only on Vashon- the weekly rundown 07/23/21

As we all recover from the excitement of Strawberry Festival, it’s time to take a look at the other things happening around town. 

For one, someone stuffed fireworks in a mailbox and exploded it. It seems to be a random event, as the mailbox has no known enemies.

Someone dragged a sofa all the way to KVI and left it there. They chose a great couch. It really matches the beach color scheme. I’m impressed by the athleticism it takes to drag so much heavy furniture out over the tidal pools and onto the sand. 

Speaking of abandoned furniture, all the exercise equipment dumped by Wax Orchard Road has been taken, except for the stationary bike. Someone please pick it up and deliver it to Ellisport.

We’ve been talking about that mysterious building in town. For years, it’s just stood there, hulking over an entire block. I’ve been wondering about it, and when I was shopping in town I started asking questions of a business owner who works nearby.

Owner: Let me know if you need any help.

Me: I do. I need you to tell me about that building next door. Is it haunted? Do you hear weird noises? Do you ever see people come in and out?

Owner: I don’t know what it’s for. I’ve never seen anyone, and all the weird noises come from above, not next door.

So I asked the group about it and got some great answers. The building used to belong to Bacchus Lumber, and the black squares high on the wall once held signs. (The place is not boarded up as I had originally thought. The boards over the door are ornamental.)

The Bacchus family sold it to Earl, who founded Island Lumber, to which it still belongs.  Many of us would love to see a mural on the face of the building. Some suggest a mural of the two Bacchus sons who died in World War Two. Others suggest hanging paintings from the Remembrance Project. Some would love it to be a green space, with tall grasses beside it and hanging planters on the walls.

We often talk in the group about the island of our imagination:  what we’d like to see in the K2 factory, where we’d like a dog park (anywhere, honestly), what restaurants we need, etc. We started dreaming about what we’d like in that building: an art house, a bowling alley, a quilt and fabric store, a haunted house.

Some say it would be a great place for Grandpa’s Basement, which is an imaginary store thought up by the Vashon Hysterical Society. They’d assumed their shop would be in one of the old missile silos, so this would be a major upgrade. And what a place to buy mysterious machine parts and spare tools!

One islander asked why they’d never noticed the building. I’m thinking, maybe it only shows up for some people? And for others, Subway is adjacent to Rock It?  Maybe it’s like Brigadoon, but instead of a Scottish village, it’s a warehouse.

Finally, we celebrate Penny the Goat’s ascension to unofficial mayor. When asked about her legislative priorities, she said she plans on a socially-distanced Goat Olympics with a 0k race, a bagel eating contest, and badminton. This is an Olympics where I could actually win a gold medal. Congrats Penny!

Author: Anna Shomsky

I'm a former teacher and a data engineer living on Vashon Island. My writing has appeared in Five on the Fifth, Women on Writing and on the Post-Culture Podcast. I wrote and produced the radio show Whispers of Vashon for 101.9 KVSH. I’ve had short stories published in the anthologies Island Stories and Chicken Scratchings, as well as through the Open Space Literary Project.