So, it’s already time, again, to clear the desk of various notes to myself. The most recent has to do with my difficulty seeing painted lane lines on Harrison Avenue, particularly in the area below the I-5 underpass especially when the streets are covered with fresh rainwater.
First, there are the stripes themselves. Back in the good old days nearly forty years ago when Bill Rickard was Commissioner of Public Works and I held the gavel at Centralia City Commission meetings, the city paid the extra amount needed to use reflective paint. At least that’s the way I remember it.
Now, when it rains, the water on the streets creates a reflective surface of its own and, consequently, diminishes the visibility of the traffic lane markings on the streets themselves. A reasonable example? Turn the corner of Harrison Avenue onto Johnson Road and there’s no problem. The stripe down the center of the road is yellow, not white. I know, I know, there are laws designating the color of lines depending on where they’re being painted, but I wish there could be more visible contrast on a rainy night in Centralia.
Then there’s my oft repeated tirade against drivers who won’t turn on their headlights in rainy or foggy conditions thinking, I suppose, that they think they don’t need to do so because they can see the roads perfectly well. They seem unaware that the purpose of the practice is not to see but to be seen by other drivers. Then, my pet peeve, the drivers who wait until they start making a left turn before activating their turn signals. My opinion is this: not using headlights in dim conditions might be ignorance, but employing turn signals after starting to turn is stupidity!
I feel safe in making those classifications because anyone guilty of such actions would certainly not be reading a column as erudite as this one. All right, so I’m a cultural snob, without any evidence to back it up.
I’ve mentioned that baseball is one of the sports I enjoy watching on TV because it’s really a duel between two players, a pitcher and a batter. But wow, how I’ve enjoyed watching the Mariners this year! I have one question that’s bugged me in recent years, why do batters constantly unsnap and resnap their batting gloves between pitches? And why are they wearing gloves in the first place? Babe Ruth didn’t, nor did Joe DiMaggio or Ty Cobb, and they were rather successful without them.
And one final note: earlier this year, I noted that 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of Centralia College graduates from 1969, of which I am one. I suggested an informal get-together and the school sent mailings to all the known addresses of graduates. Reaction has been minimal. Six former Trailblazers responded, hardly enough to book a $500 room at the Olympic Club, wouldn’t you say?
So, I’ll sip a glass of something and perhaps fight back a watery eye as I reflect upon some personal highlights, such as putting on plays in the room that had once been the Centralia High School home economics center, being singled out by a young English teacher, Bob Williams, to join in a three-member class on creative writing, being part of an annual springtime event called “MAD Festival” (the letters standing for Music Arts and Drama), sitting in the lunchroom, puffing on my pipe filled with aromatic tobacco and, yes, even going through the steps of my own mid-life crisis. Not a sad memory in the lot.
If there’s a difference on the campus between--“then” and “now”--I’d say that the emphasis a half century ago was on preparing for a four-year college while now, with increasing emphasis on trade schools, it’s on preparing for life. Nothing wrong with either one in my book.
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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.
