For the Love of Dog   /   April 18, 2009   /   Puyallup, WA

“Okay, alright” I tell her. “but I don’t think we should do this after dark.” “Its just too dangerous.” Unfortunately, the call comes through at 7:30pm. “He’s ready. His brother will be there in 45 minutes. The mini- mart at 19^th & MLK in Tacoma.

”I kiss my three dogs goodbye as though for the last time and head out following Susan Hartland of Dogs Deserve Better to trade $250 for a pitbull whose ears had been cut off and who has been bred for puppies many times over. Its owner, had a striking resemblance to a person featured on the Fox News Q13 program Washington’s Most Wanted just days ago, and has flipped flopped several times about selling the dog, the only thing he has in the world. “I love her.” he had told animal rescuer Kelly Page who brokered the deal. But tonight he’s changed his mind. $250. He needs it.

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Susan Hartland, an advocate and instrumental force in this area for the banishment of continuous dog chaining, has been trying to get the laws changed in our area for a year.  The issue was first brought to the Metropolitan King County Council last October 2008 where it has been lively debated.  She has taken it to the City of Tacoma, Snohomish County, and in the next week will appear before the Pierce County Council.  Hartland volunteers on behalf of Dog’s Deserve Better, a non-profit rescue organization working to raise awareness of the plight of chained and tethered dogs who are often neglected and abused.

About a week ago I rode along with Hartland, Page, and Page’s two- year old daughter Maggie on a tour of chained dogs in the Tacoma area.  Hartland had been concerned about a pitbull tied up on a six-foot cord in a yard next to the Indian Smoke Shop on the Puyallup Tribal Reservation along Pacific Hwy E.  Someone had called Hartland to report he had seen this dog with a litter of puppies and was concerned about her.

At first it was hard to see that there was even a dog there.  Hearing us she peaked out from within her plastic igloo.   Her bark was old and tired.  Woof.  Woof.  Scared but lacking energy.  She was shaking and holding one paw up like it was injured.  Her ears had been brutally cut off.  Her eyes depicted a sadness of untold horrors and loneliness. Her teats hung so low they almost touched the ground.  Page went closer, through the feces, crouching down to the dog’s level, offering food and water.  The pit moved towards her and Page’s hand brushed her face. The large golden pit soaked up the touch. She just wanted to be loved.   Eyes closed and leaning in towards Page she seemed desperate.

After inquiring about the dog and receiving vague answers in the smoke shop we left.  The pit watched us walk away, stepping through her litter strewn yard of old wooden pallets, sleeping bags, trashcans of empty water bottles. A hatchet. What went on here?

Days later, none of us could get the pittie out of our minds.

So Page went back.

As an animal rescuer Kelly Page roams neighborhoods in her car and searches for chained dogs.  Not associated with any rescue group she is a one-man band.  On a grassroots level she just wants to make a difference for these dogs.  Once she finds one she talks to the owners and tries to educate them on the problems of continuous dog chaining.  Her car is filled with dog treats, water, and often a bale of hay.  She always brings her two-year-old daughter who like her Mom, loves the Bubba’s (dogs) and cries when her Mom won’t let her get near them for a pet.

On this day, about a week ago, a couple days after the three of us had been there, Page describes it as a stroke of luck.  The dog’s owner was there.  He lives in a beat-up trailer parked on the property. They made eye contact and started a conversation.  He found her, and her daughter beautiful. He said they could have the dog for $100.  He had been featured on the program Washington’s Most Wanted, turned himself in, and figured he would be going to jail. She promised she would find the dog, Missy, a good home. They exchanged phone numbers and Page said she would return the next day.

The next morning he called her.  Now he wants $250.  Sigh.  She agreed. But by the time she got there he had changed his mind.  His sister wanted the dog and he said he was getting on a plane.  Page cried.  No deal.

“Its always like this” Page says of rescues. They’re never easy.

Back at home, Page did some research and discovered the man featured on the Most Wanted program was a Level 3 sex offender, the most dangerous level, for raping two women back in 1983, amongst several other crimes.

