News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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Now that we’re into the great fall cool down here in Coulee County, it’s been great to have a few days of crisp, clear mornings, warm, sunny afternoons and cool evenings once the sun sets. So, spend some quality time outdoors and then kick back (or sit back) inside someplace watching football. Go for broke, Seahawks. And as summer wanes, so goes our favorite pastime. But luckily we’ve had no shortage of junk and estate sales around here, and from the looks of the hordes of hearty shoppers out and about, it’s been a shoppers’ paradise....
Have you experienced or witnessed any run-ins in the Coulee this summer? Say what? You’ll probably recognize these examples: a run-in or a near miss run-in could easily happen in a parking lot (yes, the one where we mingle with visitors) and with that, let’s move on. It’s kind of like a no-choice-deal where all too often, the locals (we live here) get involved in parking wars over the best places to put your car in a lot. Jockeying around for a parking spot happens every day because we’re mingling with the out-of-towners and they seem to be i...
Still in his dream state and far away from his storage site in the town of Coulee Dam, Sammy paused for a time in the deep, clear waters of the upper Columbia River to listen to his friend, a two-legged man named Billy Frank, Jr., talk about life on earth. He said to himself that he’d remember Billy’s observations and share his wisdom with his old and new friends during his trip down the river. With his tail moving behind him at a fast clip, Sammy decided to check out the river’s surface above him; he saw the shadows of two-legged peopl...
Yard sale mania: You can find treasures here in the coulee For many families, the dog days of summer have arrived. And as time flies by, as it always seems to when the month of August is here, now come a few weeks for getting ready, getting organized, getting your acts together, or, as a corny saying spied on a T-shirt spouts, “Get Er Done.” What is this column’s rant about? Getting ready for the yearly back-to-school event, that’s what. Going through the back-to-school process is a big deal for some families or students and this early fall ev...
Did Sammy leave his park site? Not so long ago in the summer of 2012, possibly 100 or more trees, many planted when the town was in its infancy, were toppled or uprooted in that weird storm, including two evergreens, towering spruce, that stood in the Mason City Park in Coulee Dam. After the storm was long gone and the MCP cleanup a done deal, the park's leftover tree trunks took on lives of their own when a chainsaw artist, hired by the town, went to work on them, grinding away bark and into ea...
In last weeks C’est La Vie column, I reported on the great bargain hunting opportunities at a couple of antique sales, both featuring unique items, retro household stuff and some honest-to-goodness antiques and collectibles, some more than 40 years old. The Victorian-era cheese platter, with the country of England its origin, made its way to a new home in the Coulee. I liked seeing an everyday household dish used in the early 1900s for sale right here in the Coulee. The 1997 Wildlife Restaurant Plate, as pictured in that article, had a full col...
With the Beach Boys famous feel-good song from 1966, Good Vibrations, on the air waves this summer, I’ve been picking up on the excellent shopping-for-vintage-treasures vibes resounding in the Coulee. Say what? What it is, is so much more than the BB song, it’s an entreating calling, both on the wind and as advertised in The Star, with the vibes coming from the towns of Grand Coulee and Electric City, to be exact. The big message calling me, and maybe you too, is the opportunity to shop for vin...
Get ready for a fantastic Fourth of July weekend in the Coulee. The annual Festival of America, coming up at the park below the Visitor’s Center in Coulee Dam on July 4-5, will be an entertaining event with foot-stomping live music both evenings, plus the fireworks display off the top of Grand Coulee, starting at 10:30 p.m., on Friday night, July 4. And, once again, opening at 11 a.m. each day, the event features artisans and craftspersons and their special wares and foodies; take note, some of our favorite food vendors will be in the park t...
What’s on your agenda for the weekend? If you are staying close to home, and you have a few bucks burning a hole in your pocket, and you are looking for a short-time diversion, look no further because it’s yard sale season in the Coulee. Here’s the menu. For starters, there are a half dozen sales advertised in The Star this week and more than likely, other sales will “piggy back” on these sales, offering up more chances, choices, and challenges so you can make some of those hard earned dollars work for you, on the cheap. But first, you have to...
