Continuing The thought

As intimated previously, the first few weeks of writing were really hard. There were so many details that needed to be worked out. What did I need to learn about Jeff and Carl? What was it like in Seattle in the year 2025? What kind of first chapter should I write - solely an attention grabber, long on description, what?

There were many more questions, of course, but getting the important details straight from the start was number one. That meant gaining insight into what Seattle might well be like in 2025. That in turn would strongly influence Jeff and Carl's way of life and conclusions about life. I had lived in and around Seattle for over 20 years at that time and had watched it evolve over that period from a clean, bustling, true Emerald City into a wannabe San Francisco North where the pursuit of wealth and prestige were at the root of all activity. The old shack of a mobile home that I mentioned in an earlier post was located on Bainbridge Island west across Puget Sound from Seattle. The same evolutionary process took place there, except in spades.

Arriving on Bainbridge in 1974, by the time I left in 1996 the dreamy, quiet island of long-time residents of modest means and people in search of quietude had become a haven for people fleeing California, and others from Seattle itself now willing to put up with the 25 minute commute by ferry. The money came with them. By the time I left, multimillion dollar homes were being constructed in every ravine and on every available piece of property. Land values skyrocketed. Many residents of modest means and retired folks were forced out by high real estate taxes, bringing in more money. I had seen the entire process from beginning to near the end, and it was ugly. But there was more to it than that. I had also seen the island change as one, first of good income as a psychiatrist and then finally as a scraping along the bottom writer. The effect was profound and strongly affected my vision of Seattle in the year 2025.

Still, as I began to flesh out Seattle in that advanced year, my view also encompassed the same or similar processes in other large metropolitan areas. Certainly the changes noted were not unique to Seattle, it was just that I loved the Seattle that was lost. What resulted was a dark vision strongly influenced by the substance of evolutionary experience.

In order to avoid later confusion, I need to set out a writing time line here. I started writing in the spring of 1994, shortly after shutting down Home Baking Company. And although I mention the old mobile home, I actually started to write in a much nicer home I owned on the other side of the island. Some months later I lost that home and moved to the trailer. I was behind on taxes and trying to sell when someone got whiff of it and bought my home out from under me for the taxes. As you can imagine, that experience also influenced my view of Bainbridge and Seattle.

Looking back, I still feel the strong emotion of those times and understand more fully the reasons, good reasons, for leaving Bainbridge, Seattle, and planet Earth. So the move to the trailer was necessary, for that's where the real writing took place, but when I caught my final ferry off Bainbridge Island some months later on the way to Minnesota, I did shake the dust off my feet and departed with no regrets.