In my 16-year-old mind, the 4-mile trail to Ozette might as well have been the 2500-mile-long Route 66. My thoughts pivoted between the stone-heavy backpack slamming against my hips and the sweat running into my eyes, blinding me with salt and transforming me into a bull’s eye for scores of kamikaze deer flies. Finally, I … More Velveeta and Wonder Bread: Cooking at the Pompeii of America
I came face to face with the truth about outhouses on my first day in my Peace Corps village. Not that I’d never seen (or used) an outhouse before; I became intimately acquainted with the concept during the summer I worked as the assistant cook on an archaeological dig in Ozette, Washington. There, the pit … More Doing What’s Necessary: The Logical Outcome of Haute Cuisine, or, An Extremely Brief Meditation on the History of Privies and Toilets
This post is dedicated to my childhood friend, Meli Duran-Kirkpatrick, who died early in the morning on May 11, 2009. I lost a very old friend yesterday, one who wasn’t all that old, not really. Meli and I grew up together, and together we went through Campfire Girls, junior high and high school, college, and … More Goodbye to a Dear Friend
CYNTHIA D. BERTELSEN 