I went through a frightening experience last week: I almost hit a pedestrian in a crosswalk in downtown Centralia! It happened this way: I was southbound on Pearl Street between Maple and Magnolia streets and was about to make a switch from the right lane into the left lane, intending to stop at The Visiting Nurses Thrift Store a few blocks further down the road. My eye switched momentarily to my rear view mirror.
Looking forward again, I spotted a young man striding into the crosswalk — without even looking up from the device he was using to text something or other to somebody or other. Too late to slam on the brakes I swerved right and estimate we weren’t farther than 10 feet apart from where we would have collided.
Thank goodness we did not, but if we had, whose fault would it have been? Mine, of course. As I remember the law, it is the responsibility of the driver to avoid a pedestrian in a crosswalk — while I don’t ever recall reading that the pedestrian has a legal obligation to avoid the driver.
Changing the subject, is spring a little late this year? True, the daffodils and tulips have come into bloom and most of the flowering trees have shown their glory, but where are the leaves on the trees? If the law of opposing opinions is still in effect, the trees will probably be budding out beautifully by the time you read this.
I already missed seeing the first skunk cabbage of the year, but that’s not unusual. One sign of spring did appear, though; I was sure I heard a frog give out a single croak about a week ago. The next evening I heard him (or her) croak twice, but there’s been nothing but silence since. The mystery is where here on Fords Prairie did a frog find any small body of water to call home?
I’m sure I must have mentioned this before, but one of the bright aspects of working evenings at KELA when we first moved into Lewis County was to open the back door to the control room this time of the year and hear the chorus of several hundred frogs all chirping at once. Driving between Chehalis and Centralia used to be equally as pleasing if you opened the driver’s side window just before you reached the top of the small hill at Hampe Way as well. What happened to all the frogs?
At a recent used book sale I picked up a copy of some of some of the writings of Will Rogers. The world lost its best gentle humorist when he died in a plane crash in Alaska in 1935. Some of his more famous quotations include “All I know is what I read in the papers,” “I never met a man I didn’t like” and “I belong to no organized political party; I’m a Democrat.” He made that last statement long before Chuck Haunreiter used it as his theme.
At one place in the book Rogers made a reference to kalsomine. It made me wonder whether or not I was the last person who even knew what kalsomine was? The dictionary next to my favorite chair said only that it was a variant of calcimine, but there was no listing for calcimine. How’s a guy supposed to learn anything?
Actually, kalsomine was an inexpensive interior paint, popular long before the invention of latex paints. You had to mix your own color into it before applying it to the wall or ceiling.
•••
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.
