not. As gentrification and climate change wreak tremendous physical change in the Northwest, it’s more important than ever to keep memories alive – both of history’s triumphs and its evils.

Be aware that I am not a professional and may construct appealing narratives based on insufficient evidence. On the other hand, my lack of professionalism means it wouldn’t be fair for me to charge you anything, so please enjoy this anachronistically uncommercial blog format and rest assured I won’t interrupt the story to sell you a Casper mattress.