Eidectic Fugue - Part six

This chapter/part/section was going to be on the infamous snow day of 1967 when a large contingent of Salem's youth took over the Fugue but instead I choose to focus on meeting Karen, my wife.

Had I not been part of opening the shop and had i not setup a section of a display case for local artists, who knows what would have happened. Things happen in life, pivotal things, and sometimes you don't even know they happened, much less planned for them, until years later. Things like meeting your spouse for the first time.

The week the shop opened was big. The biggest week of my life. I so remember it, perhaps not accurately, but still the memory is strong. You know how you remember things the way you want and then someone else who was there says it happened this other way? That is what it was like. I remember clearly what Karen wore that first time - cowboy boots, jeans, Peacoat, long braids, aviator glasses and how she so patiently asked if she could sell her items in my shop. She had some rocks she had gathered from a nearby creek, dried and polished them and painted peace symbols on the. They were beautiful and unique - just what we wanted in the display case. I (in a fit of rushed conversation) asked if she had made them or acquired them from somewhere (like peace symbols painted on rocks were available) and she said it was her work. In the display case they went, along with a few other items that had appeared. A piece of paper was placed by the rocks, marking the price and if they sold, the shop got 10% of the sale price(usually). And an entry was made in a notebook tablet about what sold for whom for how much, if and when they sold. I still have one of those rocks in a drawer near my bed - it is still beautiful and full of wonder.

So it began. She came back to the store many times and often took care of the store when I drove ten miles to my parent's house for dinner. Eventually she came to dinner too and we had dates and everything. It was love. Yup!


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Eidectic Fugue - Part five

Yes there are four previous parts to this story of the 60’s in a small store in Salem Oregon. You can read them on a blog, along with this one and the coming array of parts. These stories focus on a store called the Eidectic Fugue which existed for about a year and filled a vast gap in a cultural wasteland. Although it is 2016 as I write this, the story began long ago.


I left off telling this story (six years ago) just as we were ‘discovered’ by the local newspaper. The Salem area had two newspapers in the 1960’s - a morning paper call the Oregon Statesman and an afternoon/evening paper called ‘The Capitol Journal’. The Journal was a little more left leaning of the two, but they merged into one daily in 1973, called ‘The Statesman-Journal’. The person who interviewed me appeared on the Tuesday morning following Thanksgiving wearing a sports jacket and a tie. I don't think he was thrilled with the assignment. It was hard to get the story his editor wanted about how this younger generation was different and worthy of you buying the paper to find out more. The article made the front page the following day with a picture of Bill’s door with the “Psychedelics come to Salem” banner. My memories of the interview and the article are fuzzy but I clearly remember remarking on his tie (I wasn't wearing one, as opposed to every other business owner in town) being a symbol of one of our differences. In those times, a tie was a strong symbol of the established masculine culture. The article brought a lot of attention to the store, both good and bad. Mainly good.


I'd really like to read that article again and probably could find it at the Statesman’s archives. I can't find it online now and in fact very few references appear online about the Eidectic Fugue. It really happened though and regardless of its existence in hyperspace, it was a strong reality for many people. There became more and more places to gather as a young person in Salem and the store was not made as a social center, although it became one sometimes. More on those occasions in another part of this story. Little did we know that our next public appearance would be on local TV and I would meet the most special person in my life and a no school snow day would happen AND so much more.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Salem, oregon

Reaching out to the Senator

Below is a  note I sent to Senator Ron Wyden after attending the Polk County Town Hall meeting held in January of 2013.  Should I get a reply from Senator Wyden, I will try to post that also.

"Recently my wife and I attended the Polk County town hall and appreciated greatly you continuing to take the time to reach out to each county in the state on an annual basis.  That is wonderful and we hope you continue this process.

Apparently I was one of the "shy" ones in the audience in that my ticket was called and I had no prepared talking points.  This is my opportunity and below is my question.

My question is about climate change.

How do you think the Senate will be most effective in the coming years in addressing the outcomes of climate change?  

I do not expect the legislative bodies in this country (fed,state, county, local) to solve the climate change problem, nor do I have any expectations that climate change will not continue at least at its current rate.  I believe that the federal bodies will continue to respond to emergencies around the country on a more recurring frequency and that more "Sandy" type bills will be passed through congress in the near future.  Personally I expect the weather to be completely different that it was 60 years ago when I was a child in Polk County and find the weather wisdom passed down from the 5 generations of Farmers that have lived on our farm to be less relevant that it was a decade ago.  Weather is going to be much more extreme and we feel so fortunate that we live in the parts of Polk County that will not be devastated by the rising sea waters or even river waters.  

Our lives are good and we love the people in our community and seek to improve their lives are we improve our own.  I'm active in Polk County related groups and feel a part of my community like never before.  

Please continue to seek out others whose views differ from yours,  offer the hand of friendship and compromise and give this congress a reason to be proud of the 2nd decade of the 21st century."

Why not ask about food allergies?

