‘Barns Of The West’ Symbolizes Fast-Fading Way Of Life
If you’ve ever spent time touring the Northwest landscape and who hasn’t? - you’ve probably noticed the numerous barns that line the various roads and highways.
There are those that seem brand new, with bright red siding and shiny weather vanes. Others resemble something dating from the Great Fire era (1889), boasting wind-whipped walls that seem to shift with each breeze.
But how many of us know anything specific about these ultimate symbols of farm/ranch life? Not many, I suspect.
Which is one reason why you might want to leaf through a copy of “Barns of the West: A Vanishing Legacy” (Historic Idaho, Inc., 112 pages, $29.95 ISBN 0-9631258-9-3) by Arthur A. Hart. You might also enjoy seeing pictures that portray the remnants of a passing way of life.
Why passing? As Hart writes, 80 percent of America once lived on farms. Now 80 percent of us live in town. That evolution has changed the very essence of farm/ranch life, lessening the importance of a barn as a result.
As director emeritus of the Idaho State Historical Society, Hart surprises no one by using his book to issue a call to protect these old buildings.
“Because some of us, and most of our forebears, grew up on family farms,” Hart writes, “the old barn in the landscape evokes nostalgia and affection. We might never want to return to the hard work and precarious existence that was the lot of most small farmers, beset by drought, flood, hailstorms and insects, falling prices and national depression, but we view this past way of life with fondness and sympathy.”
From real life…
Fans of true-life murder studies might be interested in “A Father’s Rage” (Avon, 340 pages, $5.99 paperback) by Don Davis.
The book details the trial and conviction of former Clarkston lawman Ken Arrasmith for the 1995 murder of a couple accused of raping his daughter.
While the book features a cover that’s a lurid as any True Detective magazine - one subtitle reads “The Electrifying True Story of the Former Lawman Who Played Both Cop and Executioner” - the writing resembles Jack Olsen more than it does a script for “Hard Copy.” Davis, who specializes in such studies, appears to have done his homework.
By the way, the author has kind words to three area journalists. Joan Abrams of the Lewis Morning Tribune, he wrote, “was incredibly kind in sharing her reports, sources and thoughts.” Lynn Rossi of KHQ-TV deserves a “special salute.”
And Spokesman-Review reporter Eric Sorensen “provided uncanny insight into the case.”
More than just trash
If you were to go back and amass all the stories that have been written about Spokane’s Waste-to-Energy Facility, both the good and the bad, you’d have enough text for a dozen books.
Eastern Washington University professor Larry S. Luton has culled all those words down into just one. “The Politics of Garbage: A Community Perspective on Solid Waste Policy Making” (Univ. Pittsburgh Press, 307 pages, $22.95 paperback, ISBN 0-8229-5606-5) is the result.
While this clearly is an environmental issue, Luton’s main interest is filtered through his role as a professor of public administration. So the intent of his book is clear: He is not as much interested in the decisions regarding Spokane’s disposal of garbage as he is in how those decisions were made.
His book’s purpose, he writes, “is to examine how a very complex combination of cultural, social institutional, political, organizational, ecological, historical and relational dynamics affected the adoption and implementation of solid waste policies in one metropolitan area of the United States.”
His hope, he concludes, is “to gain some insight into the system of intergovernmental public policy making… If we do, then we should also be better prepared to work within that system to improve the fit between what we want to do and the policies we adopt.”
One can always dream.
Inky fingers
A series of literary workshops/ readings held at The Coffee House in Sandpoint will kick off its second year with a Feb. 1 presentation by poet Christopher Howell.
Howell, whose book “Memory and Heaven” will be released by Eastern Washington University Press this month, will direct a 10-person writer’s workshop from 3 to 5 p.m. At 7 that night, Howell will give a public reading. Workshop fees are $15, but the reading is free.
Other scheduled events include: March 22, Anacortes poet James Bertolino; April 18-19, poet John Haag.
For registration and other information, call Jane Fritz at (208) 266-1284.
You’re not too late to catch the first in a three-part series of book readings by Spokane author/writing instructor Virginia White, sponsored by the Seniors Program of the Community Colleges of Spokane.
White is scheduled to discuss “Breaking Blue” by Gonzaga Prep graduate and Seattle-based New York Times writer Timothy Egan from 1 to 3 p.m. Monday at the Hillyard Senior Center, 4001 N. Cook. The fee is $11.
White will lead a discussion of Ivan Doig’s “This House of Sky” in February and Doig’s “Hearth Earth” in March. For specific dates, registration and other information (a second discussion group will be held each month at the South Hill Senior Center, 2727 S. Mt. Vernon), call 533-3393.
The reader board
Harry Chinchinian, author of “Murder in the Mountains,” will read from his novel at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington. Chinchinian, whose previous book was “Pathologist in Peril,” has set his Dr. Hank Whipple mystery in McCall, Idaho.
, DataTimes