Concerned about the dog she called the Puyallup tribal police.  She called Milton Animal Services. She called the Milton Police but the bottom line is there was nothing anyone could do.

“You see,” explains Officer Connie Ellis of Milton Animal Services, “It may not be the way you or I treat our dogs but that dog is within the law.”  Currently there is no ordinance against leaving your dog outside continually chained up, nor is it illegal to breed your dog multiple times for puppies.  Ellis feels strongly about the chaining legislation and would love to see it passed in Tacoma.  She believes it creates anxiety in the dogs “and it will literally drive them insane.  Once they go over the edge,” she says “they won’t come back.”  Ellis says the city of Milton would probably follow the ordinance if it passes in Tacoma or Pierce County.  Currently the dog has to be in a life threatening situation for animal services to remove it but the chaining ordinance would give them the authority to take Missy.

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Its dark and I’m driving on I-5 into what I perceive is the heart of darkness.  This is stupid. What if there are gangsters there?  What if we are just being set up?  What if they pull out guns?

Nervously, Hartland, Page, and I are on the phone the whole way down. Its almost 9:30 pm and both Susan and I are lost.

When we got there it wasn’t nearly as bad as we feared. There was a guy, alone, standing in the light at the Speedy Mart, with an earless pitbull wagging its tail.  A third rescuer, Robin Booth, was in a car nearby, watching, phone to her ear, ready to call the cops if anything bad was to happen.

His name was Mr. Right and he was signing the dog over to Susan.

What?

Every girl dreams of the day she will meet her Mr. Right but I never imagined it would be at a Speedy Mart parking lot in Tacoma.

He is really nice, friendly, about 30, and signs over the dog.  From around the building’s corner emits a hooded figure. Nervous. Muttering that his brother doesn’t need to sign the papers. “You need to GO!” he says. I see under the black hoodie it is HIM…  he guy in the (Most Wanted’s) mug shot.  We linger with questions to the younger guy.  “Is the dog spayed?  How old is the dog?  The younger guy doesn’t know anything.  It’s his brother’s dog he says. Several more people have shown up, curious. “Lets GO!” the older man says.  Afraid the deal will go sour Susan hands over the money and loads the pit bull into the back of her car.

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Minutes later, we’re in a Jack in Box parking lot nearby feeding the dog a chicken sandwich.  This is the biggest pitbull I have ever seen. The dog with no ears is very sweet.  She’s nervous but really pretty, golden, and thick.

Now begins the hard part says Hartland  – finding this dog a home.  Its going to be difficult because of her age, breed and the mental scars she’s got from her former life.  In addition to the initial $250 forked over, the dog will be boarded for $25 a day out of Susan and Kelly’s pocket.  They can only afford 20 days. After that, they don’t know.

Robin Booth, the rescuer standing by at the scene said she overhead the older man saying that he knew exactly what he was going to do with the money.  Buy alcohol.

Days later the City of Milton Police, Chief William Rhoads, said they went to the address where the dog had been but the dog’s owner was gone.  The guy featured on the Most Wanted TV program was later admitted into the Pierce County jail for several offenses including failing to register as a sex offender since last October.

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Donations or adoption inquiries about Missy the pitbull can be given to Susan Hartland at Dogs Deserve Better hartlandsf@yahoo.com or 206-786-4288.  Dogs Deserve Better does not advocate the exchange of money for dogs.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________This story originally ran in the Seattle Post Globe

Homeless teen David Buck, age 19 prepares to camp out under a bridge in Seattle on February 11, 2009.  It is 32 degrees and he is suffering from a severe cold or flu.  There is only one shelter in the area for homeless teens which is full, as it often is.  David just wishes the cops would leave them alone.  (©Karen Ducey 2009)

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David Buck, 19

I would like the cops to leave us alone because all it does it make it harder for us to get off the streets.