After many decades of eating in restaurants, cafes, bars, and bistros, I am still waiting for a food server to approach our table with a question like this: "Does anyone at this table have any food allergies?".  This may have happened to you and hopefully so.  If it has ever happened to me or a member of my family, I sure can't remember it.  In fact, the strongest memories I have regarding restaurant servers and food allergies goes to the other extreme.  Instead of being proactive and asking prior to taking the order, several servers have either not understood "I am allergic to nuts" or not heard us when we mentioned it during the order taking.  This has resulted in food sent back, food not eaten and never returning to certain restaurants.  Perhaps the worst case was the server that brought the dish soaked in peanut oil and when reminded that someone had a strong allergic reaction to nuts, said "So?"

I think I need to follow the example of a pre-teen girl I observed (and later spoke to) at Denny's one morning.  When the waitress arrived at her table (she was seated with four constantly talking companions), she engaged the waitress privately with a clearly printed laminated card that stated two things:
  1. she had strong food allergies
  2. the three food items that caused her to react.
Nothing about what the reaction was, how strong the reaction could be, what might happen if the restaurant failed to heed her warning - just a simple message.
She said it worked almost all the time and that she had found examples of such cards online.  Of course I immediately forgot the name of the website just after I spoke with her.  It might have been foodallergy.org which seems to have some card templates although they seem more verbose than her card.

Socialization across species? A brief encounter

The bee flew past my head. I heard it go by, recognized the honey bee sound and for a brief part of a second, thought that I saw it in the air flying. It was definitely heading north, up the hill and away from me and our farm. it was May, 2011 and the day was warming up. I so wanted to fly with that bee right then and even briefly thought about flapping my arms, just in case the outcome was different now that I was in my 60's. It had been a while since I had tried flying by flapping my arms and you never really know what is going to change next.
As you probably guessed, I did not fly. In fact, I totally lost track of the bee except within my mind. I stood and felt frustrated. It was so hard to understand why I couldn't cross the border between my species and the bees. I wanted to, I had a reason, there was time; surely this problem was not so hard. I actually wanted to be the bee's friend and enjoy their enjoyments, anguish with them in their frustrations and marvel at their abilities, loves and beauty. I wanted a bee friend and I wanted to be a friend to that bee. If you see a lonely bee and they appear to welcome human companions, send him our way please.
It was not hard to imagine the flight the bee was on. They must have passed right through the hazelnut orchard to the north of us, without even pausing. This orchard is barren of flowers, food, nectar, pollens and other bees enticements in May. The ground had been mowed clear of all life, the hazelnut blooms had dried up in March and the hazelnut fruit was just beginning to wake up and form into a seed. There was nothing here for a bee that I could think of, except maybe some place to land and take a break. Bees take breaks, right?
Perhaps the bee paused among the Dome's 200 year old Oregon white oaks, just a little north of the orchard. There were plenty of flowers that would welcome a bee under these giants. The blackberries were not blooming yet but there were usually some wild flowers there in the spring. Yea, I could see my bee buddy stopping in there to see what was happening.
Or perhaps the bee was on a long distance run to the Bonnet's blueberry patches. There were many acres of blueberries packed together and they were in full bloom. There was always room for another bee. Yes, I bet that was where my new bee buddy and pal was going. He was flying pretty darn fast for going a short distance. I wonder how long before the bee returns to his friends.
Oh, there goes another one.

Phone lost, damn it; wait, we have "find my iphone". Phone found

Recently I was in a very uncomfortable situation.  You can skip down a few paragraphs to read about how the phone was found or read on for a short story on hole digging and how it related to phone finding.

I left the house around 8am on a February, 2011 morning in the pouring rain and snow mix, temperature about 33 degrees, wind blowing, miserable, etc.  It appeared I had every piece of rain and cold weather gear I owned in my pickup, based on the pile of clothes, boots, coats and gloves taking up the double cab pickup.  My job was to either run a backhoe, or help the backhoe operator, and dig 25 holes at the Polk County Fairgrounds for some donated large trees.  The backhoe was being provided at no cost by Rickreall Farm Supply.  Thank you, Farm Supply people!

Once we found the tractor and learned how to operate it, Joe Bourson arrived and volunteered to drive the 1/4 mile to the fairgrounds and dig the first hole.  He had owned a backhoe and was my volunteer expert.  Once we got to the fairgrounds, I added a layer of clothes and boots and gloves and proceded to point and get wet.  Joe's first hole was awesome, my first hole was a catastrophe and took forever and we almost lost Joe due to my widely swinging boom.  He decided the quickest way to get this job done was for him to dig the holes and me to do anything else that needed doing.

Away we went, like a herd of turtles. Turns out this type of tractor was not designed for digging, moving and digging more.  Each time we finished a hole, Joe had to get out of the seat, lift it up, spin it around and then sit back down, drive forward, get off, lift up the seat, spin it around, climb back up and start digging again.  Sigh.  My insulated coveralls, two pairs of gloves, jeans, undershirt, flannel shirt, hooded sweat shirt, rain hat and rain jacket kept me tolerable but I just got wetter as the morning rolled on.  Somewhere around 10am, Joe had to change jackets (he was mainly under a canopy of sorts) and I dug another hole.  Since I had been watching his every move, I didn't do so bad this time but nowhere near as good as Joe.  Perhaps I could be a backhoe operator when I grow up?  Joe got back in the seat and began to dig another hole.  We 'sped' through the remaining holes and then returned to our pickups.

