EVERETT— Reporters love to get story tips from readers. They are the real spies of the community.
Fabian Borowiecki, a regular Herald informant, recently sent a tip about seeing Bigfoot by the sidewalk on Beverly Lane. Said he spotted it driving home from the grocery store.
What’s up with that?
Bigfoot is always big news, even for the non-believers.
I drove down the busy residential street of tidy homes near Evergreen Way and wondered what Fabian must have been smoking. The mystic species of ape-men creatures live deep in the woods, not a few blocks from Safeway.
Then, out of nowhere, in the 7500 block of Beverly Lane, I was stopped in my tracks by Sasquatch.
The wooden 8-foot cutout jutted from a thick spread of colorful flowers that filled the fenced yard as far as the eye could see. Flapping above were flags representing America, Norway, U.S. Marine Corps and POW/MIA.
The house is hidden down a long side driveway. Getting out of the car I thought, ‘I could disappear and nobody would ever find me.’”
Not to worry.
Joseph Lindell and his wife, Julie, bought the place in 2003 and have two kids, Nathaniel, 19 and Olivia, 16.
Lindell does the gardening in what he calls the meadow.
“I got tired of mowing it,” he said. “I threw some wildflower seed in and a bunch of clover seed and let it grow. My wife wants me to cut down the clover. The bees like it and the birds like it. So I kind of like it.”
A few pink and purple flamingos ended up there, but these aren’t visible from the road.
Nathaniel, a 2021 Cascade High School graduate, made Bigfoot using a stencil and painted it black.
“He’s a hands-on guy,” Lindell said. “Bigfoot was something to keep busy last year when there was no school stuff and activities. He had Scouts, what little there was of it, and church.”
Nathaniel is an Eagle Scout with Troop 18 in Everett.
It didn’t take long before someone came by and wanted to buy Bigfoot. Nathaniel sold it for $100, and made three replacements since due to sales.
“The neighbor bought one for a wedding present,” Lindell said. “Kind of a weird thing to give for a wedding present, but OK.”
Nathaniel will make you a Bigfoot, for a few bucks more. “That sheet of plywood last year was maybe $23 and I think that sheet of plywood is like $8o now,” Lindell said.
The Marine Corps flag is for Nathaniel, who leaves in September for boot camp at Camp Pendleton in San Diego on the buddy program with his Cascade classmate, Jason Guzman, 18.
Their reason for enlisting: “Just want to serve,” Nathaniel said.
The two have been good friends since meeting in junior year history class.
“I wanted to be a Marine first,” Jason said. “I was going to hold off and wait a year and he started talking to a recruiter.”
They share an interest in cars. Nathaniel rebuilt a 1992 Jeep Cherokee he got for $500.
“I give them a hard time about midnight mechanic-ing because they are always out until 1 o’clock at somebody’s truck bending metal or cranking wrenches,” Lindell said.
On this day Nathaniel and Jason were under the house putting in a new vapor barrier and insulation in the crawlspace.
Nathaniel Lindell’s Bigfoot cutout in Everett stands below the U.S. Marine Corps flag, the flag of Norway, the American flag and the POW/MIA flag. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
As for the other flags: “I have had friends who were POWs in World War II and on, so that’s to honor them. My uncle is a Vietnam Vet. The wife’s family is all Norwegian,” Lindell said.
“I might add another flagpole. It will probably end up being a Husky flag. She’s a Husky, and my daughter wants to be.”
As for our favorite spy Fabian Borowiecki, he’s a retired Boeing engineer turned wordsmith. He does more than write letters to reporters which, by the way, always end in “So long and tata for now.”
He has self-published numerous books. Fiction, self-help and what he calls “junk” essays.
His latest: “This one is titled ‘Bloody Frackin’ Oil’ about terrorists plotting to disrupt the oil fracking industry (but of course that’s not all). As a matter of fact, I just this morning started on another fiction novel/novelette that has a slight connection to the story in the Herald a month or two ago about the South Whidbey Island Fault,” Borowiecki said.
“And no, you are not authorized (and never will be) to write a story about this wacko author that lives in South Everett.”
We’ll see about that.
Andrea Brown: abrown@heraldnet.com; 425-339-3443. Twitter @reporterbrown.
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