I grew up on a farm about 100 miles outside of Seattle that started as a homestead that my great grandmother and great grandfather from Germany started and my family still operates.
I moved to Seattle in 1978 after graduating with MSEE. So I have seen a lot of changes over the years, but my family going back generations have seen even more.
I recall fondly living on Queen Anne Hill (first hill north of downtown) which was my first place here in Seattle. I rode the trolley to work every day and would stop by and get coffee at a goofy place down in Pike Place Market called "Starbucks" and would tell people at work " hey you gotta try this Italian coffee, it's really good".
But the "old Seattle", pre-Amazon and pre-Microsoft had a real grungy industrial patina to it (maybe that is where the music got influence?).
Do I Love the old Seattle? Absolutely. Do I long for it? Not in the least. Every phase this great city has gone through has changed it, before Amazon, Microsoft, before that Boeing before that Weyerhaeuser. Each transformation, in my view, has brought in new people and new character and for me, I welcome it.
I am going to post here a poem from a book of poems my Great Grandmother wrote for family back in Germany. It is about this area as it think it expresses my view of the changes, maybe I see it the way she did?
The Sleeping Washington
---------------------------------------------------
The forest, a sound is not quiet in.
Washington sleeps and with nature.
Small bird mutely and the bear rests hidden,
Fleeting often only one deer hurries as frightened.
Even the Pine Trees, deliberate,thoughtful and old,
Bend the heads and nod soon.
Slumber sweetly, only lock the eyes,
Know not for a long your power rests.
If light clouds in the sky draw
And your persistent rushing wind shakes.
Sleep only, State of Washington, as child.
Sunday is today, in the solemn silence The forest is.
The serious pines their treetops bends as to the prayer.
But the environment of God's spirit and breath everywhere.
So I want to bend myself in deep humility Before you,alone
With fervency, for your benediction ask you, God the father.
Retain also all my serene love
Also ask I you, carry here a flowering Of colonies;
With work, quite soon, railways, churches, schools, Culture drawn in
The jungle country, a rich bit of earth in Washington.
Thank you for a very authentic and pleasant contribution to the conversation. It's not often that we see hidden nuggets of history shared like this.
But I have to admit that I'm having trouble understanding the last line. The author begins by extolling the quiet beauty of Washington state, continues by thanking god that she can be a part of it, then asks for the benefits of new growth (a "flowering of colonies"). But then it concludes with "I beg you...that it draws them not". This seems to contradict the previous part. Or is she hoping that they are not drawn to the jungle country, so "the rich bit of earth" can remain untouched?
My interpretation is that like a lot of us she perhaps felt ambivalent, or conflicted between wanting to share a place you love with others and wanting to keep it to yourself.
You've repeatedly broken the site guidelines in this thread and appear to also have created a new account to do it. If you do those things again, we will ban you.
Thanks for the interesting comment. The 'old Seattle' is interesting.
Have you lived in any other big cities? I am not from Seattle, but have lived there and extensively been told about this 'old Seattle.' I imagine there was indeed something perhaps a little bit special going on below that grungy, steely grey patina. Not just aesthetically, but pragmatically.
When Hendrix went into the military, he was called a weirdo. He was caught masturbating in the toilet, which was listed as a reason he was subsequently discharged after twisting his ankle on a jump.
Kurt Cobain one of my favourite artists, also, a weirdo. By today's standards of rape, he did rape a retarded girl in order to lose his virginity.
Layne Stayley... A bullied, self-destructive drug addict with a history of self-harm. Even after some early successes, he was kind of like Musk in the sense of receiving a lot of bullying among all the praise (for example, Hetfield frequently made fun of him).
Some of the most important people in defining Seattle as producing great artists were, perhaps, prone to failure in life.
In the city I grew up in, under the shadow of glitz, glamour and wealth, we have high occurence of violence, aggression, intolerance for deviance and a strange love of veneers of wealth and success. I can imagine not all the great artists who grew up here made it.
Also, I would wonder what would happen to those guys if they were born today.
Unfortunately, for some reason after about 20 minutes I glanced back at this comment and was not able to edit it..? Why can't I edit this specific comment?
I hoped to erase some personally-identifying info, and also just be clear about Cobain's rape or sexual encounter with a disabled girl--while that sentence came after I mentioned him as one of my favourite artists, millions of people appreciate him but I in no way condone that unfortunate aspect of his life.
And the "weirdo" part should be in quotes, his superiors in the military unfortunately called him that.
Possibly a bug. I've reopened the comment for editing so you can edit it. Please email hn@ycombinator.com when you've done that so I can close it again and delete this.
I moved to Seattle in 1978 after graduating with MSEE. So I have seen a lot of changes over the years, but my family going back generations have seen even more.
I recall fondly living on Queen Anne Hill (first hill north of downtown) which was my first place here in Seattle. I rode the trolley to work every day and would stop by and get coffee at a goofy place down in Pike Place Market called "Starbucks" and would tell people at work " hey you gotta try this Italian coffee, it's really good".
But the "old Seattle", pre-Amazon and pre-Microsoft had a real grungy industrial patina to it (maybe that is where the music got influence?).
Do I Love the old Seattle? Absolutely. Do I long for it? Not in the least. Every phase this great city has gone through has changed it, before Amazon, Microsoft, before that Boeing before that Weyerhaeuser. Each transformation, in my view, has brought in new people and new character and for me, I welcome it.
I am going to post here a poem from a book of poems my Great Grandmother wrote for family back in Germany. It is about this area as it think it expresses my view of the changes, maybe I see it the way she did?
The Sleeping Washington ---------------------------------------------------
The forest, a sound is not quiet in.
Washington sleeps and with nature.
Small bird mutely and the bear rests hidden,
Fleeting often only one deer hurries as frightened.
Even the Pine Trees, deliberate,thoughtful and old,
Bend the heads and nod soon.
Slumber sweetly, only lock the eyes,
Know not for a long your power rests.
If light clouds in the sky draw
And your persistent rushing wind shakes.
Sleep only, State of Washington, as child.
Sunday is today, in the solemn silence The forest is.
The serious pines their treetops bends as to the prayer.
But the environment of God's spirit and breath everywhere.
So I want to bend myself in deep humility Before you,alone
With fervency, for your benediction ask you, God the father.
Retain also all my serene love
Also ask I you, carry here a flowering Of colonies;
With work, quite soon, railways, churches, schools, Culture drawn in
The jungle country, a rich bit of earth in Washington.
Therefore, I beg you, O Father, Thy blessing
that it draws them not.