It was a Sunday, but I wasn’t home to grab The Herald off my porch.
On Oct. 26, 1997, I was in Vancouver, B.C., on a family getaway. Six years before Everett welcomed its Silvertips hockey club, my husband surprised me on my 44th birthday with Canucks tickets. The real gift was getting me out of town. He figured I’d be nervous that weekend. He was right.
That Sunday, this column made its start. I wrote it as a letter, beginning with “Dear reader,” and signing off with “See you soon.”
“Think of me as that new neighbor you run into several mornings a week,” I wrote. “Sometimes I’ll offer a friendly wave or a thoughtful tale. Other times I’ll make you mad with my noisy opinions.”
At least with the latter prediction, I made good on the deal. One column had readers so angry I couldn’t keep up with the calls. I’m guessing you remember which one, but more about that later.
First, on this 10th anniversary, I’d like to say thanks — for reading and sharing ideas, for your support and even your disapproval. I’m not going anywhere, but before launching into another decade, I thought I’d take a brief look back.
Remember 1997? It doesn’t seem so long ago. Then again, Herald archives show how much has changed.
In 1997, there was no such thing as an iPod. Our archives contain just one mention of “Google” in all of 1997, and that was a reference to “Barney Google.” If you know who he is, you’re as old as I am.
In 1997, the median price for a new house in Snohomish County was “around $200,000,” and it was “still possible to find many new houses that cost closer to $100,000.”
Bob Drewel was Snohomish County executive, Ed Hansen was mayor of Everett, and Gary Locke was sworn in as governor that year. On Jan. 8, 1997, Naval Station Everett welcomed the USS Abraham Lincoln to its new homeport. Also that week, The Herald launched its Web site.
It was the year of Freedom County, when secessionists asked for the United Nations’ help in a move to carve a new county from north Snohomish County. And in 1997, a jury decided Richard Clark deserved a death sentence in the murder of Roxanne Doll, an Everett child.
Some things haven’t changed. In 1997, The Herald warned drivers about repairs to I-5, and that “traffic will be a nightmare.”
Personally, I’ve had a crash course in life-altering change. In 1998, my husband died, and four months later, my third child was born. I’ve watched my older kids become fine adults.
And then there’s work. Writing this column is a privilege, as I said it would be 10 years ago.
It’s the people I remember best. John Williams wept describing his loved ones stuck on outside the Superdome in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans. Within a week, he had driven there, packed his car with relatives, and moved them all into his Lynnwood house.
Helen Jackson, widow of U.S. Sen. Henry M. Jackson, graciously welcomed me into her Everett home, then shared the story of the day she met “Scoop.”
Everett’s Mark Reiman died in 2003 of Lou Gehrig’s disease. I met him in 1998, before his “Season of Hope” tour of Major League ballparks. In city after city, he sang the national anthem while raising money to fight the ailment. I’ll never forget his words: “I’ve found that the healthiest, happiest, most peaceful way to live with it is to have a positive attitude.”
I’ve written silly columns. There was my tirade about that chrome ornament you see on pickup trucks — “mud-flap girl,” I called her. In 2001, I jumped into frigid waters off Kayak Point County Park. I nearly froze, but got a polar-bear swim out of it, and a column during a slow holiday week.
In 1999, readers were infuriated. After voters approved $30 car tabs by passing Initiative 695 , I bemoaned the loss of bus service and called it a case of “simple greed.” No one was more stunned than I was when I saw the headline: “I-695 voters just greedy simpletons.” Agree or disagree with me on issues, but believe me that I wouldn’t — and didn’t — call anyone a greedy simpleton.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, I have written about war and peace, military service and sacrifice, living in Everett but longing for home in Iraq, and current events through the prism of Vietnam.
I am nowhere near finished with the stories you help me tell.
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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