President of the Pacific Ocean

    Walter started this on Orcas by announcing to everyone he was assuming the Presidency.  The President of the Pacific Ocean was not being contested by anyone. To make it official we all raised our hands in a vote of solidarity.  You really have to make your own fun when living in a closed community like Orcas.

       We all got to be on Orcas by some mysterious way.  You just never know what to expect. It is truly an adventure in boredom.
    When I first came to Orcas, I lived near the Ferry landing with Cordia's friends.  There was this strange woman who was living with her boyfriend named Bob came to visit us.  One day, someone noticed they haven't seen Bob for sometime. This woman said they broke up and he went back to live with his parents on the mainland.   However, this did not sound quite right since Bob had bought land and was building a house for this woman. 

      Someone finally asked the Sheriffs Dept. to look into his disappearance.  After weeks of investigation they went to visit the home site. Steve, the deputy sheriff has a German Shepard which is a great asset as backup. The dog immediately keyed on the area underneath the house.  There they found Bob's head covered with ants. They found the rest of him in the freezer.  It seems she shot him in the head while he was sleeping.  Then butchered him into a convienent sizes.  Makes me nervous when I look at all the flaky people I've known who could be murderers.
     I moved out to Olga which is about as far away as you can get from the Ferry landing on Orcas. I started working for the State Parks and Recreation out of Moran State Park training young people, especially the Lummis, on how to work and make money.  I'd take my crew of teens by Boston Whaler to Sucia and Matia Marine State Park.  We spent our days digging latrines and collecting trash to be loaded on the the larger park boat with the vehicle ramp that opened like a clam.

        Crowd control was not an issue on Sucia.   Summertime was always distressing because you never got enough sleep with those 18 hours of daylight.  One day we answered a distress call.   A woman was hit in the face with the boom of a sail boat, breaking her sunglasses with the shards of glass entering her eyes.  She fell into the water and somehow was rescued by the drunks on board.   Two things to remember when sailing.... learn when to duck and know what gybe means.  She survived but with scars to her eyeball and socket.  A liitle more plastic around the eyes, please.

   My last job on Orcas was helping finish the mega community center with a Shakespearean stage that the people of East sound would enjoy for decades. I got to frame in and finish the projection booth.  Trying different colors but I had to go with black since it absorbs light.   I was scheduled to be the projectionist until the hardware brothers took that away by hook and crook. The politics on the Island are no different from the mainland. It's who you know and who you blow.      

   Even though I had been educated for this at Fairhaven College, it came down to the two brothers who positioned themselves with the intent of commanding the whole center.  They dominated the hardware store so everyone knew them. 

       The Community Center was the best thing for Orcas.  It became a real moneymaker for the community.  Live theater came to the island along with classical music events.  Eventually, a film series was developed. .  We all wanted it to be free of charge.  Good luck with that....
      I was working as the dishwasher at Christina's Restaurant.  This was the best restaurant in the islands.  I helped in the remodeling of the kitchen and the dining area since I also ran a small subcontractor business out in Olga.  The deck was a great addition because you could look out over the waters of Eastsound.  The Seaplane would deliver fresh salmon from Alaska right to the kitchen.   Watching the Seaplane land was a little over the top for most of these shut ins.
       Seems like this is when Patrick showed up with his new wife Dorothy who had three kids in tow and a jilted husband always waiting for something to happen to Patrick.    The guy never got over it.  You'd think he would have moved on to other more lively ladies but no, he continually presented my friends with this awful situation of the jilted husband wanting to raise the children.
       Domestic bliss is anything but blissful.  Even if you marry your childhood sweetheart and you both are committed to the 'death do us part' thing, there will always be someone who wants to cut in and share your sweetheart.  You simply have to get used to that reality.  Having your loved one means sharing the love with other people. You will never be the only one who has known your girl romantically. 

       I met Mark Frank.  He is the cousin of Anne Frank who wrote the Diary of Anne Frank.  Mark was trying to be a poet.  He was completely in love with his Guru, going from one group of followers to the next.  I never really understood how he came to Orcas with his pregnant girlfriend. 

