This is the third installment of our adventures on the Road Scholar trip, Best of the Pacific Northwest – Exploring Three of Washington’s San Juan Islands. Today’s post deals with our visit to the RoozenGaarde Tulip Gardens as part of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.
RoozenGaarde is a world renowned spring destination and the biggest of the tulip gardens in Skagit Valley. The fields are planted with tens of millions of bulbs creating endless rows of incredible color while the garden is annually redesigned, and lovingly hand-planted with over one million bulbs – creating spectacular scenes of floral color and creativity! Stunning photo opportunities, hand-picked daily tulip bouquets, and a charming gift shop are sure to delight.
In the second post about our Road Scholar trip, Best of the Pacific Northwest – Exploring Three of Washington’s San Juan Islands, I report about our visit to the Crow Valley School Museum on Orcas Island.
Crow Valley School Museum
Crow Valley School, originally called Pleasant Valley, was built in 1888, one year before the Territory of Washington was admitted to the Union as the State of Washington. It was built on an acre of land donated by settler Peter Frechette. Students from grades one through eight were taught in the school house, which had a capacity of 57 (though most years saw about 27 students in attendance.) In 1893 there were 63 days of school compared with a State minimum of 180 today.
The length of school terms depended on the availability of funds and teachers. Teachers were paid about $50 per month. Some teachers would move from one school district to another, and sometimes their pupils would follow.
Crow Valley School was closed in 1918, after which students attended the consolidated Eastsound School. The building continued to be used as a community meeting place, a church, and a Sunday School. In 1929 the schoolhouse was purchased by “The Willing Workers” women’s club, many of whom were former students, and became The Crow Valley Club. This club made a few changes to the schoolhouse, including an opening to the main room which served as their kitchenette. Using a kerosene stove they held community dinners and entertained in this space.
In 1987 the school house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Shortly later it was painstakingly restored over hundreds of hours by Richard Schneider and Bud McBride, the founders of Crow Valley Pottery.
Crow Valley School is one of the finest examples of an intact one-room schoolhouse in Washington state.
During our recent Road Scholar trip, Best of the Pacific Northwest – Exploring Three of Washington’s San Juan Islands, my wife and I had the opportunity to enjoy the beauty, history, and ideas of San Juan Island, Orcas Island, and Lopez Island. This trip provided many stories which I will share with you over the coming weeks.
Lopez Community Land Trust
Lopez Community Land Trust (LCLT) was incorporated in 1989 when the cost of housing on Lopez Island rose 190% in a single year. LCLT is a 501(c)3 non-profit that builds a diverse, sustainable Lopez Island community through affordable housing, sustainable agriculture, and other dynamic rural development programs. LCLT was formed with the following Purposes:
To acquire and hold land in trust to provide for permanently affordable housing. Homes shall be built and lands shall be used in an environmentally sensitive and socially responsible manner
To provide permanently affordable access to land for such purposes as quality housing, sustainable agriculture and forestry, cottage industries, and co-operatives by forever removing the land from the speculative market.
To develop and exercise responsible and ecological practices, which preserve, protect and enhance the land’s natural attributes.
To serve as a model in land stewardship and community development by providing information, resources, and expertise.
As with any organization, LCTC needs contributions to continue its work. You can learn more about this organization by visiting their website or calling them at 360-468-3723.
Dallas Cothrum’s editorial in the April 14, 2024, Dallas Morning News begins by stating:
There is a crisis in our country that threatens our place as the shining beacon on a hill. America is losing its work ethic and probably the only ones who care are people still reading the newspaper. Many employees are no longer grateful for the opportunity to work, believing it’s the responsibility of the employers to satisfy their needs. Teamwork is a threatened species.
Oh, the ungrateful employee. What a crock. Instead of blaming workers, Cothrum might have spent his time considering the causes.
There is an ethical agreement between employer and employee. Both are supposed to behave honestly and respectfully. That has hardly been the history of labor relations. For example,
The Industrial Revolution produced mass production and factories where children worked long hours in unsafe conditions. It produced the robber barons who cheated their way to fame and fortune on the backs of workers. The workers banded together to form labor unions. The magnates whined to the government which sent in troops to disburse the strikers.
John D. Rockefeller
The bottom line is all that the bosses cared about in the 1800’s. That singular goal remains in place today as MBAs run major companies with the same ruthlessness that the robber barons would be proud of.
Corporations are exporting jobs to Asia and Latin America. Why? To take advantage of the low labor costs and unsupervised working conditions.
The contract between labor and management is broken even in academia. When the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) closed its DEI program under orders from the former Republic now the State of Texas, it promised that no one would lose their jobs. Several months after the initial announcement, the school fired the staff.
Mergers seem to come with layoffs like peanut butter and jelly. No wonder workers don’t trust management. Why should they?