A perfect example is in the next week I have several appointments. So I can apply for financial aid so I can go to college.  But lets say a scenario occurs where tomorrow I don’t get in the shelter and I have to sleep somewhere typically under the bridge or somewhere else where I feel like the cops aren’t going to bother me which is in reality nowhere.  I’ll go there and the cops will come and bother me and they will write me up a citation or they’ll run my name and find out I have many citations and a warrant because I’m not able to pay off my citations.  Therefore I get thrown in jail which is inevitable because I can’t pay off my citations, I’m homeless. And I get to meet none of those appointments therefore I don’t qualify for financial aid.  In the end I’m just back on the street again which is exactly what they want.  They want scapegoats to throw in their jail…  Ultimately I would like to go to school… to study pre-med.   Its all straight -forward if I don’t get thrown in jail.  I don’t know a single person on The Ave who hasn’t been thrown in jail for the whole loophole of the citations of sleeping somewhere.

The shelter only holds 25 people.  So all of us go there.  Some nights we all get in. Other nights there’s 40 of us and we … go find somewhere else to sleep.  So the cops, they all gang together like a bunch of bounty hunters, and search for us, and write us citations.  They wake us up at 2am in the morning and tell us to get the hell out.  No matter where the hell we are. And you know what that tells us to do?  All that does is tell us to go somewhere else.  And we’re scared out of our minds trying to get to sleep here because we’re afraid that they’re gonna come just rolling up, writing us another citation and the cycle continues.  And the problem is we get these citations, and we’re homeless.  We don’t have jobs.  We can’t pay them off.  No one will pay it off for us because most of us don’t have family members who care about us   … They’ll put out a warrant because we have several citations.  … throw us in jail. And the cycle continues and it goes on and on and on.  And they don’t care. They see the problem.  They know exactly what they’re doing.  They just don’t care.  There’s not a single cop who has tried to help us once.  The police here are not keepers of the peace, they’re not protectors of justice, they’re bounty hunters with badges.

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Xavier Garay, age 25 sleeps on a bench at a church in Seattle, WA on February 12, 2009 because the shelter for homeless teens was full.   Next month he turns 26 and will age out of all services for homeless teens. ”You have to have a sense of humor out here if you want to stay healthy.” he says. (©Karen Ducey2009)

The Fight Song  /  November 22, 2008  /  Pullman, WA

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Fight, fight, fight for Washington State!

Win the victory,

Win the day for Crimson and Gray!

Best in the West

We know you’ll all do your best,

So on, on, on, on!

Fight to the end!

Honor and glory you must win!

So fight, fight, fight for Washington State and Victory!

-   -Washington State University Fight Song.

First performed in 1919

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Leah Rosenkranz, 19 Mellophone player (prior to the start of the Apple Cup between rivals the Washington State University Cougars and the University of Washington Huskies). 

We are in the tunnel of Martin Stadium in Pullman Washington at WSU.  We’re getting ready.  We gotta get out there and play.  We start by sprinting out of the tunnel to our spots.  And then we march into the WSU.  We normally spell Cougs and USA, and play the fight song a couple of times. …  Our purpose is to get the crowd really pumped up and going and keep morale up which sometimes it takes a lot with this team. But we can help a lot sometimes so it’s always good. Right now the UW band is on so a lot of us have friends in there but we’re rooting for the Cougars.

Evan Burns, 19, Tuba player

The main point is we entertain. That is all we do.   We got out there we make the crowd dance yell and cheer. And we just love coming out there and getting fired up.

The history of cheerleading at Washington State University dates back to the 1910′s when an all male “Rooter Team” cheered on the school then known as Washington State Agricultural College. During the period of war in the 1930′s and 40′s, the all men’s Rooter Team was replaced with female cheerleaders. The face of this sport changed nationwide during this time period as female athletes introduced gymnastics and acrobatics into cheerleading.

Currently, the WSU cheer squad is made up of approximately 12 female and 12 male cheerleaders.

- excerpted from the WSU website.

 

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Helen Tapping, 36  I actually am a green card holder and I don’t get to vote.  I get to pay taxes but I don’t get to vote.  So I’m doing everything I can to get democrats out to get to the polls and vote for Barak Obama. 

