In the fifties, my dad worked out of town, helping install heavy machinery for hydroelectric dams. My mom didn't drive. I was stuck in Spokane. If it were not for the Boy Scouts, I'd never have been outside Spokane, even locally. If I couldn't go anywhere, why couldn't something come to me? Alas, nothing seemed to happen in Spokane.
I wondered why everything seemed to happen elsewhere. Did notable people ever visit Spokane? My mom once said, "This morning's paper says the Crosby's were seen sneaking into the Fox Theater last night." Apparently, the only famous people who visited Spokane were FROM Spokane, but those were a rare thing.
Then, in 1950, President Harry S. Truman materialized in Spokane. He addressed 3000 people at Gonzaga after dedicating Grand Coulee Dam. I was eight years old and I knew that Harry was president and that a visit was a big deal. I also got an impression from my grandparents that Harry was unhappy with something the Spokesman Review reported about his visit.
Nothing notable happened in Spokane for the next four years.
One day in June, 1954, mom told me that Haile Selassie came to town to visit Grand Coulee Dam. "Really? Who in heck is Haile Sellasse? What kind of name is that?"
She said, "He's the Emperor of Ethiopia."
"An EMPEROR came to town? Are you sure? What's Ethiopia?"
She told me Ethiopia was a country in Africa with roots back to pre-Biblical times. Furthermore, Haile selassie claimed to trace his dynasty to the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon.
I was 12. Score two for Spokane. Thank God for Grand Coulee Dam.
At age 18, I graduated from John R. Rogers High School. I made a final three-month push at earning money for college and then left town forever. I was supposed to be getting a college education, but I really jumped ship to see the World. In the end, I saw most of the US states, and a few other countries.
During my education at Michigan State University in 1963, I was at a part-time job in a new cyclotron laboratory. I heard somebody shout, "No! ... Kennedy's been shot!" As those days unfolded, the news media plumbed the depths of misery.
I saw an interview of Truman where the reporter asked, "Mr. President, do you think there are centers of hate in the United States?"
"No ... well, except for those two newspapers in ... Spokane, Washington."
Score three for Spokane.