BANDERSNATCH ON THE ROAD (Part Two)

by Steven Steinbock

I left my little village of Yarmouth, Maine, three weeks ago. It was just days before the annual Yarmouth Clam Festival would begin. That’s when my village of just over 8,000 citizens becomes a forest of a hundred thousand sweaty bodies vying for fried clams, fried dough, grilled sausages, Lime Rickeys, and amusement park rides. I’m usually happy to get out of town before the ruckus hits, and this summer was no different. Call me a curmudgeon if you like, but I don’t like the lines or the crowds, and my middle-aged body doesn’t need the calories.

What I hadn’t bargained for was that I would be in Seattle during SeaFair. I’m still doing my best to avoid the crowds and the traffic jams. But truth be told — even though there are probably twice as many people attending SeaFair (an estimated 2 million) than there are people living in the entire State of Maine — I’d rather be here. By the time you are reading this, SeaFair ’07 will be packed away and Seattle will be settling back to normal. But as I type this, SeaFair is in full blast.

I’m staying with one of my sisters this week. She and her family have a lovely house just a few blocks from Lake Washington where hydroplanes were roaring in time trials this morning. As I type this (a week before you read it), I’m sipping espresso at the corner pizzeria and the Blue Angels are practicing overhead.

This is my longest visit to Seattle since I moved away, twenty-five years ago. I’m loving it. After a week of sightseeing with my kids and hanging out with family and old friends, the boys and I loaded the car and went an hour north to a summer camp where the boys would be spending three weeks, and where I would be staying on as a guest faculty member for four days.

The camp is one of the prettiest I’ve ever visited, and I’ve visited quite a few. In my role as a Jewish educator, this was the ideal busman’s holiday. My responsibilities included guiding scavenger hunts through a lush biblical garden, taking kids on hikes, leading discussions, and telling stories. It was in this final role that one of my co-visiting-faculty members, a synagogue official from Portland, Oregon, commented that I reminded him of a guy he listens to on the radio.

“What is his name?” Ben asked himself.

I started thinking, I know one radio personality from Portland. I asked, “He’s on the public radio station down there?”

“Yes,” answered Ben.

“Is there any chance,” I asked, “that it’s Ed Goldberg?”

“YES!”

Ed Goldberg, for those not familiar with the name, in addition to being a public radio personality in Portland, Oregon, is the author of two novels featuring P.I. Lenny Schneider, Served Cold and Dead Air, the first of which won the Shamus Award. He’s a good guy and an entertaining writer. The Jewish world is a small one. The mystery world is even smaller. It’s nice when things converge as they often do.

Stay tuned until next week when I tell you about my high school reunion, and how I turned my five-year-old nephew onto Mary Poppins and The Mamas and the Papas.