Space Needles and Bullet Trains

 

by Pa Rock

Grandfather

Yesterday (Sunday), I spent most of the day with my daughter and her family visiting in their home in Salem, Oregon, and then made a side trip along with Molly and the two kids for lunch with a stop at the local Goodwill where I shopped for a jacket, with no luck.  Big and Fat is not a popular size in this part of the world.   (I left Missouri in the heat of summer but arrived in Oregon in what felt like very early spring, and my wardrobe was out-of-sync with my location.)

The Goodwill store in Salem is exceptionally nice with a good selection of clothing and household. goods.  A few years ago I bought the most comfortable pair of shoes there - and also among of the nicest -  that I have ever owned.

I did find one other pair of shoes yesterday that looked as though they would be very comfortable, but alas, they were about a half-size too small.  Comfortable shoes and a comfortable car are two of my basic needs.

My Oregon granddaughter is not a fan of Donald Tump because she has a justifiable fear that ICE is going to show up and abduct some of her friends.  What kind of sick society have we become when children have to worry about the government kidnapping their friends?

Judah and Willow are out of school for the summer, and tomorrow they and their mother will join me aboard an Amtrak train here in Salem and take a five-hour ride to Seattle where we will spend three days and nights in one of America's most cultural environments.  We have a list of places that we hope to visit (thank you, Cousin Joyce), one of which will definitely be the iconic Space Needle - which has been the symbol of Seattle for 64 years, having opened during the early months of the Kennedy administration in 1961.

The trip to Seattle will be the kids' first ride on a train.  I hope the day comes when they will be able to travel with their grandchildren anywhere in the country on a high-speed rail system.  (I rode on a "bullet" train in Japan more that fifty years ago.  Sooner or later America will catch up to where the Japanese were a half-century ago!)

But don't get too cocky, Japan.  America does have a Space Needle!