The Pareto principle
It is a statistical fact that 20% of the people do 80% of the work. It was that way 60 years ago when I began my career and it is true today. It even holds for any group effort aka teamwork. Remember the 8th Grade Science Project where you did “all” the work and your four classmates did very little?
While teamwork is lauded, competition is fostered. High performers are kept by managers who don’t want to lose their “ace” who has helped the boss garner bonuses and promotions. How many top performers have heard, “Your chance will come soon.” Right. After you win the lottery.
What is the reward for these great contributors? They are assigned to train new employees, given them more work to do, and help teach and do their new bosses’ jobs.
The gap between executives and workers continues to widen. A local airline boasts millionaires in its executive suite while failing to update five-year-old labor agreements with pilots and flight attendants.
Homeschooling
Cothrum also says that “37% of nonworkers identified family caregiving as the primary reason they are not working.” That’s not a bad thing. Caring for an aged parent or young child is more important than getting a bonus or promotion. Many parents stay home or work from home to educate their children. Moms and dads undertake homeschooling, not because it is easy, but because it is critical in helping their kids learn. Public schools are plagued with overcrowded classrooms, untrained teachers, bullying, and shootings. Students at a Dallas high school refused to return to class because a student had brought a gun to school and shot a classmate. Teachers are leaving the classroom because of little or no support from administrations, frenzied school boards, and state-regulated content and books.
Cothrum and I agree on several points. There must be a “clear relationship between effort and reward” and “employees must be compensated appropriately in both dollars and recognition.” The solution to these issues is clearly in the hands of management and their failure to solve the problem already points to indifference and ignorance.
I just added a lengthy commentary entitled “Univeral Liberty and Universal Suffrage, Secured by Universal Education.” It is about the 1875 Ohio election where Rutherford B. Hayes won a third term as governor. The piece, from William D. Howells’ Sketch of the Life and Character of Rutherford B. Hayes, presents the conflict between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party over state-funded parochial schools. It reminded me of the battle currently being fought in the Texas legislature and the attacks on public education.
From Battlefield to Oilfields at McFarland Publishers
I just delivered the final draft of my latest book, From Battlefields to Oilfields to my publisher. The following is a brief description of the non-fiction work.
From before the discovery of oil at the Drake well in Titusville in 1859 to Ida Tarbell’s article in 1909 about how the Northern women “met the experience of war,” there has been a connection between the American oil and gas industry and the Civil War. When the war ended thousands of veterans rushed into the oil regions to start their lives again and seek their fortunes in the new petroleum boom.
From Battlefields to Oilfields explains the relationship between the American Civil War and the development of the United States petroleum industry. After the discovery of oil by Edwin Drake in 1859 in Titusville, Pennsylvania, Union oilfields became strategic targets and attacks on northern whaling ships helped grow the demand for kerosene. After the Rebellion, Civil War veterans helped spread the growth of oil exploration. former soldiers and officers searched for oil and gas, developed new transportation and production technology, and found new uses for petroleum products.
From Battlefields to Oilfields examines the involvement of Civil War officers and soldiers in all areas of the oil and gas industry. Their sacrifices on the battlefield saved the nation. Their contributions to the petroleum industry helped build the country.
You know the question I am referring to. It’s the same one we ask after every shooting, drug overdose, drunken driver manslaughter, beaten or murdered spouse, child poisoning, and immigrant death.
Here and now stop asking the asking the questions and take action. You are not a victim. Wringing your hands and screaming at the TV won’t get it done. By doing nothing you are an enabler.
Call all of your legislators. Contact government agencies. Vote and run for office. Boycott companies that support politicians and lobbyists who put money ahead of life.
Yes, put on your big girl or big guy pants, get off the couch, and be an instrument of positive change.
Get your head out of the sand and be a force of good not a ‘”it’s not my problem.” Build fences, not walls. Have those unpleasant conversations.
Our polarized, divisive culture seems to be without heroes and role models. We are adrift in a dark sea of disillusionment and distrust, and we need “human lighthouses” to give us hope and direct us back to the goodness in each other and in our own hearts.
Steve Pemberton found a lighthouse in an ordinary man named John Sykes, his former high school counselor. John gave Steve a safe harbor after Steve escaped an abusive foster home and together they navigated a new path that led to personal and professional success. Through stories of people like John and several others, you will identify how the hardships you have overcome equip you to be a “human lighthouse”, inspiring those around you.
The humble gestures of kindness that change the course of our lives can shift the course for America, too. With a unique vision for building up individuals and communities and restoring trust, The Lighthouse Effect opens your eyes to those who are quietly heroic. You will reflect on the lighthouses in your own life and be reminded that the greatest heroes are alongside us – and within us.
Allen Mesch 