Flat Top Guitar — New and Improved

Posted in pictures worth maybe not a thousand words on March 11th, 2024 by skeeter

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Enlightenment Now

Posted in pictures worth maybe not a thousand words on February 13th, 2024 by skeeter

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South End String Band Gig

Posted in pictures worth maybe not a thousand words on February 3rd, 2024 by skeeter

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Time to Wake Up!

Posted in pictures worth maybe not a thousand words on January 11th, 2024 by skeeter

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The Hidden Rewards of Volunteerism

Posted in pictures worth maybe not a thousand words, rantings and ravings on January 7th, 2024 by skeeter


In 2007 the County and Friends of Camano Island Parks asked the South End String Band if we would be willing to take on the role of caretakers for little Hutchison Park, a 5 acre parcel once the playground for juvenile delinquents, drug transactions and the occasional late night sex. Since it was the only county park on the South End and we were, after all, the South End house band, we said, yah shure, u betcha. In the beginning the band threw in whole heartedly, cleaned up the area and mowed the lawns. FOCIP brought a few volunteers in to widen the trails and put up signage. So what if they misspelled Hutchison, the guy’s name who donated the land.

Course, after the initial flurry of philanthropic excitement the Band sort of lost interest, not only in the Park but the band and the music too. Basically the way of bands. Probably the way of volunteers as well. So for the past 16 years the de facto role of park ranger fell to the banjo player, last guy standing, me and the fiddler who, unfortunately had moved off island and far from the idyllic South End. In that time more than a couple of lawnmowers have given their lives, one or two chainsaws have bit the dust, the caretaker has grown old and gnarly like a few of the second growth firs in the park, sculpture has been placed (and most stolen), a little library has been installed in the 1960’s phone booth that mysteriously appeared one year and trees, shrubs and flowers have been planted.

Admittedly, not many people use the Park, mostly dog walkers, midnight lovers and pharmaceutical salespeople. Rarely are the barbecue grills used. Grill, actually, since the second one was stolen the first week and never replaced by the county. Occasionally bikers rest there, once or twice picnickers. It’s a lonely place but it’s my place. This week I went on the FOCIP website looking at their list of county parks we maintain gratis for Island County. Hutchison was not one of them. So I went to Island County Parks looking for a map or a mention. Nada. Zip. Zilch. My park has been stolen from the records!! Happens all the time on the South End, you’re thinking. And me too.

What I can only assume is this: the County has abdicated its little park down here. For what reason, who can say? But I want to say this, being the ranger there for the past decade and a half, I’m publicly declaring the park mine by right of county abdication as well as adverse possession by yours truly. Skeeter Daddle Park. Nice ring to it, don’tcha think? Who’d have ever guessed volunteerism would have more than its own reward.

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Madame Rita

Posted in pictures worth maybe not a thousand words on November 10th, 2023 by skeeter

SOUTH END SOOTHSAYER_edited-2

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Mobile Home Park Tear Down

Posted in pictures worth maybe not a thousand words on October 31st, 2023 by skeeter

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Zen and the art of text messaging

Posted in pictures worth maybe not a thousand words on October 25th, 2023 by skeeter

I can’t figure out whether we were bored BEFORE the internet and smart phones …. or whether they MADE us bored.  Ruined our concentration, shot our attention spans full of holes, filled every waking minute with text messages, snippets of celebrity gossip, news flashes and crawler messages on the bottom of our brains’ screens.

We check our phone messages every 3 minutes (if we’re older than 40) or every 15 seconds (if we’re under 40).  The older crowd checks e-mail 20 times a day.  If you still get a newspaper, you got most of the articles from newsfeeds on your computer anywhere from a few hours ago to a full day.  It isn’t ‘news’ you get in a newspaper these days.  Everyone’s got a cellphone now and by god, they paid for it and they plan to use it — as often as humanly possible, whether they’re driving in the freeway passing lane or taking a whiz in the airport urinal.  They’re connected, linked up, every waking hour of every day, I guess forever until the day they die or their phone plan expires.

It’s hard to believe this has happened, not just in our lifetime, but in the last decade.  If we thought the Rat Race was hard, well, the digital rats are on steroids, cranked on meth and just a little too busy to slow down to consider what’s happened in the last few years.  Too busy for sure to read a book or write a letter or just disconnect from the Hive half an hour.  Watch a 15 year old and see the Future — it’s here!  30 minutes ago.  17 tweets.

Even on the South End there’s no escaping the tsunami of this incessant incoming information.  At least until the winter storms.  For those 6 of us who refuse to own a cellphone.  Or buy a generator.  Or even go down to the Diner to keep abreast of the breaking gossip.  In a few days we’ll try to catch back up.  Course, by then the world will have accelerated another few miles per second.  And we’ll be those objects in your rearview that aren’t anywhere near as close as they appear.  Best of luck when you get where you’re in such a hurry to get.  You got a second or two, send us a postcard.  We still get mail….

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South End Gyppo

Posted in pictures worth maybe not a thousand words on September 15th, 2023 by skeeter

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Posted in pictures worth maybe not a thousand words on September 4th, 2023 by skeeter

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