It was 11am when we ran out of holes to dig and we agreed I would drive the backhoe tractor back to the dealer.  Joe ferried me to leave my pickup at the dealers and we said goodbye as he dropped me by the tractor, back at the fairgrounds.  Thanks Joe, for all the volunteer help!

It was on the trip back to the fairgrounds that I reached for my phone to tell Karen we were done.  Ooops, no phone.  Joe called my number from his phone, thinking it could well be stuck between the many layers of clothing I was wearing.  It could be in one of my boots and I might not have sensed it, due to the numbness of my body.  No sounds came.  I then called Karen on Joe's phone to tell her my phone was lost, but no answer.  Shoot!  I got on the tractor and drove it back to the dealer, fretting about my lost iphone and how this was not a good time to loose it (is it ever?) and how was I ever going to find it amongst the holes, piles of dirt, snow, deep puddles and mud.   The 25 holes were 23 feet apart and spanned the length of the fairgrounds.  A lot of space to cover looking for a 2x4" black thing.  I was so upset by the lost phone, I failed to ask about washing the backhoe and the dealer was kind enough not to mention it.  Sorry Rickreall Farm Supply!  And yes, the weather had not stopped raining or snowing since before 8am.

Returning home, I remembered we had registered this phone with Apple's MobileMe services and I could use Karen's phone to locate it through the GPS signal.  Yea, perhaps a solution was at hand!  Now to wait for Karen, change my clothes and hope for feeling to return to my outer limbs.  Karen returned home before noon and we turned on the 'find my iphone' service and in a few minutes, there my phone was, beaconing from the fairgrounds.  It looked to be about 30 feet from where I had parked the pickup and possibly could be visible from the surface, based on where it appeared to be.  Once again, Yea!

We headed back the five miles to the fairgrounds with her phone still getting the signal.  We parked a little ways from where the signal was emanating, not wanting to run over the poor thing.   The rain had stopped and the sun was peaking through the flying clouds.   We walked towards where the signal was coming from and Karen reached down and picked up my phone.  I must have walked by it a dozen times.  It was not dry by any means (nothing was that day) but it was still working and still in its case and I still had my $200.00 in my pocket that would have been used to buy the replacement phone.  The wonderful 'find my iphone' service is free now.  Life was great again and as we drove home through the sunshine and the melting snow and the ditches running full of runoff, we felt strongly that something had just happened that did not seem even possible.

So next time you find yourself at the fairgrounds in Polk County Oregon, wander over to the south boundary where the tractor pulls and lawn tractor races are held. Gaze upon the 25 Scanlon Maples lining the south boundary and know that these were donated trees, all labor was volunteer to get them in the ground and there might have been an iphone buried amongst them.

Putting aside Food in 2010 (pt 1 of 2)

It has been a few years since we started, oh say maybe 35,  but sometimes it feels like we are still beginning to understand how to put food by and how to have enough fresh food for year around meals from the garden.  So this post is to remind us what we did in 2010.

[Note: if you are viewing this on Facebook, please consider scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking "View Original Post" - it looks better]

We have a freezer, a canning pot, a pressure canner, canning tools, an apple peeler/corer/slicer, knives, chopping blocks, a mandolin slicer, a pressure cooker, jars of various sizes including wide-mouth quart jars and sealing lids, a kitchen stove, a barbecue, a dehydrator, a pantry, dry, dark, cool drawers, a compost pile, sealable plastic sacks and a vacuum packaging device.  All of these things have been used this summer to put food away.  The mention of the barbecue reminds me of the amusing sign we found in a Gold Beach motel patio.

We don't have an outdoor kitchen (yet), we still need more understanding about pressure canners and one day we will have a root cellar.   We do have lots of food growing around us and find it has become a daily opportunity to either plant, tend, harvest or put food by.  So what foods have been put away this summer and in what form?  Time to make a list, perhaps in no particular order but organized by food family.

•    Fruit and Berries:

1. Strawberries were made into jam that we had leftover from last year in the freezer.  They were ready for the last steps in the jam making process.  The sack of frozen strawberries, already partially processed, were like found gold, they were so valuable.
2. Raspberries were made into jam from the bushes out back.  We ate most of the berries fresh or in our summer breakfasts, so only a tiny amount got into jam this year.
3. Blueberries were found in the neighborhood, picked, washed, sorted and frozen on trays and then placed in quart bags in the freezer.  They are so good for breakfast and snacks and we put up 40# but I don't know if they will last!  Blueberries were also dried in the food dehydrator and seemed to have lost their flavor.  Freezing is better for us this year.
4. Peaches were purchased from a neighbor and once fully ripened, pits came out, skins off and cut into quarters to be canned in the pressure canner without the pressure gauge.  These 21 quarts will be appreciated over the next 11 months.
5. Pears were picked from our tree and individually wrapped in paper and stored in a dry, dark box in the pantry.
6. Apples were harvested from our trees, peeled, cored and sliced and cooked down into applesauce and frozen in jars.  We still need more apples and perhaps some apple butter.  We still have some jars of dried apples from last year in the cupboard.
7. Our Asian pears are still not quite ripe and we still wonder what is the best thing to do with them.  Last year we gave them all away but recently we learned that they can make a good sauce.  Hmmm.
8. Our table grapes are ripening fast and last year we froze some and they are enjoyable over the winter.  More will be washed, frozen on trays and then placed in quart bags next month, once they get their sugars up.