The reason I’m out on the bridge is because I was on phone banks last night and phone banks this morning.  My bum went to sleep so I need some fresh air.  I asked what else I could do and they said ‘Do you want to wave signs?’ and I’m like “Sure.  I’ll do whatever.”  And its great.  People are beeping.  We’ve been flipped off a few times but more people have beeped and waved.  Its such a great feeling.  It gives us some hope.

© Karen Ducey 2008

Can poodles really be gay? In an off-the-paw survey in the Poodles for Pride group at Seattle’s Gay Pride parade, over half of them have girlfriends or boyfriends. Some are fond of the same sex, others prefer the opposite. Some are dating poodles of a different color and others are crossing breeds. Perhaps poodles are just promiscuous. One thing’s for certain, poodles have an image to uphold. In their pomp and funny hairdo’s, they are different than other dogs- sometimes judged critically and ostracized from the “real” dogs at the park. It’s OK though. According to they’re parents, they’re Proud to be Poodles.

Seattle author Bruce Bahemihl, Ph.D., writes in his book Biological Exhuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity. “The world is, indeed, teeming with homosexual, bisexual, and transgendered creatures of every stripe and feather. From the Southeastern Blueberry Bee of the United States to more than 130 different bird species worldwide, the birds and the bees ‘literally, are queer’.”

Maxine Weyant, 50 and her poodle Bennie, 2
“Bennie kind of has the biker dude outfit. He’s neutered and he’s got two brothers at home who are also neutered, but that doesn’t mean he won’t hump things. But he doesn’t have any girlfriends or boyfriends, just lots of buddies.”

Kathy Cain, 53
Bennie’s getting more conservative because last year he went naked and now he’s got leathers.”

Gail Ferrari, 51 and her poodle Willie, 1 year
(Willie) has a boyfriend named Rusty. They’re starting to have regular playdates and their very competitive with each other….Willie chose the colors (of my skirt) and he’s very fond of white poodles. He’s just out here representing diversity in dogs and people and colors, whatever. He’s very open.

Jenepher White, 47 and her poodle Madeline, 3
She’s here to support her Moms and show that even poodles have pride. (She’s a) toy poodle. She feels great to stand out in the crowd. You know all these big poodles…you guys are fine, but me? I’m the only one like me!”

Cat Ritinger, and her poodle Vita Pepita
They’re very proud poodles and they want to speak for gay pride and proud to be alive. Her girlfriend is home, Tin Tin. She couldn’t come because she just had babies. She was artificially inseminated. But they’re very much in love.”

That (“poodle”) stigma is so not them. Particularly the standards….are noble dogs, are hunting dogs, loyal dogs. The funny thing is they’re considered the antithesis of macho but actually they’re very macho if that’s what you want them to be. I know some macho men that are now poodle men. And they’re straight!”

Eric DuBois, 55 and Jim Green, 44 and their poodle Luc, 2.
He’s got two Dads and he’s never known anything different, so he doesn’t see (anything) unusual about this. He’s only two years old so we’re a little limited about what we’re talking to him about yet but we’ll get there as he grows older.

He already dates. He has a girlfriend, Poo Bear. She’s an apricot poodle. Oh, absolutely (we’re supportive). We’re color blind pretty much. Apricot’s wonderful.”

Though thought of today primarily as entertainment for children, puppetry has a long history of espousing political agendas. One of the earliest and most famous puppets is Punch and Judy originating from the commedia dell’arte in Britain in the 17th century. According to an article appearing in the Detroit-based Fifth Estate paper, Spring 2000, by Kerry Mogg,

”This hunchback, with his large, hooked nose and insanely boorish manners, was a hero of the lower-classes. Punch broke the most sacrosanct laws imaginable in a time when conformity was imposed in every sphere of life…. He mocked the law, God’s and king’s …. As George Speight tells us in Punch and Judy: a History, Punch was a subversive jester, “the simpleton who could answer back to Bishop and King, the fool with the license to poke fun at anyone.”

