The Slice: Reefer madness in Coeur d’Alene

The Slice asked where readers had unexpected encounters with the unmistakable aroma of marijuana smoke.

Judi Durfee had an answer: Higgens Point in Coeur d’Alene.

“My husband and I were photographing several mature eagles resting on a snag tree, fairly close (within 20 feet) to the lakeside road.”

A vehicle rumbled up and when a door opened pot smoke billowed forth. “It enveloped the area as well as both of us.”

Two beefy stoners stumbled out and loudly expressed surprise that their clamorous arrival had scared away the eagles.

“To this day I wonder whether the blast of smoke had anything to do with our giggling about what had just happened.”

Going back to see the house you grew up in: “When I went back to East Lansing, Michigan (after 25 years), the first thing I noticed was the tree on the hill beside the house was still standing,” wrote Sally Kuchik. “I used to worry the wind would uproot it because it swayed in the storms.”

Sue Kassa shared this. “Several years ago my sister and I drove by our childhood home (in Seattle’s Magnolia neighborhood) to see how it looked. The front looked great and revealed that recent owners had put dormers upstairs in the second floor of the house.”

Then, when Sue and her sister were trying to see through a tall fence, a woman in the backyard came over and asked what they were doing. They explained, and she invited them inside.

“She had a piano sitting in exactly the same place as we had our piano.”

The visit lasted more than two hours.

“She was a lovely lady and my sister and I were thrilled to have that time with her. Our old house is in good hands.”

Blake Ballard also answered that question.

“Last September, my brother and I (we are both in our 70s) went back to visit our one and only childhood home in Asheville, North Carolina. “We sold it in 2010 after our mother passed away. We knew the new owners had done some extensive remodeling but we were well pleased with the effort they made to retain the spirit of the home.”

Seeing the place again was an emotional experience.

“Now, many years after my brother and I grew up in that home, two more boys are growing up there, enjoying many of the same attributes of the property that we did.”

Today’s Slice question: What would be the perfect name for an Inland Northwest lake monster?

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. If someone pronounced you “Star baker,” would you get the reference?