Bill Moeller Commentary: Does the Writer Suffer From Nostalgia or Just Remembering Things?

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When I was a child in Tacoma there was a portable hot tamale stand that occasionally set up business on Sixth Avenue near Jason Lee Junior High. I remember they were wrapped in actual corn husks. 

I haven’t tasted one of those in 80 years, and I’m beginning to crave one. The trouble is, I can’t find one listed on the signs of any restaurant that might be liable to serve them.

I’m hoping it’ll be like the time I was looking for a bottle of Manischevitz wine (for nostalgia purposes only). Somebody will email me and point out that I just didn’t know where to look.

There’s a sidelight to the above. When I was thinking about food, it occurred to me that, growing up in the depths of the Great Depression, I cannot remember ever having a family dinner with my parents in an actual restaurant!

 That didn’t happen until I came home on furlough from the Army and was taken, without my younger brother, to a hideaway place in the country that featured two things: fantastic fried chicken and a policy of overlooking any bottled spirits that happened to appear under your table.

Liquor laws were pretty stiff back then: No drinks containing hard liquor could be sold or consumed at any time. Taverns that sold only beer and wine had to have full plate glass windows facing the sidewalk. I’m assuming that was to hinder any illegal (or perhaps sexual) activity on the premises.

Oldtimers, do you remember that if you were sitting at the bar and wanted to move to a table (or if you were moving from one table to another) you couldn’t carry your own drink? It had to be transported by an employee. I’m not making this up.

Changing the subject, the Evergreen Playhouse will soon present a play that was first staged in 1984. I had the smallest part possible in the first production (not a word of dialogue on stage) and I’m planning to come out of retirement to repeat the role the second time around. Blink, and you’ll miss it. The play, “Barefoot In the Park,” by Neil Simon, is scheduled to open June 16.



It got me thinking about other Evergreen moments. Of the dozen or so plays I directed, there were at least two where we had to turn people away every single performance! One was a silly farce in 1986 called “Bullshot Crummond,” which parodied bad mystery novels from the ‘30s featuring a character named Bulldog Drummond. The late Dr. John McCord starred in the title role. Ed Jeffries, who had an unforgettable conversation with himself as two different characters on stage, is also gone.

Most of the dialogue came right out of the books themselves. I’m prejudiced, of course, but permit me to maintain it was the most hilarious play ever produced on that stage.

Another play with perfect attendance was the classic “Arsenic and Old Lace” in 1979, where two sweet old ladies poisoned anyone threatening their lifestyle by plying them with arsenic-laced elderberry wine before burying the bodies in the basement. The leading roles were played by two of the theater’s founders, Anne Caldwell and Margaret Oliver.

Can you believe that out of the cast of 14, 10 have already died! Maybe you’ll remember some of them: Anne and Margaret lead the list, which included Bob Zimmerman, Les Dooly, Dan Hannon, Lyman Coppess, Wally Hughes, Walter Jaroszynski, Chuck Dunham and Bill Tilton.

The four I think are still living are Karen Hatcher, Dale Joachim, Darryl Mooney and Mike McCarthy. Time just doesn’t stand still, does it?

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Bill Moeller is a former entertainer, mayor, bookstore owner, city council member, paratrooper and pilot living in Centralia. He can be reached at bookmaven321@comcast.net.