In this vein, at the Fremont Solstice parade Brian Kooser, Nick DeMarco, and Josh Okrent of the Monkeywrench Puppet Lab developed the float “Fountain of Youth” featuring giant babies each with their own agenda.

Holly Chernobyl, 26 Mexican baby
I’m gonna get chased by the border patrol babies and I’m probably gonna say a lot of things in Spanish. Viva la revolucion! I’m a little nervous (about being chased by the border patrol) but I think that they’ll be gentle.”

Brian Kooser, 43 rich white baby
We are an organization of puppeteers that try to bring a different vision of puppetry out into the world. Puppetry has a tendency to be something that is left for kids and that’s never been the case in the past. It’s a recent development with television and that sort of thing.

We wanted to make it timely to whatever was going on at the time…So we’ll have our little terrorist baby, and we’ll have the national guard baby, and we’ll touch on a few other touchy subjects and hopefully offend as many people as possible.

I’m the fattest so I’m the rich, white baby. I felt that I’d be the best representative of the American culture so I got the silver spoon and the un-deformed, perfect cherubic face.”

Mathyas Elliott, 17 one of the National Guard babies
I wanted to be with the National Guard because you get to chase the Mexican. I think it will be fun. I have an actual role and that’s the kind of thing that I’m into.”

Nick DeMarco, 19 handy capable baby
He’s got an infected eye and he’s a little handicapped but he’s going to make it. He’s going to do his best… I just wanted to make a gross baby. Its a lot of fun. Its just a bunch of dudes running around in diapers.”

Rachel Sprague, 23 military baby
I’m chasing her, the Mexican. I’m looking forward to getting to use my water pistol and waddling around as fast as I can. This is awesome.”

Diedre Muns, 40 the only female baby
I’ve got a nice little blond tuft on the top. … maybe they’ll pick on me, maybe they’ll take care of me. Who knows. It depends on what kind of older brothers they are. I’m one of the least statement because I’m a little tired of politics and I just wanted to be a baby. I always wanted to go back into the womb, drink some milk, just relax.”

 The Yick Fung Co. / May 24, 2006 / International District

According to author Doug Chin who wrote “Seattle’s International District: the Making of a Pan-Asian American Community” and other books, the Chinese initially settled in Pioneer Square in the 1870’s.  Most were transients from Portland and San Francisco who worked in the lumber, mining, railroads, canneries, and farming industries in Alaska and eastern Washington and who also worked grading roads for the city.

 

Years later, after the Jackson Street regrade was completed in 1910, the Chinese moved up into the King St core. Over the next 25 years, they developed it into Chinatown.

 

Henry Mar Hing was one of these men.  Running an import export store, cab company, baggage handling company, a hotel, and agent for a steamship company, in 1910 he and his seven sons, provided for the needs of the shifting Chinese populations at that time.

 

His son, Jimmy Mar, now 91, still runs the store.  Next year, it will become part of the new Wing Luke Asian Museum which will relocate into the remainder of the building which once housed transient workers and Henry Mar’s Hings many businesses.

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James Mar, 91

My Dad, Henry Mar Hing, started this store in 1910.  We’re the first Chinese store in Chinatown.  The only one left now.  Most of them retired. 

This corporation called the Kong Yick Investment Company (which had) 200 shareholders put in $200 to start the company.

Our primary purpose was to service all the restaurants in the areas and out of the area.  We had about 280 customers all total during those years.  …  We sell bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and all the equipment and stuff they need.  A lot of spices and all that.  Soy sauce. Everything.

In 1945 there was still mostly Chinese here.  Later, it got to be very diversified which was good for the area.  Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, you know whatever,  It made the economy a lot better because everybody would patronize each other.

(We also owned the) Freeman Hotel (above the store).  Three stories.  They were all just transient workers mostly.  They worked in the canneries, railroads, stuff like that.

