Summertime is here in the White Salmon-Bingen community. It officially blasted in on June 21, and the changes are everywhere.
It's a time of hot, dry sun, and the resulting burn bans due to the danger of wildfires. It's the time for fireworks sales and controversies over tribal outlets selling fireworks not legal in the state of Washington.
It's late June, and the newest batch of graduates from Columbia High School have celebrated what was a great commencement and scattered to their respective futures. Some have already left for new jobs or academic pursuits. Others will stick around, at least through the summer, enjoying the last few weeks of being able to relax before "the real world" of jobs and bills -- or the initial shock of the heightened intensity of college courses -- closes in.
It's a time when many of our friends and neighbors are gone for days or weeks at a time on vacation, while at the same time the population of the mid-Columbia Gorge area temporarily swells as tourists roll in.
It's a time when the pace of the community, while already relatively slow, slows even further. It seems there are fewer public meetings than usual; it's too hot for unnecessary controversies, and people would simply rather be outside than arguing in a stuffy meeting hall somewhere.
As July nears, it's also the time when a rafting trip down the White Salmon River becomes a joyous relief from the high temperatures ... while for most of the rest of the year, a trip like that would instead provide a shocking, unbearable chill.
The summer is also likely to be the last fleeting respite (relatively, anyway) from the aggressive meanness of the presidential election campaign. With the stakes so high, the negative ads are only getting started, with no charge too outlandish for those who are determined to hold on to the power of the office. Watch. It won't be long before we are told that a vote for John Kerry, a U.S. Senator and a hero of the Vietnam War, is a vote in support of terrorism. That was the basic approach in the 2002 elections, and look for the ads and rhetoric to be even more diabolical in 2004.
And we'll soon see the many campaign signs sprouting alongside roads and in people's yards. There will be many races on the ballot this fall, from president to governor to Klickitat County Commissioner. So appreciate this little break from the coming political onslaught.
Also, this will be the "summer of no bridge." For the first time in memory, the Hood River Toll Bridge will be routinely closed for about seven hours at a time, five days per week. Pray you don't have friends or relatives arriving from the Portland airport late; because that detour through The Dalles or backtracking to Stevenson will add another hour to the trip -- and a ton of aggravation. And be careful you don't lose track of time while enjoying dinner at The Mesquitery, or your trip home is going to be lot longer than you expected.
Maybe the bridge work has to be done, but with all the planning and discussion about building a new bridge, why couldn't all this effort and cost been put off a bit longer, or, ideally, diverted toward a new project?
In a starkly sobering note, our national leaders have warned us repeatedly that we ought to expect a major terrorist attack sometime this summer. We can't know for sure whether such an event will happen, but we have to add the warning to the summer mix -- even though it comes at a completely imponderable level. In this dark new world, that warning becomes something we have to consider at some level, when we'd rather simply consider whether to grill salmon or steaks; and whether to offer lemonade or red wine to the guests.
Just some thoughts for summertime 2004.
JB
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