• Vegetables

1. Zucchini seemed to never end this summer and it started early.  Almost every day we picked zucchini and once we had enough for processing, we began.  Sometimes we sliced them the long way, oiled and salted them, put on barbecue for 10 minutes, placed them individually on trays in the freezer and then in quart bags in the freezer once frozen.  Other times we filled the dehydrator and ran it for hours in the sun and then put the almost paper dry chips into jars.  We usually choose to suck the air out of the jars after putting the dried zucchini inside.  Sometimes we put them in plastic sacks and vacuumed the air out.  Sometimes we just eat them... heheheh.
2. Eggplants came this year with a vengeance.  Thanks to our new ColdFrame (which is more of a hotframe in the summer) we got Asian Eggplant to set fruit in early September.  We treated it just like the zucchini.
3. Tomatoes are going mainly for sauces this year and how the sauces are made depends on the variety of tomato and how we want to work in the kitchen.  To me, the tomatoes take a lot of work and they, as with most of this work, have been Karen's speciality.
4. Peppers are still ripening and I expect we will harvest them, cut out the centers, cut into strips, dip in olive oil and barbecue them before freezing.  This worked great last year.
5. Squashes are still ripening but we have a dry, dark drawer (or two) waiting for their harvest in October.  We have butternut, acorn and delicato for sure (maybe others?)
6. Cauliflower was harvested, washed, cut up and dried in the dehydrator and also it was blanched, placed on trays in the freezer to freeze separately and then put into quart bags in the freezer.
7. Broccoli was harvested, cut up and blanched, frozen on trays and put into quart bags in freezer.

• Root Crops

1. Onions are drying in the shed and some are still in the ground.  I am not sure how we are going to process them - perhaps dry them separately, and then store in porous sacks somewhere dry, away from mice.
2. Shallots are still in the ground and probably will go into dry storage after we dry them and wipe off the dirt.
3. Leeks are still in the ground and will go the route of shallots and onions I believe.
4. Potatoes have been dug and eaten all summer.  New, fresh, baby potatoes are so awesome with the translucent skins and creamy taste.  Butter just confuses the lushness of these powerhouses.  The rest of the crop will be dug in October and put into dry storage.  We had trouble last year keeping them from sprouting and gave away a fair amount of our harvest.  We need to start digging on the root celler any day now!  Oh yes, we also sliced potatoes with the mandolin, placed on cookie sheets to freeze and then bagged them last year, no cooking.  These slices made great potato dishes with lots of fresh flavor and I bet we do something that again in mid-winter as they start to sprout again.. sigh.

Next post will cover leafy greens, herbs, nuts, meats and other things left out above.  This posting may be edited because I need Karen to check it to see if it is accurate.  Now that the list is on the screen, it is easy to see why we are so busy putting aside food in 2010.

The passing of a very old friend

He was just a foam dinosaur really.

The orange/red dinosaur clock that came into our kitchen, back when Emily was very young, died last week and I miss it.  It really never had a name.  It sat smiling like an apostle above the north facing windows in our kitchen for so long, and even though every appliance seems to have a clock in it, and so do the computers, the cameras and the phones, the Dinosaur set the time in my life.  It ran on a standard AA battery and was immune to our occasional rural interruption in electricity.  The hands and face were big enough to be read from anywhere in the room, once you got used to it.  This thing worked; it kept great time and I wanted it to live at least as long as I did.

Amazingly, it was in horrible shape. Look at it, the bottom is all scruffed up, the foam is falling apart.  This is more than strange, considering it only came down from the hanger twice a year to be moved forward or backward an hour and get it's battery renewed.  The face of the clock was dirty and fly specked.  The hands were slightly bent and the whole thing was ready to fall apart.  Occasionally the battery came undone.  Gravity?  Moisture? Earthquakes?  Who knows.  The foam is pitted and falling out in tiny pieces, such tiny pieces we didn't notice it.  Now that it sits on the counter with pennies over its eyes, all the hands pointed at 12, we see it has gone over the hill.  About 12 inches from tail to snout, the creature just fit into our decor.  Nothing like a wild colored children's toy, soft, foam, cutout dinosaur shaped clock for that modern (or classical!) interior design statement!  I suppose if we bury this clock (being a dinosaur and all) and wait a few millennia, it will turn into some kind of sludge that we can use for energy.    

It will be years before I stop looking up there for the clock.  Maybe someone has a replacement to suggest, something that brings the same ambiance to the country kitchen we spend so much time in.  Something that keeps good time and won't give up after just 30 years.

Christmas is only 6 months away!

Building our cold Frame - spring 2010

Even before we started the project, we decided to capture the major parts in photos and on film.  There was a lot about our cold frame construction and design that did not make it into my video.
However, to get an idea of what it looks like, try this link uTube Video - 5 minutes of cold frame info.  This brief write-up should help fill in any gaps.

