The Slice: Nixon’s stay here was a little more hospitable

On this day in 1974, an estimated 10,000 people marched in Washington, D.C., calling for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.

A week later, Nixon would be in Spokane to open Expo ’74.

•Pin busters: Spokane Valley’s Heidi Pickens belongs to a young-marrieds church group that recently went bowling. A friend of hers rolled an anemic 38 in one game. But Pickens said that good-natured woman still had fun.

Then there was this from Jim McCall, also of Spokane Valley. “My sister, an adult at the time, bowled 18. She started out with 16 gutter balls consecutively.”

It’s hard to rally after a start like that.

•Today’s gardening injury: North Idaho’s Laurie Klontz told about the time her brother, John Otto, was helping their mother, Lorraine, set up bean poles.

John, who was 8 or 9 at the time, crouched and steadied the poles. Meantime his mom used a big, flat rock to pound on the tops, driving the poles into the ground.

During this process, the heavy rock split in two and a big chunk struck John in the head. This left a nasty gash in his scalp, which required a trip to the hospital for stitches.

That was back in the mid-’70s. But at reunions and holiday gatherings, certain family members still enjoy recalling the time mom tried to kill John in the garden.

•Buildings making gestures: On the same day The Slice noted that the addition of a true skyscraper to downtown might make Spokane’s skyline appear to be making a rude gesture, Mark Laiminger was wearing his 20-year Spokane County service pin at work.

It features a depiction of the courthouse tower. And one of Laiminger’s colleagues said that, from a distance, the pin appeared to be flipping him off.

Well, sometimes seniority is accompanied by a bit of an attitude.

•Waste not, want not: “I think it would be interesting to poll your Depression Era readers to hear what quirks they have carried over into their adult lives,” wrote Jeanette Ping of LaCrosse, Wash.

“One of mine is buttons. I have tins and jars of buttons – some probably dating back to the Bronze Age.”

Even after all these years, Ping cannot bring herself to discard a worn-out garment without first cutting the buttons off and adding them to her stash.

“If our monetary unit ever reverts back to beaver pelts, seashells and buttons, Bill Gates will come in a sorry second.”

•Today’s Slice question: Have you ever been personally involved in demolishing a building – a school, church, barn or whatever – that once was a part of your life?