Tag: Kenton

AM Mystery

A bad picture due to early morning light, but the car on the right was left running, with its lights and windshield wipers on (although it wasn’t raining.) The trunk was open and the driver and passenger seats were flung forward. It looked like it had run into something, though nothing around it looked as though it had been hit. I approached cautiously, but there was nothing to see, so I walked away. There was a gentleman outside a business and he told me that one of his employees had seen the car roll to a stop and a guy jump out, grab something from the back and drive off. Someone had called 911, so I continued on my way to work. I could hear the sirens approaching while I was at the Max stop, but I will never know exactly what happened here.

Probably the last place I would want to eat breakfast.

The Dancin‘ Bare is what I see when I stand at my Max stop. It’s one of those neighborhood institutions that I don’t want to get all huffy and protest-y and start petitions and force it to close, but I would be quite happy if it ceased to exist. (Portland International Raceway is the other one.) I can tell you, though that I will not be eating any meal there, even if they are offering a plate of eggs and hash browns to go along with their strippers.

Portland Roses

A Master Gardener once told me that Portland, Oregon is a dumb place to grow roses. Apparently, they enjoy the desert-type climates of California much better than our dark, cold and rainy days.

And yet, Portland is well known as the City of Roses. We have a Rose Festival, for goodness sake and everyone seems to want to go to the Washington Park Rose Garden when they visit. If they are so darn hard to maintain here, why do we Portlanders insist on growing them?
I realized today, on yet another cold and gray spring day, that our hearty pioneer ancestors most likely grew up in climates much sunnier than ours in the winter. They probably grew roses because if anything is cheering against yet another day of gray skies, it is a profusion of colorful roses. Thank goodness there is a neighborhood rose garden on my walk to the train.

Kenton: G&H Meat Market

When I moved to the Kenton neighborhood in 2007, G&H Meat Market was the typical business in downtown Kenton. You could buy large packages of different cuts of meat and there were also basic grocery items available. It was a no-frills operation. I went in once, but none of the meat was free-range, organic, etc. and the standoffish attitude from the proprietor reminded me of South Boston, so I never bought anything from this store.

Still, I was surprised to find that it had gone out of business. Here is its corner location.

The windows that used to have the listings of packages of meat you could buy are now covered with white paper.

A liquor license notice has been posted. If approved, it looks like there will be a tavern here.

Looking south down the street.

The North side of the building. Across the street is the Cup and Saucer, which has delicious breakfasts.

End of two trees

This tree and another one like it live down the street from me. They are old and clearly planted in a time when people didn’t plan for where the power lines would go. So today seems to be their last day. I stood outside the Indian grocery watched the man in the tree remove a few limbs. It was rather hypnotic.

I felt a little sad for the trees, but not knowing anything about the situation, I didn’t get too worked up. It must have been an interesting task to cut them down without also taking down the power lines.