We started raised bed gardening years ago after turning the soil each spring and battling the same weeds all summer and fall.  In fact, things are so prolific here in the Willamette valley of Oregon that we found weeds quite difficult to control.  Combine this with Karen's desire not to work in a bent over position, we built some nice and tall raised beds in about 2000.  These beds are about 22" tall and have done well for ten years.  We turn the soil annually with a spading fork and have very few weeds.  We covered the bottom with landscape cloth and hardware cloth to keep the thistles and gophers out of the beds.  We filled the beds with compost provided by a local recycler and found we need to add more each year due to settling and some soil leaving with the plants.

All was well until this winter when we visited our neighbors and found them eating fresh lettuce from their greenhouse.  Damn, that looked good in January and February!  After pricing a new or even used green house and thinking we wanted to build it ourselves, we settled on a constructing a large cold frame instead. When you think about it, they are a much more efficient use of materials as you have no human space to maintain - just plant space.  We researched the cold frame market and watched tons of videos on the web from other souls like us and determined, as is often the case, that the things we need are close at hand.  This video from a couple of growers in Washington   pretty much tipped it for us - we needed to use Solexx.  It seemed like a good product and we will know a heck of a lot more about it over the next few years.

In Brooks, next to I-5, a small company has a display of a variety of greenhouses and cold frames and they sell kits as well as manufacture a greenhouse covering called Solexx.   None of their kits fit our existing raised beds, so we visited them in March of 2010.  They were quite friendly and both of the owners sat down with us to discuss our problems and brainstorm solutions based on their experience, our needs and our budget.  They kindly sold us metal fittings to make a complete structure.  They said this was not usual.  They usually sell kits and rolls of Solexx to cover the structure.  We bought the parts and 22' of Solexx.  It all came to around 280$, kind of spendy for our budget but awesome for rigidity, length of life, ease of construction and quality of light for plants.
I had some 3/4" PVC schedule 40 pipe on hand already from installing our farm's plumbing system and used this for framing.  I also got special screws and a tube of GE Silicon to complete the materials list.

The video shows the construction and it was not too difficult.  Measure well and be sure to cut long to start.  The fittings are not all equal (some allow the pipe to go further into the fitting that others) and trial and error helped.  Once the frame was built and covered and the ends were sealed with silicone, we put it on the raised bed.  There it was easy to add the hinges, the small chains to keep it from tipping too far and, best of all, the automatic opener.  These auto-opener devices are magical.  I am still not sure how such a small cylinder can lift the 25# cold frame at such a precise temperature.  Since we setup the auto-opener, the inside the cold frame has never got above 80 degrees.  Some mornings it reaches 80 when it is still in the 50's outside.  As the video shows, we have a remote thermometer inside the cold frame.  

The vegies are loving it so much.  We think we will have the best peppers and eggplant ever this year and look forward to growing our own food all year long.  Almost every inch of the 32 sq foot bed can be used for growing plants up to 3' tall.  Now it's up to us, not the weather, to get good food onto the table for ourselves, our family and our friends.  And we still are growing a summer garden in other raised beds, including one 8'x18' dedicated to just squash varieties this year.

Feel free to leave a message on Utube about the video, the garden or something else that you are working on and we will do what we can to help.

Eidetic Fugue - Part four

When we returned from San Francisco, it was almost Thanksgiving. We decided we would open the shop on Monday, after the Thanksgiving weekend. We had no clue that the day after Thanksgiving was a big shopping day; well, it really wasn't quite as huge back in 1966. I'm sure stores were busy but it wasn't the monster thing with weird opening hours and people having breakfast shopping parties like in 2009.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, we put the final touches on the shop. We put up a sample of each poster, including a few in the back room with a black light. In the windows were the fine albums we had purchased in the city - no one else in town had them but some knew of their existence. We brought back the first edition of a large alternative newspaper called Rolling Stone and it was full of news of the musicians we admired and listened to each day. We got the money box ready and got change from the bank on Friday. The stereo was all set up, the headphones were sitting in the rocking chair by the counter and we were ready for people. We even had a mostly empty display case, waiting for Salem people to bring in their home-made treasures to sell

Monday was exciting - at least for me. My parents were suffering through this part of my life but continued to support me in any way they could. I don't think they really knew what we were doing in the shop besides "opening a store" but I'm sure they had doubts about our success. Events in the coming weeks might allay some of the fear of our financial ruin and probably bring other new fears to light, like the legality of our merchandise. Mom stepped forward to help me with my clothing choices that first day and suggested that I wear a sports jacket on my first day as a businessman. It was a Harris Tweed that had been made to order in London for a ridiculously low price. I still have the one that was made for father and wear it when I want to keep warm, no matter what. I looked kind of sharp I guess, probably much squarer than I wanted. My hair was not long but I had some fuzzy muttonchops that were my claim to the new age.

We opened the door at noon, as per the posted hours on the door and our business cards. A few times as we were preparing the shop, some shy teenagers lurked around and eyeballed us, but no one stopped to talk until we opened. I guess we were pretty different than any other store in town.

There I was, a man with a store, sitting on a high wooden stool above the desk, eyeing the jail across the street and watching the people walk by. We were OPEN.