Let’s start off with a wander down the Prairie Look trail, and in your mind’s eye, you can take your choice: either walk along that dusty trail on foot or try sitting up high on horseback or in a wagon. Imagine your family’s wagon, lumbering along in the ruts made by the hundreds of wagons and campers (prairie schooners) groaning under the weight of cargo, which, in the 1800s might have included wooden wedding chests filled with linens, clothing, and memorabilia from life before the trek across the plains and prairies. An old journal entry...
Previously, this column wandered along a trail on the lone prairie, searching for the new decorating sensation, the Prairie Look, including a drive by the wheat fields bordering highway 2 between Grand Coulee and Airway Heights. No prairie schooners were sighted, except for the old buckboard wagon situated on the main street of Wilbur. Somehow that wagon with the geese riding high on the seat didn’t cut the mustard for getting the Prairie Look on. However, there was a modern-day prairie schooner sighting in Coulee Dam this past Saturday a...
What comes to mind when you see the word “prairie” on a cover of a magazine devoted entirely to decorating? Probably not too much, unless you enjoy this avenue of creative outlay. I don’t know about you all but I really think decorating is a rewarding experience, especially decorating on the cheap. Anyway, let’s explore the Prairie Look and what we have to do to become a Prairie Styler. First, is the Prairie Look brand new? Or is it just a different name for a hybrid or a combination of decorating styles we’ve been using forever, such as: Adiro...
Are you ready for the SEASON? Come wind, rain or shine, it’s a go. You know the drill, wear a hoodie, bring along a wind breaker, a hat, sunglasses just in case we get some rays in the Coulee, and put on a pair of comfortable shoes. And don’t leave home without some coins. But wait, if you need a pair of cheaters, like me, here’s a tip. Bring an extra pair (this is the voice of experience speaking here) so when one pair gets accidentally knocked off of your face, or dropped and stepped on, or disappears into the abyss where all lost pairs...
There were a few hyper-milers (snail drivers) in the Coulee last week-end, starting on Thursday afternoon with a few more driving in slow motion on some of the streets in Grand Coulee and Electric City on Friday and again on Saturday morning, on the hunt for a moving sale and another sale, advertised as in a garage but actually outdoors. And yes, slowing down to a snail’s pace makes a difference when there’s foot traffic on the streets and drivers “putting on the brakes,” sometimes with only inches to spare, thus avoiding a rear ender. I witne...
Have you figured out what a hyper-miler is? Here’s a clue. If you consider yourself a driver, you could be a hyper-miler without knowing you are but that is highly unlikely. Why? Because most of us drive in the Coulee as quickly as we can, and, as we all know, it’s sometimes difficult to keep that foot off the gas pedal, to snail along in our vehicles where designated speed limits range from 20 to 40 mph. Some drivers might holler that those limits just get in the way. Do you get the drift? We’ve established that hyper-miling has to do with...
Hello again. Or, Hi y’all! Yes, it’s me, Frankie Delano, back at The Star after a hiatus of about six months with no shopping and junking news to crow about and a very long stretch without any yard or garage sales in the Coulee, except for a pre-holiday sale in the former Grand Coulee Liquor Store; and in January, I happened upon an indoor/outdoor unadvertised sale at a downriver home near Elmer City. For some reason, Black Beauty, the Delano pickup truck, refused to drive past that January sale, probably because the driver, I, caught a gli...
Get ready for some griping. Here’s Frankie Delano’s ongoing, seasonal complaint, and you all are welcome to join in if you can relate to my current rant. While I was out and about in the Coulee and elsewhere this past weekend and listening to some tunes on the radio, I heard an announcement that there are only a few shopping weeks left before Christmas Day. Can you believe it? Anyway, I thought to myself, I’ve only got two-plus months to shop until I drop. So starts the holiday shopping frenzy. Do you know what a yard sale shopping frenzy is? W...
