Barbara J. Hamby

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Will Someone Hand Me My Cane

This is the anniversary of one of the events in my lifetime that I never imagined could occur in my world when I was younger. There have been many others.

When I was in my late teens, I went to a party where a young man from South America was telling about life in his country. He said you could be shot down just walking down the street. I thought it must be terrible to live in such a place and felt so lucky to live here.

In school, we studied volcanoes and I was sure I would never see one erupt. The ones I read about were all a long ways away. But I was living in North Portland about forty years later when Mt. St. Helens erupted. I didn’t see the original eruption, but did see the many later occurrences. I also went with friends up the mountain in 1985 when the devastation was still apparent, even though repairs were being made. Driving up the old road to Windy Ridge was unbelievably eerie.

The most recent major disaster in New Orleans took place while we were on a cruise ship in the Atlantic. We watched CNN news by satellite in total shock. Every day the pictures were more horrible. The total picture hasn’t improved much even now.

Growing older, I’ve learned to adapt to radical changes in lifestyles. I think the smaller, more gradual changes are harder to accept. When I moved to this neighborhood less than three years ago, it seemed to be fairly quiet and sleepy. Granted, traffic was heavy at times on Highway 99W, I-5 and I-205. But, except for Washington Square, where I rarely go, shopping was in small mini-malls and individual stores scattered around widely. Now we have Bridgeport Village and it has swallowed up my favorite neighborhood bookstore.

I made my first visit to the new, much larger store today. Parking was difficult; even walking on the crowded sidewalks was too much like the big city for me. I guess I’ll have to admit I’m getting older and less adaptable to “modernization.” I suppose you could say it’s handy to have such a big variety of stores nearby, but I don’t have such a big variety of needs these days.

Tempus fugit and I lag behind.