When we had the Blue Funnel Line we used to have about 90 some odd customers come in here every month to go back to China…. The Blue Funnel is a steamship company…. The whole transportation would be covered.  The whole thing.  Its amazing I can’t believe it. You just have to remember now when you reached 60 in those days they figured that’s the end of the rope.  So they all go back home, visit their families, and they never come back.  They die.

They come here by train.  They all had at least 1 or 2 bags. ….So they pick up all these guys , always on time the trains you know, and we would pick them up, the China Cab Express company, and their baggage, the Nick Fung Express Company, and take then to our store. They gotta eat. We had 30 people living upstairs on cots.  They stayed normally about 2 to 3 days.   Then they had to get transportation to the ship.  Our taxi cab company, our express company.  Dad kept the business all in one unit. 

1928 exclusion act forbid females to come here, to come to the United States.  Even though your married they can’t come.  That’s why we have nothing but males here.  The canneries the farms, they’re all men.  So when they make their money, reach the age of 60, they get on our steamship and go home.

In 1945 when I was discharged I also was the commander for the American Legion., café post 186 – consists of all Chinese veterans at that time. During the time that I was commander of the post they were bringing in Orientals, people that died and no one took care of them.  So that’s how I got into the business as a funeral director.  And I’ve been there ever since. Butterworths Funeral Home.  They’re located on Queen Anne now.

Sara Jacobs, 16, has been on the Rainier District Little League All Star Team since she was ten. She is also the youngest player in the Washington Women’s Baseball League and is a starting pitcher with the Washington Stars which placed fifth in national competition in 2005. In addition she also plays on Garfield softball team and has won the Paul Robeson Scholar-Athlete award seven times.

WOMEN IN BASEBALL
While the Washington Women’s Baseball Association is part of a new grass-roots era of women’s baseball, women have been playing the game for over 125 years…

In 1931, a 17-year-old girl named Jackie Mitchell signed a contract to pitch for the Chattanooga Lookouts and drew a crowd of 4,000 when she pitched in an exhibition game against the New York Yankees. Mitchell entered the game in the first inning and fanned Babe Ruth on four pitches before whiffing Lou Gehrig on just three tosses. If Mitchell’s appearance was merely a publicity stunt, the joke was lost on Ruth, who kicked the dirt, cursed the home plate and heaved his bat before storming back to the Yanks dugout. The crowd loved it, however, and gave Mitchell a standing ovation that lasted several minutes. She was pulled after walking another Hall of Famer, Tony Lazzeri, and never pitched in a pro game again….

While the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was still going in 1952, a shortstop named Eleanor Engle signed a contract with the Harrisburg Senators of Pennsylvania. Minor league president George Trautmann voided the contract two days after Engle signed it, calling the transaction a “travesty.” Later that same year, organized baseball formally banned women, a ban that remains in place over 50 years later.
- Excerpt from “A History of Women’s Baseball” by Bruce Baskin, taken from the website of the Washington Women’s Baseball Association (www.wwbabaseball.com)

Coach Morris Byrd, 47
I remember Sara played on my oldest son’s first baseball team when they were all 4 and 5 year olds, and she’s been a baseball player all her life. She’s always been a die-hard, plays with the boys, gets down and dirty with the boys, cuts, scratches, bruises with the boys and she’s always performed well. She’s a really good kid. She’s a smart kid. She’s about as humble as you can get considering she’s been playing with the guys. I mean the whole guy attitude, the boy’s locker room that kind crap – Sara, she’s fit in.”

Sara Jacobs, 16
After awhile I don’t think about being the only girl or anything, its just sort of playing.

The team is all boys. I’m the only girl on it. Sometimes it’s hard when there are no other girls but I get along well enough with them.

I’m playing (softball) this year at school and I like it because I like the people and I’m like friends with them and everything but I like the game of baseball more so that’s why I’m sticking with it.

I definitely do a lot of girl things. I still spend a lot of time with my friends. During baseball season I don’t spend as much time because I’ve got so much going on. But whenever I have free time, I’m still a female.”