One of the first customers was a parent; someone with a teenager who had mentioned the shop. She looked around very uncomfortably and asked which poster was popular. Heck, I didn't know, I hadn't sold any yet, but I recommended the Janis Joplin one. It was a very cool poster to a 19 year old male. Janis was photographed in black and white, standing, smiling, covered with beads, black clothes, hair down to there and if you looked real close, you could see one of her nipples exposed. My first customer passed that poster by for a Greatful Dead concert poster, also very cool but without any exposed nipples. I got a copy of that poster out of the black light/storage room and carefully pulled out just enough plain brown wrapping paper out of slot in the desk, cut it, rolled the poster up in it, put two pieces of scotch tape on the ends and handed it to her. She paid with cash and that first dollar bill went on the wall behind me. We were in business.

Somewhere around 3 or 4, Mike and Bill came in and it was with great pride I pointed to our first dollar. This called for Pepsi's for everyone (free of course!) and the day began. It was that week that the local newspaper discovered us.

What Apple's next device could be like

Hi all -

I'm sure we are not alone in this vision but I think a lot of these devices (tablets) would sell in 2010.

• Basically just make the iphone but bigger
  
• Remove the dialer but keep the wireless
• Support syncing, like iphone if wanted
  
• Make it notepad size, 8 x 11.5 with a iphone-like multi-touch screen
• Portion (or all) of the screen is see-through capable for scanning, camera, identifying things in the environment, etc
  
• No hard keyboard only soft; all screen except simple buttons
  
• Make it a windowed and allow multiple apps to run at once
• Have ALL iphone apps be usable - presto 100,000+ apps
  
• Increase processor speed and RAM capacity accordingly
• Hit the $1000 price ceiling and drop to $800 in 12 months
• Include character recognition so you can write on it
• Bluetooth with the iphone to provide co-joined devices - one device could leverage the other in functionality including phone, processor, RAM and display. Make the two devices extend each other. Build from iphone, not from Mac.
  
• Include following ports: Ethernet, two USB 3.0, cinema display, headphone
• Include camera with two lenses - one front, one back
• Include microphone and speakers
  
• Not a PC, not a Mac, not an iphone, not a cheap notebook -> convergence

Just an idea.

And others have also had this idea.

Good quotes on leadership

"It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it… anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."  (Douglas Adams)

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."  (John Quincy Adams)

"No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it."  (Andrew Carnegie)

"Management works in the system. Leadership works on the system."  (Stephen R. Covey)

"A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worse when they despise him….But of a good leader who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, "We did it ourselves."  (Lao Tzu)

"I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep."  (Talleyrand)

"A boss creates fear, a leader confidence. A boss fixes blame, a leader corrects mistakes. A boss knows all, a leader asks questions. A boss makes work drudgery, a leader makes it interesting. A boss is interested in himself or herself, a leader is interested in the group."  (Russell H. Ewing)

"Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult."  (Warren Bennis)

"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."  (John Fitzgerald Kennedy)

'The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it."  (Theodore Roosevelt)

"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things."  (Peter F. Drucker)

"Nothing so conclusively proves a man's ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself."  (Thomas Watson)

'Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men — the other 999 follow women."  (Groucho Marx)

"You do not lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership."  (Dwight D. Eisenhower)   

The Eidetic Fugue, part three.

We stopped twice between Salem and San Francisco. The spirit of young businessmen cloaked beneath our layers of cultural tokens and attitude. We were on a run.
It wasn't like we were running a business yet as the doors to the shop hadn't even opened yet. Since we were building a store, we just knew we needed something to sell if we were going to attract anyone. We kind of knew where we were going in the Bay area, we had some addresses and some company names. We had maps and some place to stay - actually I can't remember who we stayed with that fateful trip - I'm sure it did not involve any payment.

What has puzzled me, and perhaps others, in the 40+ years since the Eidetic Fugue came into existence, are our assumptions about how you stock a store. Family ethics taught me that you didn't buy anything if you didn't have the money, so nothing was bought on credit. This is very weird for a retail store. We also felt we needed a personal relationship with as many sellers as possible, so we visited as many suppliers as we could, to be sure we could work together. And we paid cash and never had a bank account. This was not a common business model, I'm guessing this style of business management is probably even less common now.

We went to some of the largest poster makers in the bay area and purchased band posters, art posters and anything that Bill, Mike and I thought was cool. I wish we had struck up friendships or at least stayed in contact with some of these interesting people. It apparently never crossed my mind - don't know about Mike and Bill. We found a record dealer that would give us 10% discount for volume (like over 20 records! wow!) and we bought several copies of the albums we all wanted and figured would sell. Before we knew it, we had spent most of our funds and were ready to return to Salem. We also must have gone to a concert, played in Golden Gate part, walked the streets of Haight Ashbury and done some other stuff but I can't really recall the details. Funny how that happens sometimes.

Oh yes, we also bought newspapers. "Underground" newspapers, like the Rolling Stone, the Avatar from Boston and several papers from the Bay area. These held the latest news for us about what was going on. These papers did get old quickly, but not for several weeks. The news cycle was a little different then. Aside from word of mouth and rumors, there was no other way of keeping track of events and celebrations. The papers were so young, both in spirit and quality. The newspaper format can be so rich and informing. I'd still rather pick up the printed copy of Salem Monthly and read it than visit the website. There are still a few newspapers in our attic from this trip, getting more faded over time. Maybe alternative newspapers will become a lost tradition, maybe not. I hope not.

