Well, what’s for dinner? Ummm. How about Dick’s? Some call it an institution, some call it a greasy drive in and some call it cheap food for starving college students. Well, we’re explorers, let’s find out for ourselves. Sure enough it’s a drive in: no tables, no chairs, just windows to order from and a parking lot for your car. So, we joined the crowd: for $14, we had two hamburgers, 2 fries and 2 hot fudge sundaes. What a deal. Gary spared no expense to treat me out. But it was the crowd we enjoyed.
Our ‘next door neighbors’ were picking up a Craig’s listed tent. The young woman didn’t want to meet them at her house. The car on the other side was 3 teens cavorting in the car with the loud music. The van in front held - well I don’t know how many - but someone from the car, a different person each time, was always running up to the windows for more food. What a hoot. What fun entertainment. It’s one of those places that you have to park in backwards so you can face the excitement.
And, finally we were on our way to the Fremont neighborhood. Guess what, it was the solstice and in the quirky neighborhood of Fremont that’s a cause to celebrate: a parade, costumes, lots of parties and people everywhere. But, if you think I’m going to put a picture of the naked bikers from the parade in this family blog, you’re out of luck. Actually, the parade was in the afternoon and we missed it. Had we known we might have come over earlier. Although, we might have seen more than we could handle.
‘Hey, Mom & Pop, what are you doing here?’
We turned and a 30-ish guy on a bike was talking to us.
“I didn’t think I’d find you here,’ he continued.
Gary and I laughed before my witty stud muffin said:
‘We want you in by midnight, no later.’
‘See you later at the house.’ he said as he crossed the street.
Aren’t people fun? I’ll have to admit that we were twice the age of most of the people here. Although there were some other grey hairs in the crowd.
And what a parade of people, some in costumes, some not but all having a great time. Some, of course, were too plastered to know if they were having a good time or not. We parked and walked towards the activity.
The first quirky sculpture we wanted to see was the Troll, hiding under the Aurora bridge. A troll under a bridge? Well, remember the story of the 3 goats and the troll - the 3 Billy Goats Gruff? Why not a troll hiding under a bridge? But isn’t that a VW Beetle under its left hand? And, that eye? Isn’t that a hubcap? OK, here’s the story. It was sculpted by 4 local artists who entered it in a 1990 Fremont Arts Council contest to revive the area under the bridge which was becoming a dumping ground and a haven for drug dealers. They won and built their 13,000 lb., 18’ high mixed media statue under the bridge. And, here it is.
On our way to the other statues, we met a lonely woman reading her Kindle in a church parking lot with a sign reading ‘$20.00 for all day parking. Donation to the’ Food Bank.’ She said that they had had a good day. We made our donation, talked with her a while and got directions to the Lenin statue.
Lenin? Wasn’t he a Communist leader? What in the world is he doing here in Fremont? Hmm. Long story but I’ll make it short. The statue was cast in bronze by a Slavic artist named Emil Venkov, a well-known artist. The statue was erected in Poprad Czechoslovakia in 1988 where it stood - for about a year. Then the revolution hit and statues of Lenin ended up in the junkyards face down in the mud. Then along came Lewis Carpenter who mortgaged his house to purchase the statue for $13,000 and $28,000 to ship it to Issaquah, WA where he lived. I read several reasons for why he bought it: that he liked the statue itself, liked the scrap value of the bronze and finally that he planned to use it in a Slovakian restaurant he planned to open. Then he died and his family was stuck with this 30-ton, 15-foot tall bronze statue. Not something that adds to curb appeal if you are trying to sell a house.
Then it was moved to a corner in Fremont. Controversy surrounded it but Fremont is a funky neighborhood and eventually it was accepted. We found the statue surrounded by happy people since it is in a restaurant bar area. Oh, look, someone has painted Lenin’s hand red. That’s the way in Fremont. Sometimes, in winter, someone will wrap a scarf around his neck. Sometimes, around the 4th of July, he’ll be decorated in red, white and blue lights. Around Halloween, he gets a mask. One time, he was painted to resemble John Lennon. Meanwhile this piece still stirs controversy. If art is meant to arouse thoughts and reactions, this certainly does. Some remember the repression under Lenin while others view it as a symbol of the triumph of capitalism over communism.
Meanwhile we’re enjoying the crowd, many of whom dressed for the solstice.
Finally, we headed over to where the statue called ‘Waiting for the Interurban’, a popular piece of public art. It is a life-size statue of 6 people stoically waiting for a train that will never come. The Interurban passed through Fremont back in the 1930’s but stopped shortly after that. And, they’ve been waiting for another train since then. The artist was Richard Beyer who actually started out on the Fremont Arts Council, tasked to find some art for the area. When the Council found no one, he chose himself. This brought him into contention with the honorary mayor of the area, Armen Stepanian, who thought this rather bold.
Now, look at the dog in the design, surprisingly it looks a lot like Stepanian, beard and all. Wonder why.
Would you believe me if I told you that this statue also gets some regular decorating? Scarves in winter, blue green and silver on a Seahawks win, green and red lights at Christmas. Well, you get the idea.
We also walked over the Fremont bridge. One direction and we got a view of the Aurora bridge and Mt. Rainier. The other direction a view of the setting sun down the Fremont cut, the channel dug between Union Lake and the locks.
You know what? It’s time to go home. We’ve had a full day. We not only got around to see all that we had planned but we also had some extra things that will make this day even more memorable: the older gentleman dancing, the young man who told us he’d see us at home later, the solstice celebrations in Fremont. Just a great day.
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