black mold blue building bingo parlor
We got a hue and cry going up from the north end all the way to the south end. Folks near and far are up in arms that the old Camano Senior Center, that blue metal icon of early island days, is going to be turned over from public usage to the Sheriff’s department. You’d think, listening to the outcry and the wailing that we’d taken a Taj Majal and converted it to a public restroom.
Oh, I know, it’s a prime architectural example of early pole building, probably destined for the Historic Register. You know, if it doesn’t rot first. And yeah, it’s been a cheap rent for every group from the A.A. (Alcoholics Anonymous) to the C.A.A. (Camano Artists Anonymous). Most folks don’t remember when we built it back in 1979, put a thermometer out front to keep track of the fundraising efforts, the top goal being somewhere north of $500. We used it for 20 years as the Senior Center, although most folks driving by thought of it as the Bingo Hall. Which, at least partly, it was.
I spent more than my fair share of pain time down at the Blue Building with my 12 step artist colleagues, half the agony just the nature of watching artists becoming bureaucrats over themselves and the other co-existing with the toxic balck mold that currently has full ownership of the building, I don’t care if the County considers it legally theirs or not. It’s a nasty place, cheap rental for damn good reason, but most likely a lawsuit by the cops who will trde their lovely modular sheriff station for a horror movie Killer Spores from Section 7. Folks who ask me would I lend support to the task of Saving the Sporehole have me mistaken with someone who values rotten single-wide trailers or schoolbuses devoured by blackberries down behind the Diner.
That ain’t me, Babe, no no no that ain’t me. Oh, I know, the Hysterical Society will stand some day in front of the wrecking ball the day demolition begins. And I’ll surely miss those heady days of bingo and political caucuses, A.A. gatherings and the eternal Mother’s Day Tour meetings. But if truth comes to shove, I’m for getting three or four of us South Enders, putting our shoulders to it and knocking it down. After that I think the EPA can declare it a Superfund site and do what’s necessary. Good riddance by me …
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