And we bought buttons. Buttons were much more popular than any other way of personally stating your point of view. Tattoos were not popular, bumper stickers were stuck in mainline politics and nothing else had the same personal style as a button. A lot of the buttons were about peace, the war, drugs and being different. I suppose we bought a hundred, maybe less. We didn't wear buttons at the time so, using our personal perspective again, we didn't go too deep into buttons.

Back in Salem, we began putting out our newly bought treasures. The records went into a few cardboard boxes and sat on a small table I brought from home. Silly us, we priced them below the local store prices, even thought you couldn't buy the same albums within 50 miles. We put the 'coolest' records on the left side podium by the door to balance out the weird device sitting on the other side. The posters went up on the 30' long, 9' high, south wall and the remaining flat poster stock went into the back room. Some of the posters we had bought were 'black light' posters, so we acquired a cheap light fixture and had it available for viewing the black light posters in the dark back room. The buttons went into the display case. This left the 6'x2' glass and wood display case mostly empty, We decided to open it up to local artists. It seemed fair to give anyone a place to sell their stuff. The store would ask for 10% of the artist's sale price or we would negotiate.

We brought in my Sony reel-to-reel tape deck and put it on the 2nd shelf of the desk. We hooked up a record player and some good sized speakers. Mike opened one of the newly purchased albums, we turned up the volume and all had Pepsi to celebrate. Since there was only one chair, we all sat on the floor and it was good. Surrounding us were posters of places, people and events in a style created by our peers. We had music from our times blasting the walls of this long and narrow downtown business. We were starting a new beginning and lots of things were changing. We were on the cusp of our third decade in life and nothing appeared too hard. We were enveloped by the culture of our emerging generation. We were ready for customers and it was the beginning of Thanksgiving week. Things were about to get busy.

The Eidetic Fugue (pt 2 of ??)

Note: If you are reading this in Facebook, please go to the bottom and click the "View Original Post" - Facebook just has the words, the blog has pictures and a little pizazz.

Before we went to the Bay area to buy provisions for the shop, we did some local provisioning. Bill M. knew of a device at the local used furniture store that would be great in the window. After he described it, we all had to go see it one sunny afternoon in later October. It was located on Silverton road, somewhere near where Lancaster is today. We entered the establishment. Bill obviously had been here before and led us through a series of rooms to a dark and dingy back corner. Tucked in amongst the lamps, couches and worn out end tables was a 4' tall box on a 3 legged steel stand with lots of fancy writing on it and a power cord coming out the bottom. It was made out of dark metal and pretty heavy. It had pictures of far away places on the sides and had lots of fancy script indicating it had the power to heal. We think it was probably used by traveling eye doctors in some different time and place. When you opened the top of the box (about 2'x2'), you could see a series of colored lens, mounted on a drive and a odd looking light bulb. The funny sized light bulb shined through the lenses as they rotated and the colored light was projected through mirrors and lenses onto the wall. I wish I had a picture of it or at least remembered what it was called. It was way cool though, believe me.

We had to have it.

So we offered half of the marked price, after plugging it in and testing it, carried it out to Mike's VW squareback and hauled it back to the shop. We knew where to put it. On both sides of the shop's front door were raised platforms. The shop opening was in a V shape with glass on all sides. We now had something for the podium on the right side.

We also found a long counter with a small 12"x2" slot in the middle and a wooden front. The back was open and had shelves and a good finish on the top. This ended up being the main desk that held the money, supplies, the stereo and general whatnot. Whoever felt like running the shop would sit behind this counter. In the same used furniture store was a large glass display case. Both pieces were really inexpensive and we bought them. Somehow we got these two pieces back to the shop. We measured the slot and ordered several rolls of paper from a local industrial supply outfit that just fit through the slot. We figured this plain brown paper would be the packaging for any posters, records, buttons, etc that we would eventually get in stock and sell.

We had nothing to sell yet, of course.

Before we opened the store, we needed to advertise. We thought of many ideas - we had lots of thinking capacity - and ended up deciding on a billboard in the freeway. One place for lots of customers. How else to get people to stop in Salem? Bill began drawing designs and was greatly challenged by the scale. How many artists get to put up billboards? We thought it was a gareat idea, but the price was too high for our budget. Maybe TV? No, too high also. How about radio? Sure enough, a repeating 30 second spot could be bought for pretty cheap back then on KBZY. We thought all the kids, especially the girls, listened to KBZY. Bill and Mike went to the studio with some good records and did a great job of recording an ad to introduce the shop. We set the date for the ads to run in late November.

But that was not enough. We needed posters and worked with Panther Press in Salem to print 50 black and white 12x16 posters. They were awesome - I put in image in the previous blog post (pt 1). The only words on the poster were the name of the store and the address - no products, no corporation logo; just the pretty lady, store name and the address. We decided we would put them up at Bob's, in a few downtown windows when the store opened. I remember running around in late November asking confused managers of local drive-ins if we could put this funny looking poster in their window. The ones we asked said "Sure". We ended up giving the rest away, I think. The only remaining Eidetic Fugue poster I know about is in my attic and the words have been cut off. Anyone have one?

