Pacific Northwest

I just got done reading the May 24 article about how we might be getting picked on here in the northwestern corner of the country, and I suppose it’s mostly true. We used to be considered really provincial hereabouts--mostly loggers and apple-pickers, with a few airplane builders, and on occasion the University of Washington could send its football team to the Rose Bowl--but for the most part out of touch with what’s going on. Maybe it’s the weather; you know, all the cold, gray, damp and rainy days that made us that way.

I don’t know what made it all change. We haven’t seen people flock here like this since all them miners came through around the turn of the century headed for the gold fields of Alaska. Guess I kinda liked it the way it used to be, when the most serious thing I had to worry about was if we might have a dry spell and my webbed feet would get dried out and start cracking, and the moss on my back started to turn brown.

JERRY ROBISON

Mukilteo, Wash.