Olympia Time

History, politics, people of Oly WA

Category: public suggestions

Zine Review of Funwater Awesome #1 through #4

July 9, 2012 / / 0 Comments
The author’s fiancé drew the covers of #3 and #4. Very much worth pointing out.
Funwater Awesome #1 through #4
By Zach Mandeville 
About ten years ago, I was thinking about the recent construction of commercial lots in Yelm. Actually, everywhere. I remember laments about strip malls, Safeways, surrounded by parking lots, people saying the construction lacked character.

I wondered if that was an inherent quality or if character grew over time. From Zack’s point of view, the architecturally plain setting of strip malls and apartments in West Olympia are alive with his memories and emotions.

Funwater Awesome, while centered on Tumwater, is a long reflection of a young person’s attachment and relationship with urban northern Thurston County. While Zach speaks almost solely as the local being “Funwater” (Tumwater), his stories and essays are seamlessly set throughout the contiguous Lacey, Olympia, Tumwater community. His introduction and construction of characters

It’s shocking to me how much Zach reminds me of Douglas Coupland. Actually, almost the exact opposite of Douglas Coupland, a mirror image. Alex and the Giants from Funwater Awesome #2 seems the flip in mood and telling (while maintaining the same fresh style) of the doom and dread of Coupland’s Life after God. Zach’s father character in Giants could practically be Scout in the final story of Coupland’s God, years after submerging himself in the forest stream pool.

Funwater #3 and #4 (release simultaneously in summer 2009) show a lot of promise not just for the zine series, but for Zach as a writer.

The fiction elements are the opening chapters of what I hope is still a forthcoming book length book called My Brother! This work maintains the hopeful Coupland-esque elements of Funwater #1 and #2, but enough hand holds to keep a story going for the length of a book.

I’ll leave you to read the non-fiction parts of #3 and #4 when you either buy the zines or check them out from the library (information on that below). But, they’re a great mix of actually useful information and history for any resident of Tumwater. But, I’ll at least offer the best selection from the non-fiction portion of  #4:

Tumwater was born then, as they built their homes along the Deschutes River. Funwater was born when someone put a decorative curtain across a knothole in their log.

Also, one last note. Zach’s fiance (wife now?) drew the cover of #3 and #4, very much worth pointing that out. They’re great.

Here is also a nice one minute zine review of #2.

Funwater Awesome #1
To buy: zachboyofdestiny *at* gmail *dot* com
To borrow:

Funwater Awesome #2
To buy: http://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zines/3141/
To borrow:

Funwater Awesome #3
To buy: http://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zines/3142/
To borrow:

Funwater Awesome #4
To buy: http://msvalerieparkdistro.com/zines/funwater-awesome-4
To borrow:

James Hannum’s two books about the history of local railroads

January 23, 2011 / / 1 Comment

I was looking for a particular piece of history that I couldn’t easily find online, so I quickly checked out every book at the Olympia Timberland Library that had any relevance at all to railroads in Thurston County. Two of them — South Puget Sound Railroad Mania (a goofy name for a great book) and Gone But Not Forgotten: Abandoned Railroads of Thurston County, Washington — are insanely good books.

I’m pretty sure I’d brought home the first book before at some point, but I don’t think I gave it enough time to really realize how good it was.

In a lot of ways, the story of the South Sound can be told through transportation and by railroads. The dozens and dozens of timberland railroads explored by both books show how we really did interact with our landscape in a much different fashion in the past. Each small railroad was a different timber operator in a different corner of the region. Instead of residential homes on 5 and 10 acre parcels and hobby farms, we had a semi-industrialized, narrow gauge sort of world.

I was mostly interested in the lines that used to and still do cross Olympia. Going through the books over the weekend, I found downtown Olympia at one point had three different railroad stations.

  • Anyone that has seen the famous Olympia birds eye view knows that a railroad used to go down the west side of what is now Capitol Lake. Where 4th Avenue crosses that old railroad, there was a railroad station.
  • Most folks could also guess that the old white building between the railroad tracks and Columbia, down by Amanda Smith Way, was also a railroad station.
  • Most surprising to me, but now sort of obvious now that I realized how close it was to an existing railway line, but the Olympic Outfitters building used to be a railroad station for the Northern Union (thanks Andrew!) Pacific. The main line ran down Jefferson St. (as it does now) to the port, but a couple of lines diverged at Jefferson and 7th, ran in the middle of the block and ended at the station.

Green River Pop in Steilacoom

December 28, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Bair Bistro, via flickr, by Suburban Times

Green River Pop has been around for years, and its one of those kid memories I have that I try to make my way back to. Usually I can find it in a random gas station, but for the past ten years, its been harder and harder to find.

Even harder (well impossible) has been the mythical hand mixed Green River pop, which I’ve hear of, but never actually seen in the wild. Until today at lunch when I drug my family up to Steilacoom to the Bair Bistro (former Bair Drug) where they’ve been serving hand mixed Green River pop since Christmas:

There’s an old/new item on the menu at the Bair Bistro in Steilacoom.

