One man’s trash is another man’s history
by Darwin Bell (flickr)Back when the closure of Leilani Lanes was announced, Dylan noted:
Leilani, of course, is from the blue collar Boeing era of Seattle. You worked at the factory all day, drove home on US 99 (I-5 was still under construction into the mid-60s), grabbed your ball, and headed down to Leilani for bowling league night. See the guys, bowl 200, drink half a dozen Rainiers.
The pieces of that older Seattle are getting fewer and farther between. Leilani Lanes is no more, and their iconic sign was cracked and rusting and headed for a salvage yard.
Good riddance, said some. (Ahem.)
As it turned out, the sign was saved from the wrecking ball by Jim McAuliffe, who keeps an eclectic collection of Americana at his son’s nursery off Route 9 near Snohomish.
There’s some grumbling that the sign isn’t staying in Seattle. It’s still good news for those of us who like to keep pieces of our past around. Snohomish isn’t that far of a drive.
Colin,
Thanks for this post. I’ve only been living in Seattle for a couple of years. In those 2 years i have seen this city go through rapid change. And while change is an inevitable part of life (a part of life that i tend to struggle with) the kind of change I’ve seen in Seattle has unsettled me.
I believe this city used to be a working class city. A city that people could live in at an affordable price. I’m afraid Seattle is quickly becoming a city that is only accessible for the few instead of the many. By that i mean the condos i see going up all around Fremont (and many other spots in the city) are replacing old, affordable housing. Sure the houses don’t look sleek and new, but that was the point. Old houses have stories to tell. In general most new condos or town homes are unaffordable and ugly. Cheap housing allows for a diverse range of people to live together. I don’t want all of my neighbors to drive Audi’s and VW’s. I want to hear beat up junkers rambling down my street at 3 in the morning. Will this city become insular and exclusive, only putting its welcome mat out to those who fit a certain social criteria and class?
Overall, I feel helpless to do much against the winds of change that are blowing through the city and its outlying neighborhoods. I am small and the city council is big.
If anything all of this destruction and construction has given me the idea of documenting what’s left of the old, unpolished Seattle. If Seattle is going to be steamrolled by Microsoft execs and Adobe programmers than the least I can do is try and create a memory of what it once was.