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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
July 27, 2023     Shelton Mason County Journal
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Page 4 Shelton-Mason County Journal Thursday, July 27, 2023 starting at age 17. All were used, save one, and only two had any dollar value when I finished with them. All, however, have story value. No. l, 1977: A 1972 Volk- swagen Super Beetle, which I bought for $1,200 from used car lot in the Spokane Val- ley called Christian Brothers Automotive. At some point in the transaction, one of the brothers asked whether I was a Christian. Yes, I re- plied. “Good,” he said, “we like to keep sales in the fam— ily.” I asked what the car’s top speed was. The Christian said, “As Christians, we be- lieve in obeying the law, in— cluding speed limits.” Within a few months, the Rolling Stones’ “Exile on Main St.” cassette was at top volume and in heavy rotation in that car, and being a Christian wasn’t. No. 2, 1979: An Interna— tional Scout Camper, with fold—out sleepers on the side. I needed a place to sleep alone instead of the one-room bunkhouse ~ because the I’ve bought 10 cars in life, Storiesofo THESE TIMES other farmhand on the ranch that summer in Republic in Ferry County found President Ronald Reagan enthralling, and he couldn’t stop yammer- ing about him. I also found his offer ofa back rub suggestive. Mel appeared three years later on national TV, being interviewed by Ed Bradley on “60 Minutes.” Mel was openly challenging his eviction from the Navy because ofits ban on gay service members. No. 3, 1980: I remember little about this car, except it backfired often. A woman followed me home from work once, and upon exiting her car, she asked, “Do you know you have flames coming out of the exhaust pipe?” “Yeah,” I said. Those were not good days. No. 4, 1982: A Peugeot 504 sedan. I had no business own— ing this car because it was too finicky and too expensive to repair. The spark plugs were seated so deep in the engine block you needed a special socket wrench to reach them, and the car wouldn’t start if the atmosphere had so much as licked its lips within the previous hour. To start the car, I’d often have to remove the distributor cap to dry the contacts, then hope it would start before the battery died. That car caused more frus- tration than any I’ve owned, but when it was freewheeling on the road, with the sunroof open and the stereo playing, it was ajoy. It made the frus- tration worth it, like raising kids. No. 5, 1984: A 1985 Ford Escort, my only new car. I bought it from Curley John— son Ford in Monroe, Wash. Mr. Johnson gave me $400 for the Peugeot as a trade- in, even after I told him rlives '— the automobile chapter everything wrong with it. That fussy and thoroughly French Peugeot was never driven off that car lot. No. 6, 1994: A black, four- door Volvo with sunroof. I test—drove it with my 2-year- old boy in the back. Alex quickly fell asleep in his car seat, which I realized was the nonfactory option I had sought in my next vehicle. Nos. 7 and 8, 2007 to 2010: Two red Camry sta- tion wagons. The first one broke down on a city street. I pushed it a quarter—mile to a repair shop, where a dodder— ing guy with long gray hair opened the hood, grabbed a can of compressed air and pulled its lever. The nozzle was pointed the wrong way, so he blasted air into his face, causing him to reel backward and rap his head on the un— derside of the hood. That car didn’t survive the surgery. The second Camry went in— ert in Lynnwood while driv— ing my oldest son to a Little League game. I left the car on the street, walked him to the ballpark, called a tow truck, had it towed to a shop where the diagnosis was unhappy, so I had it towed to a scrapyard, where the woman there of— fered to take it for free, which was a sweet deal. I ran back ' to the baseball game and got there in the ninth inning, giv— ing as just enough time to set a ride home with a player’s odd parents. No. 9, 2010: A 2004 Dae— woo Leganza. A news colum- nist with The (Tacoma) News Tribune was the only one I knew who had a Daewoo. We actively wondered whose would end first. His did. No. 10, 2017: A 2004 Infiniti 135. I bought it in July 2017 from a young fel- low named Michael Bolton, just like the character in the movie “Office Space.” The car is now totaled. An SUV ran a red light and damaged the front passenger door beyond the car’s value. One week later in a mall parking lot, the driver’s side door got bashed, bringing a renewed symmetry to the vehicle. I don’t have to worry about dents now. I Contact Kirk Ericson, at kirkkllmasoncountycom LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Good Samaritans Editor, the Journal, Perhaps the city authorities — particu- larly those who attend church — could speak to their church pastor asking them to accommodate the homeless just like Jesus said to do. I might surmise that a few church pas— tors and priests are aware of Shelton’s park “tent city.” I suspect Shelton pastors have some— time in their long list of religious ser- mons preached about the good Samari- tan story where it’s recommended to stop and help a man in trouble when others wouldn’t. Have not these Shelton pastors read the scripture in Luke 6:30 where Je— sus says to “give to any man that asks of you, and if any man lake from you don’t ask for it back.” If the homeless would simply ask the preacherman to sleep in- side their church for the night, that prea— cherman who claims to follow the teach— ings of Jesus would gleefully open up the church doors and help them, too, they would accommodate a portion of their parking lot for them to pitch tents and actually practice what they preach. Problem solved. Also, it’s not just the homeless they are dismissing. I find it interesting that when the church has a problem they ask SHELTON-MASON COUNTY USPS 492-800 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Shelton-Mason County Journal, PO. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584. Published weekly by the Shelton-Mason County Journal at 227 W. Cola St, Shelton, Washington. Mailing address: PO. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584 Telephone: 360—426-4412 Website: www.masoncounty.com Periodicals postage paid in Shelton, Washington. the congregation for money, yet when the congregants have a problem, the prea— cherman says to pray about it. Think- ing: We have two large churches in town competing with each other for who has the bigger building, remodeling and add- ing on rooms and such. Seemingly, they don’t have time to be a good Samaritan. Darrell Barker Shelton Auditor replies Editor, the Journal, Dear Mr. Anderson; Thank you for your continued inter- est in our elections system. The Elections Department team works diligently to update voter rolls with information regu- larly provided from the USPS Change of Address database and the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) system. With that, I spend the better part of my work week resolving specific “voter anomaly” questions brought forward by citizens and formal voter registra— tion challenges. I also look into alleged instances of voters voting in two states in the same election based on informa— tion provided by the Secretary of State’s Office. You will find the summary stat- ics for this work on the elections web- site at masoncountywaelections.gov/ Owned and published by Shelton—Mason County Journal, Inc. The Journal is a member of the Washington Newspaper Publish— ers Association. Publisher: John Lester previous-elections—results—data. Copies of the current set of formal voter regis~ tration challenges are also posted on the elections website. Please stop by the Auditor’s Office for a visit, and I will be happy to walk you through how this important work is done. It’s our job, and I think you would agree that it is an example of tax dollars well spent. Steve Duenkcl Mason County auditor How the sun works Editor, the Journal, The sun, our life-giver and protector. The sun’s relatively tiny core, because of extreme pressure and temperature, is a nuclear furnace that is emitting le— thal ultra—high frequency energy. As this extreme energy makes its way to the surface of the sun, it loses much of its frequency and at the surface the en- ergy is radiated away in the form of solar radiation. Mostly, these waves carry energy with frequencies in the range of radio to infra- red through visible to ultraviolet. The sun also throws off a constant stream of plasma, which is a mixture of electrons, ions, neutral atoms and other traces of matter. The temperature of the Front office: Advertising: Theresa Murray, Ad Representative Delivery: Jon Garza Newsroom: David Olson SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $79 per year ($55 for six months) for Mason County addresses and $99 per year ($70 for six months) outside of Mason County. Single issue price $2.00 Justin Johnson, Editor Gordon Weeks, Reporter Matt Baide, Reporter Kirk Boxlei’mer, Reporter Kirk Ericson, Columnist/ Proofreader Shawna Whelan, Photographer Niel Challstrom Design: Kim Fowler, Graphic Design Linda Frizzell, Special Projects upper layers of the sun’s corona is many times hotter than the surface of the sun. The plasma becomes energetic enough to sail away from the sun’s gravitational influence and as the sun rotates, a spiral— ing curtain of this plasma spins out into space and forms what is known as the solar wind. How is this super-hot plasma able to sail away into super-cold space and stay hot? The solar wind carries a magnetic field along with it as it spins away from the sun and thus forms a field known as the interplanetary magnetic field. This field balloons out into space and surrounds the entire solar system, even beyond Plu- to. The solar wind acts as a shield to help protect the planets from high-energy ef— fects such as cosmic rays and perhaps other unknown effects. Eventually the interplanetary field begins to lose its velocity and starts to cool down. It reaches the point where it can no longer push back against the elem" tromagnetic field and particle wind push— ing in from the deep interstellar space between stars and galaxies and :1 output/ input balance is achieved. Scott Peterson Shelton see LETTERS, page 34 ____________________________._.._.._____—.——————-——~-——------— Dave Pierik, Office Administrator Karen Hranac, Customer Service All regular editorial, advertising and legal deadlines are 5 pm. the Monday prior to publication. To submit a letter to the editor, email editor@masoncounty.com. Office hours: 8 am. to 5 pm. Monday to Thursday. Closed Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and major holidays.