It’s called “Green River” (not to be confused with the coffee-colored liquid that meanders through Auburn), and the refreshing, green beverage conjures up a bit of nostalgia for those who remember “the good old days.”

A few days before Christmas, a handful of regular customers had an opportunity to taste-test this old-fashioned liquid while Bistro proprietor Sarah Cannon experimented with the recipe to replicate the perfect “Green River.”

After several patrons had sampled the mixture, Jane Bair Light, granddaughter of Bair Store founder, W. L. Bair, added her straw into the sample blend…sipped deeply, paused …and pronounced, “no, it needs a bit more syrup.”

The syrup/soda proportions, Cannon vowed, will be perfected by the time patrons flock to the Steilacoom Historical Museum’s “Living Museum” to order the renowned soda fountain drink.

Here is my photographic evidence. One with the carbonated water and syrup before mixing.

And, one immediately after.

When we arrived, we were informed that they were out of C02, so my Green River pop had to be mixed with regular soda water. My overall impression is that in terms of taste its very close to what Green River tastes like out of a bottle, possibly just a little less sugary.

And, of course Green River (soft drink) has a wikipedia entry.

Is there any place in Olympia that does hand mixed pop?

Best histories of Olympia, Part 1 (the ones I already wrote about)

June 14, 2009 / / 0 Comments

This is the first part of a series of undermined length about the best written histories of Olympia. This part deals with two books that I’ve already blogged, so will be really easy for me.

The best, the most complete (up to the 1960s or so) is “Rogues, Buffoons and Statesmen” by Gordon Newell. This is a seriously thick book that covers almost every moment of Olympia’s history (from the state government and local perspective) from pioneer days to the 1960s. Of course its incomplete now because its so old now, but still very complete.

The second best book would of course be something that updates RB&S to the current day.

Here’s what I wrote about it earlier:

Generally speaking, the books tells the story of Olympia from main street and the Capitol. Gordon was an old time newspaper guy in Olympia, so he had great background for both Olympia scenes. He also lived early enough in Olympia’s history that the really old stuff really wasn’t that old to him. It is oft-referred to, but seldom seen. There are only six copies in the Timberland system, a few of which don’t circulate.

The lack of local library (or even digital editions) is made up by there being a lot of affordable copies online. Right now, Amazon has several copies under $20.

The second is “Confederacy of Ambition.” Certainly less of a total history than RB&S, but also deeper (if that’s possible). My earlier review.

This book is great because it takes on the glossiness that people put on local history when they’re being lazy. Like this:

Washington began as a state founded by optimistic settlers with utopian dreams, and to some degree that sentiment continues resonating.

Uh, no. If William Winlock Miller was the typical settler (and I think he was), he may have been optimistic, but he certainly wasn’t utopian. He was a driven, realistic, politically savvy and business focused sort of guy.

Or, more simply, it fills in with personal history the gaps that are left when you do a local history that just names names and takes down dates.

The bed newspapers find themselves in

April 7, 2009 / / 0 Comments


If anyone really doubts that newspapers owners created the situation they’re in now, you should read: The Chain Gang.

Shorter Chain Gang: Instead of being happy with an industry where even the laziest newspaper with a local monopoly could make 5 percent profit a year, newspaper chains drove out local competition (possibly with illegal tactics) and borrowed heavily to buy up even more local papers.

But, now 20 or 30 years later, the model doesn’t work anymore and the pile of cards is tumbling down.

It isn’t journalism that’s broken, its the economic model of local monopolies owned by chains saddled with debt and unrealistic profit margins driven by public ownership.

Confederacy of Ambition (I recommend it)

January 12, 2009 / / 0 Comments

I’ve read histories of Olympia and of early Washington Territory, but nothing like Confederacy of Ambition. Really good book. William Winlock Miller showed up in Olympia in 1850 and the path of his life is pretty much the path of Olympia for the next 26 years. If he didn’t have a hand in it, we probably don’t remember it.

The Google Books version has a pretty healthy preview, so I’d suggest thumbing through it before you check the book out from the library.

It reminds me a lot of the communal history told through a single person type format that was Skid Road.

Also, reminds me of the questionable scholarship that goes into a lot of local histories. I pretty much trusted what I read in CoA, mostly because the author wrote the book based on all of the correspondence of the topic of the book. Therefore I’m pretty sure that while William Winlock Miller was a general in a marginal sense (served as quartermaster for the Territorial Volunteers), he did not serve in the Civil War and was not a hero.

Actually, he never even left the west coast during the war at all. Also, while Winlock is named after him, Millersylvania State Park is named after another Miller.

All of these facts (Civil War reference, Winlock and Millersylvania) are all packed into one paragraph in the local history book “Olympia High School.”

Anyway, if you like Olympia history, read CoA.

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