We Love It In Seattle

This morning Betty Jo Bouvier, the Wild Woman of Woolley, emailed me a link to an amusing video about Seattle.

The subject line of Betty Jo's email was "Fun Seattle Stuff You May Remember."

Watching the video I remembered a lot of it. I do not remember Ike (President Eisenhower) coming to Seattle. Nor do I remember JFK. I do remember Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter coming to Seattle. Of those, I saw Ford and Carter.

Ford on the Seattle Waterfront and Carter in a hangar at Boeing Field.

In the video you see Northwest icon, Dick Balch. A few days ago Speedo commented about the blogging I wrote about meeting Dick Balch.

Speedo commented....

I've been wondering whatever happened to Dick Balch for a long time (maybe a year, anyway, which at my age seems shorter than it used to be, but not as short as my memory). Finally I remembered to think about aforesaid Balch while i was near a computer (not knowing nothing about no smartfone). So i put his name into a browser (okay, i googled it). And up this popped. 

When I was a student at Western about 1972-74 thereabouts, Balch was a featured speaker at the college, about which i mainly remember the laugh. I think it was supposed to be about how there are many paths to success in this world; at least, that's what I now assume, based on something or nothing at all. Then that laugh enters the consciousness (mine) and i can't remember anything after that. 

At least i don't have to think about googling 'Dick Balch' anymore; at least until that laugh comes back, then i may have to repeat like it was Groundhog's Day. Maybe next time i'll be sophisticated enough that i won't even use Capital Letters for his name. There's always hope.

In the "We Love It In Seattle" video below you will see floating bridges, a lot of rain, Burgermaster, Dag's Beefy Boy Burgers, Olympia Beer, JP Patches, Gertrude, Brakeman Bill, Wanda Wanda, Stan Boreson, 707s, KJR95, Olympia Beer, Elvis, Ike, Keith Jackson, the Beatles in the coliseum, the Space Needle, the World's Fair, Elvis making a movie at the Seattle World's Fair, Dan Evans beating Albert Rosselini for Governor, Huskies with the Rose Bowl, Don James, Paul Revere & the Raiders, the Kingsmen, Bobo, Namu, JFK at the UW, the Seattle Pilots, the arrival of the Sonics, Slick Watts, Scoop Jackson, Bob Rule, Jimi Hendrix in a Purple Haze, the aforementioned  Dick Balch, Ted Bundy, Sonny Sixkiller, Jumbo Jets, Seattle Slew, Judge Bolt, Ray Seales, King Tut, Kingdome, D.B. Cooper, Dixie Lee Ray, Warren Magnuson, Bruce Lee, World Champion Sonics, the Seattle Seven, Ivar Hagland keeping clam, Trident submarine, teacher strikes, last one out turn out the lights, Steve Largent, Jim Zorn, Spencer Haywood, Heart, Junior Cadillac, Mt. St. Helens, Bill Gates, Rosylyn Summers, Kenny G, Huskies/Cougars Apple Cup, Green River Killer, Brian Bosworth and California moving in.....

Carlotta Camano has Caused Me to Learn What I Did Not Know About the Seattle Sounders

In the picture you are looking at Carlotta Camano shivering while watching a Seattle Sounders soccer game at Qwest Field in Seattle.

Carlotta and her husband have season tickets to the Sounders' games.

Until Carlotta mentioned she was going to a Sounders game I did not realize the Seattle Sounders were back playing soccer again.

Decades ago, in 1974, I went to the first Seattle Sounders game. It was played in Memorial Stadium at the Seattle Center. I had never been a fan of soccer but I greatly enjoyed the spectacle of a packed stadium, with Mount Rainier glowing bright to the south.

Two years later, on April 25, 1976 the Sounders played the New York Cosmos before 58,218 soccer watchers in the first sporting event to take place in the now long gone Kingdome.

Soccer has had a tough time catching on in the United States. It's been struggling to do so for decades. The Seattle Sounders played their games in the Kingdome until 1979 when they moved to the Seattle Center Coliseum. In 1982 the Seattle Sounders ceased to exist.

I do not remember if the Seattle Sounders ceased to exist because the North American Soccer League folded, or if they got stolen from Seattle like what happened with the Seattle Supersonics when the evil Oklahoma entity known as Aubrey McClendon stole the Sonics, moving the basketball team to Oklahoma City.

In 1994 a new Seattle Sounders soccer team was born, playing in something called the American Professional Soccer League. In 1997 the Sounders became part of something called the USL First Division, which was a second tier level of the American soccer hierarchy.

In 2008 the Seattle Sounders morphed into a new Major League Soccer franchise owned by Hollywood producer, Joe Roth as the majority owner, with minority owners Microsoft Billionaire, Paul Allen and funnyman Drew Carey.

The Seattle Sounders FC soccer team was the new league's 15th team. The first game for the new team was played on March 19, 2009. Since its start the Seattle Sounders FC have sold out Qwest Field for every match, with the highest average attendance in the MLS, along with leading the league in season ticket sales.

The Seattle Sounders FC was the second expansion team in MLS history to win something called the U.S. Open Cup, doing so in 2009, and then repeating the win in 2010 to become the first team to win the Open Cup two years in a row.

There is also a Seattle Sounders women's soccer team which started playing in 2003. The women play in the United Soccer Leagues W-League. The Seattle Sounders women play at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila.

I do not now if Carlotta Camano also goes to the Seattle Sounders women's games. I do know that Carlotta Camano used to play soccer. I do not believe she played the game professionally.

The Wild Women of Woolley Are Calling It Quits After a Final Show This Coming Saturday

In the picture you are looking at three of the "Wild Women of Woolley."

And one "Wild Man."

The Wild Women of Woolley have been a Skagit Valley institution for 17 years of having fun and raising money, appearing in parades and Sedro-Woolley's annual Loggerodeo.

This coming Saturday, March 19, you will have your last chance to see the Wild Women of Woolley at Sedro-Woolley's American Legion Hall at 6:30 pm.

The Wild Women of Woolley decided to dis-band a month after the death of the group's director/co-founder, Corey Corkill.

The show on Saturday is a tribute to Corey Corkill.

The only Wild Woman of Woolley that I know is Betty Jo Bouvier. I do not know if Betty Jo is performing in Saturday's show.