Sara’s advice to young girls who want to play baseball:
Even if it seems hard they should still go for it because it’s definitely worth it. For girls it’s sometimes harder, because especially at this age the guys are starting to get so much bigger and stronger. But as long as you’re consistent then you’ll do fine.”

Hip Hop class / May 3, 2006 / White Center

Hip hop began as an inner-city cultural movement by Latino and African American youth in New York City in the early 1970s. “Yes,Yes Y’All: The Birth of Hip Hop” is currently on exhibit through this summer at the Experience Music Project. According to senior curator Jacob McMurray “People didn’t have a lot of money for instruments but every kid’s Mom and Dad had a record player. They would manipulate the record player to become an instrument.”

 

New Futures, a non-profit organization, works within low-income apartment complexes in South King County.  For more information on New Futures check out www.projectlook.org/

 

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Shundra King, 18

I enjoy dancing.  I’ve been dancing for a long time.  Its more like my culture, just dancing.  So anything that has too do with dancing like hip hop and stomp I’m there. I really enjoy it. 

Its gives me confidence and makes me express myself.  A lot.  Like if I’m down or something, if I just get a good beat, it makes me feel so much better. Or maybe like I had a bad day or something and I just started dancing.  It really brings my spirits high. 

Its more like a dream to be here. I work here.  I was actually involved in a New Futures program when I was younger and I was like really, really bad.  And New Futures really changed my life. 

I’m a (high school) senior….. I think I’m a role model to all of the kids.  I have  (girls) kindergarten through 3^rd grade.

I think I’m teaching them to be confident in themselves because when we first started they were like really, really shy …  they know that they can do it. That’s something that makes me excited.

I’ll be going to Highline Community College to become a paralegal.  I’m going to major in family law, cuz I still want to be involved with kids, families, and stuff like that. 

I like my life. I’m just ready for college and to start working on my career …And I have like maybe 6 more weeks of school left.  I’m ready to graduate.

The kids encourage me too.  Because its just exciting being around all of them.  

May Day / Woodland Park, Seattle / May 1, 2006

Dancing around a May Pole is an ancient Celtic tradition going back thousands of years. Signifying fertility and the beginning of spring, participants dress in white and adorn themselves with fresh flowers. Colorful ribbons attached to its top, representing the female, wind down into hundreds of hands. As they dance, the ribbons become twisted and the circle becomes smaller bringing the community together.  A rising pitched chant emerges as participants touch the pole, in a grande energizing finale. By the Middle Ages all English villages had a Maypole.

Put on by the Fremont Arts Council, this event has been celebrated in Seattle for over 15 years. For more information visit www.fremontartscouncil.org

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Julia Wharton, 41, Seattle (right)

It’s the May Day celebration.  A celebration of love and happiness, springtime and we all get together as a community of Seattle and we weave beautiful ribbons on the May pole. 

People are lying down, like it was a psychedelic experience. (laugh)  Its just fun to see all the ribbons around you.  We’re just resting from our labors.  We’re being silly elves.

It’s a very beautiful thing to celebrate the season changing.

The green man, Josh Rosenstein, 30, (back, center) lives in his truck. (“I sold my house on Friday”).  

The sweetest moment of the ritual was when we stopped participating in the dance around the May pole weaving together the colorful ribbons of this phallic object and instead sprawled on our backs right underneath the growing canopy of multi-hued ribbons with sun filtering down through it.  And she lay on my arms.  She was indeed a sweet, sweet maiden.  Very adorable and young.  She lay against my arm with her hair soft on my shoulder and we watched the Maypole weave in front of our eyes. And other people came and lay with us.  Then the ritual concluded.

I work with ritual both in my personal life and somewhat…  That’s the direction I’m heading in next to learn more about religion ….. It’s a lovely launching ceremony on the eve of my freedom from responsibilities of property ownership to I have 3 more weeks before I’m done with my job as a journalist.

I’m kind of setting off into the yonder to live kind of a less mainstream, urban, office-oriented existence and so this May Day ritual coming on the dawn of that transition is yet another beautiful transitioning ritual that adds meaning to this point in my life.