    Orcas attracts creative people.  I was one of them.  I hardly had time to practice my brand of creativity so I made building my art.

        I would see Mark and occasionally help him find a place to live.   His girlfriend was a wealthy inheritor of warehouses in NYC.  They had nothing else going on except surviving on Orcas.

   I heard many stories about Deborah as we had a similar background with relatives in WW II.  The baby was growing inside.  Mark and Deborah wanted a sailboat.  They settled on an old wooden sloop that needed a lot of work.  He asked me to do some of the labor.  I started by replacing the toe rails that were rotting away.   This is a bad sign for a wooden sailboat.  Where there is rot there will be more.  I surveyed this ship of fools and told him she really needed to be hauled, corked and painted.  They finally sold this wreck to my neighbor Dave who also wanted a ship.   He had the skills and tools plus the support of his father.  

      Mark was making some progress with his writings with reams of paper stowed in an old filing cabinet.  Life moves quickly on Orcas.  The cold Spring turns into a lukewarm Summer.  Then the Fall departures start in earnest.         

     Mark moved back to Oregon to another center of devotees after putting the baby up for adoption.  No one ever really knew these folks except Dave and I.
   There is not much to do on Orcas in the winter except drink which is the socially acceptable way of saying get lost with a the bottle. Alcohol is a form of sleep medicine and very addictive.  Not proud of the fact, but I tipped a few while at work, courtesy of Christina. 

       Driving the twenty miles home at 3 in the morning was interesting.  Nearly killed myself a few times, before I stopped drinking for good.   One of the boys we all knew did just that.   He had just gotten his license and had a bunch of his friends in the car.  It was a big car he was flying low. He hit that Douglas fir on these narrow island roads that twist and turns killing him outright.  Dr. Williams told me the story.  Suddenly, I just could not take it anymore and had my friend give me a quick and dirty haircut..    

     Gone was my pony tail, gone was my ZZ Top beard.  I was feeling different and wanted more than this island could offer.  I was determined to change my life into something more productive.  I jumped on a jet to Honolulu.   My destination again was Nowhere Soon.
      Landing in Honolulu, I had to make an immediate decision.  I decided to go for the Big Island which was familiar and took the shuttle flight.  I landed in Hilo and began hitching to Captain Cook.  I was intent on picking up where I had left off.  I stayed at the Mango Hotel for a few days then continued on to to Captain Cook. Things are never the same when returning to familiar haunts.

      Lee had moved off his farm, divorced his wife and ran away to Oregon.  There was no one that I knew anymore.  The Captain Cook Monument was being developed into a Golf Course.  The wilderness of the ocean was no more.  I was the peoverbial stranger in the strange land again.     

     I went to Kilaua hoping for some connection. None was to be had.  I boarded the plane back to Honolulu and started looking for a job on a cruise ship. 
     Vallaba Sein picked me up and began preaching to me.  This was my first encounter with the Hari Krishna Movement. I had nothing but the clothes on my back. He took me to the Temple and fed me my first prasadam.  I spent many days at the Temple in Honolulu.  I joined the crew of the club footed yacht Jaladuta.  I sailed with these guys for many months on the sunset cruises around the islands out of Ala Moana Yacht Basin...

       I finally decided to return to the University and finish my degree.  I applied and was accepted with many scholarships to help me finance my studies in Medicine. I was intensely grateful but soon realized not everyone was happy about this.  

    Drugs are the scourge of all of the Universities I've ever known.  It was no different at U of H.  They terrorized me and everyone who did not agree with these addicts. It was very harsh and had severe consequences for many students. I spent many hours of my school time designing programs to prevent suicides including radio programs illustrating the dangers of addiction with testimonies of addicts.

    I became an informant on campus working with a Navy Seal who was still in training. Together, we were able to identify many dealers preying on students. There is no reward in this business but the satisfaction of protecting people is awesome.  I still quietly do this.