And we decided we needed business cards. We had a hundred color ones made and, like the poster, I only know of one copy left. It is a little ragged around the corners. Bill M did the hand lettering and designed it. Notice the hours - noon to 10. This was genius. None of us wanted to get up early and neither did our customers. As we will find out in a later chapter, closing at 10 was not always easy. I had forgotten that we had a payphone installed also, which we used as the official store phone number. Turns out it was free too!

An old cigar box of my grandfathers was chosen to be the cash register and one of us built wooden dividers to separate the bills from the coins. A leather rocking chair was situated next to the stereo, inside the desk and, once we got records in stock, we figured customers would want to sit and listen for a while before buying. We knew we liked listening in the private booths at Meier and Franks to the crappy beach boy and pop music.

We struck a deal with the local beverage company and got them to install a Pepsi machine. We were pretty much hooked on Pepsi and thought it was a coup to have our own machine. And then they gave us the KEY! Can you believe it? I can still feel the excitement in the room when the installation guys laid the keys on the desk and walked out. Even before we opened, people put money in, took out a pepsi. We just opened it and got a cold can. And we got their money too! No one else seemed to understand how incredibly cool this was (especially since everyone seemed to know Pepsi would put a machine anywhere they could sell product).


And we still had nothing to sell, but we had a plan.


Next chapter we hit the road to the bay area in Mike's customized VW squareback to get stock. We knew Mike had connections and we still had some dollars to buy stuff to sell in the store. Besides in early November of 1967, lots was going on in San Fransisco and the rains were starting in Oregon. We needed to get out of town. There weren't any girls hanging around yet but we figured that would all change when the store really opened. We had started with 550$ and even after all of our purchases so far, we still had lots to spend...

The Eidetic Fugue (pt 1 of 3?)

Long, long ago, in a town called Salem, several young men were longing for female company. Many summer evenings passed as they cogitated over what could be done. Finally an idea took hold - if we build it, they will come kind of thing. We decided that we needed a place, perhaps a store of some kind, downtown would be best, that was attractive for all, threatening only to an older generation and might even make enough money to keep us in pepsi and music.

At that time, (say fall 1967), there was nowhere in this town of many thousands to buy the rock and roll that was being created in San Francisco, Boston, New York and elsewhere. Today it is hard to believe you couldn't buy popular culture items since you can do it so many different ways in 2009, but back 43 years ago, such was the case. And if you couldn't buy 33's from the Cream, Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplan, you certainly couldn't buy posters, stickers, buttons and anything else from the emerging counter-culture. Not in Salem... yet.

I had the money, Bill had the art skills, Mike had the connections and away we went. First to find a location for rent, cheap. We found a store front that was narrow and half a block long and it was on HIGH STREET... what could be better for a place to buy music, posters, incense and other legal items in 1967. The older gentleman that owned the building, met us there and led us through the two rooms. That took about 30 seconds. He showed us the heater, told us he needed two months rent in cash. We all trekked two blocks to the bank and handed him the cash. Now our 500$ booty was down to 400$.

We got brooms, mops, rags and water and cleaned up the place. We didn't bother with paint with one exception - Bill wanted to do a mural on the glass entry door. It looked just like the poster (oops, I got ahead of myself.. how did we get the posters?) So be it we said and proceded to buy dayglow red paints and all cheered Bill on as he worked into the night, painting the lady on the door. We needed a name. I can't remember all the names that were tossed out but I have always had a fondness for the final solution. We wanted a place that you remembered, that put you into a new state of mind and perhaps left a few marks on your mind, too. We wanted to name to be unique and easy to shorten. And we wanted it to be ours.

Eidetic meant, at least to us, was a type of image that left its mark. Today the dictionary says it is "visual imagery vividly experienced and readily reproducible with great accuracy and in great detail". This meant the shop was a poster shop first, and then a bead, music, art, button and whatnot shop second.
Fugue has a musical meaning, referring to a certain type of composition. We meant the psychiatric meaning actually (me being a psychology major) and today's dictionary says it is a state when a "person suffers from loss of memory, often begins a new life, and, upon recovery, remembers nothing of the amnesic phase" .
Put these together and we were trying to create a place where experiencing the images blows you away with their vividness and detail and you are in a new beginning and really can't remember much about the experience except things are different. Everyone called it "the fugue" and basically ignored any intention the name might have had.

Next installment has us off to the Bay area for provisioning and opening the store, a few surprises happen and mostly, things are good.

picnic table finally done

From a difficult set off online drawings, a batch of cedar boards,
challenges in making 38 degree cuts and fun putting this together ad a
team. we got a picnic table and a set of benches.

It all turned out great!

Finished the kiwi stand/pagola

After months of discussions and design attempts, we now have a
structure ready for the weight and size of a crop of Kiwis. The
plants, one boy and one girl (for equality of course), go in at the
outside posts. Next August the structure maybe hidden under the vines
and ripening fruit - or not.

Dinner

Fresh broccolli, fresh spinach, both treated to heat for a few minutes
- yumm

Oregon Capitol & smoke

On Armed Forces day (5/13/09), the 9 gun salute resulted in a lot of
smoke, just north of the Capitol BLD in Salem.

I took this picture from my desk on the upper floor of a state building.

Waiting for the ferry to come

On our way to Harstine island and a visit with friends, we are waiting
for the Bremerton Ferry.