My Home Town

My home town, where I lived from birth through my 18th birthday, is Port Angeles, Washington. It’s certainly in a beautiful part of the country, and all in all it was a decent place to grow up. Still, my feelings about the place are decidedly mixed: it’s a grim industrial town that’s been mired in double-digit unemployment for as long as I can remember. While it may be in a marginally blue state, the town itself is most definately in red America. For most of my life, those coming in to town were greeted with a large billboard owned by the John Birch society (“Weekly meetings held on this property!”) with a new attempt at a zingy wingnut one-liner every week or so, designed to terrify and alarm visitors from Seattle and other such places where this sort of insanity is far more closeted. The open racism and hostility toward Native Americans in the town was at times jaw-dropping, and there were plenty of drinking establishments where you certainly wouldn’t consider admitting to being an environmentalist if you knew what was good for you.

The point here is that there has been very little about my town for my to take pride in, politically. That is, until recently. Kos posts about something I first learned of a while back. Tom Bihn, a maker of fine backpacks, bags, and whatnot, relocated there a few years ago. As his business was primarily mail-order, he could live where he wanted and for the outdoorsy sort, Port Angeles holds some serious appeal. It’s nice to see P.A. get political attention for something other than whatever stunt those militia morons end up pulling.

I’m also a proud owner of one of their fine laptop bags; their products are high-quality. A great place to do your Christmas shopping.