‘Mental Territories’ Explores Regional Jingoism

There never has been just one Inland Empire.

The folks who live in and around San Bernardino, Calif., long have used that name to describe their inland desert domain. No doubt there are others.

Yet tradition dictates those who hail from the Inland Northwest territory comprising Eastern Washington, southern British Columbia, North Idaho, western Montana and northeast Oregon tend to claim the name for their own.

As Katherine G. Morrissey wrote in her book “Mental Territories: Mapping the Inland Empire” (Cornell University Press, 220 pages, $18.95 paperback, ISBN 0-8014-8326-3), this insular attitude - a combination of defensiveness and pride - isn’t anything new.

An early pamphlet, “written for outsiders” wrote Morrissey, an assistant professor of history at the University of Arizona, proclaimed that “Residents of the Pacific Northwest are inclined to take it for granted that their eastern friends understand exactly what is comprehended by the words ‘Inland Empire.”’

Morrissey’s book studies this kind of regional jingoism, measuring how the reality fared against the perceptions that grew up around it, and examining the “‘ghostly images” that resulted.

“The challenge for us is to materialize these ghost regions, to look into the minds of their inhabitants and to see what those minds reveal about our own,” Morrissey wrote.

To order, call (800) 666-2211.

Time to reconcile

There was a time when history was told, not written. It came to us in stories and songs, related by those elders entrusted with the all-important task of keeping the culture alive.

Some things never change. V. Ted Hutchinson shares his vision of African-American history through folk tales and songs. Hutchinson, a native New Yorker who now is a member of the Seattle Storyteller’s Guild, will bring his history-minded show to the East Side Branch Library, 524 S. Stone, at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

The event, which is free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the Washington Commission for the Humanities and the Friends of the Spokane Public Library.

For further information, call 626-5300.

Door to door to door

Spokane author Mackey Brown was once hailed in the popular “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” column as the “world’s greatest door to door salesman.”

From 1935 to 1980, Ripley reported, Brown “knocked on over 1 million doors, sold over $2 million in products.”

Brown wrote about his exploits in two self-published books: “The Salesman and the Farmer’s Daughter: Tales of a Traveling Salesman” and “The Ups and the Downs of a Door-to-Door Salesman.”

Now retired and recovering from a stroke, Brown is still marketing his books, which are priced at $12.95. To order, send check or money order (made out to MEB Publishing) to 17121 E. Eighth, Greenacres, WA 99016.

Forever’s a long time

While driving from Seattle to Salem, Ore., Stephanie had a vision that ultimately became her novel “Forever and a Lifetime.”

The self-published book, which is a spiritual journey, is designed for people such as the author and her late sister. People who were affected by the radiation leakages from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in the 1940s.

Peters’ father served as a Navy air-traffic controller, and her mother worked for the Army Corps of Engineers. She was born in 1948, her sister in 1945. Her sister died in 1988, from a condition caused by radiation contamination.

Peters, who was born in Spokane and attended 2nd through 7th grades here, herself suffers from a malformed pituitary gland, type 1 diabetes, and she’s had two tumors removed.

“My purpose for writing ‘Forever and a Lifetime’ was to give hope and the ability to cope with health problems to other downwinders suffering ill health,” she says. “In general, it is a book for all who have pain.”

Peters also is the author of “Always to be Treasured in Moses Lake,” her memoir of living five years on a family farm.

“Forever and a Lifetime” (265 pages, $10.95 paperback, ISBN 0-9626279-4-1) can be ordered by calling Ingraham distributors at (800) 937-8000.

From better to verse

If you’re a fan of rhymed verse, and your sentiments run to the Western landscape, then you might be interested in “Canyon of the Forgotten” (Timberline Press, 75 pages, $10 paperback), a chapbook of poetry by Twisp, Wash., resident Virginia Bennett.

A poet who performs her works at the occasional Cowboy Poet gathering (this January marks her seventh appearance at the world-famous event in Elko, Nev.), Bennett co-manages the corporate guest ranch, the Tice Ranch, which is located near Twisp.

To order the book, or a cassette recording of it, send $12 (or $20 for both) to: 20556 Hwy 20, Twisp, WA 98856. The computer literate can read more about the book at www.pac-inst.com (click on “Canyon of the Forgotten”).

The reader board

Carolyn Nunemaker, author of “Downtown Spokane Images 1930-1949,” will discuss and sign her book from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Hastings outlet in Lincoln Heights.

, DataTimes