If you listen closely you’ll hear flapping going on in all of the towns here in the Coulee. Yes, I said flapping, like the wings of those majestic Eagles when they fly over the Columbia River, Banks Lake and Lake Roosevelt looking for a fish or two. What’s this about? Snow Birds. I’m sure you know some snow birds.I know quite a few and now that winter is closing in on the Coulee, I kind of wish I could be a snow bird and go south for the winter months, with a soft landing in sunny Arizona. Should I have said revving up their engines instead of...
Holy Tornado! Let’s put aside our favorite topics (shopping and junking) for a bit for a quick rant and rave about the latest t-storm that blew through the Coulee Sunday evening, with gusting winds and lightning strikes dancing around. When the power went out at Detective Frankie D.’s abode, I wondered for a moment if the house would take flight and wind up over the rainbow, crashing down in the Land of Oz. If that had happened, I was ready to belt out a few of Judy Garland’s famous tunes and put on a pair of red, jeweled shoes, tapping the h...
Oh My Gosh! Were you out and about in the Coulee, driving up and down the streets of coulee towns on Friday and Saturday? Well, Detective Frankie D. took time out from other terribly important grunt work, like cleaning up debris left outdoors after our latest t-storm, to stop by a couple of yard sales. So, since some of my change and dollar bills, earmarked for junky purchases, were just about ready to burn a hole in my wallet, I just had to (yes, had to) make a couple of stops and shop around. On my way into Coulee Dam on Friday, I noticed a...
by Frankie Delano Hey, shoppers, did you miss me? So now it’s after Labor Day weekend, which, in the wonderful world of shopping and junking signals (gasp!) the possibility of fewer yard, garage, moving, and special interest (antique and collectible) sales being held in the Coulee. We still have a few more weeks of possibly acceptable weather for outdoor sales, that of cool mornings and balmy afternoons, which allow us ample opportunities for running the yard sale gamut, like getting to and then walking around tables and tarps loaded with mound...
Holy Toledo! Holy Moly! Holy Whatever! As the old saying goes, Come Rain or Shine,” the freaky t-storm that blew through the Coulee on Thursday last week didn’t put a damper on the yard sales starting early Friday morning in Grand Coulee and near Elmer City. The stampede was on. At the Liz and Felix sale on Granger in Grand Coulee, a dining table and chairs set, living room end tables and bedroom furniture sold fast, followed closely by piles of tools of all kinds, including a complete set of tools for working with concrete. The prices on tho...
A famous baseball player named Yogi Berra made some hilarious comments on his view of life and everyday activities, using the English language and word combinations to get his points across, so here’s a Yogi-ism that Detective Frankie D. overheard at a recent yard sale: “Cash is as good as money!” Now, that makes sense. The word cash has a nice ring to it. So, when you see an ad for an estate sale or a yard sale that states cash only, no checks or credit cards, remember what Yogi said. C-a-s-h! Oh my gosh! Or as Robin said to Batman in those...
Hello shoppers! Did you miss me? Detective Frankie D. here at The Star again after taking a break for summertime activities like broiling up some hamburgers and hot dogs and hanging out on Lake Roosevelt. The truth of the matter is, and the matter in this instance is braving the high temperatures to be in the first wave at 8 a.m. yard sale start times, it takes a little bit of effort to get going on Friday or Saturday mornings. But like always the hunt for those bargains waiting to be snapped up and finding the good stuff makes it all worth whi...
Do you know what the phrases “multi-family,” “too much to list,” “something for everyone” and finally, “and much more” mean to a specific group of yard sale shoppers? To put it simply, a bonanza -- and we don’t mean the Bonanza Boys, Ben Cartwright and sons, Adam, Hoss and Little Joe, of television fame -- we’re talking about stuff. Yes, stuff, all kinds of stuff, and the more stuff available at the sales held in the Coulee, the better the whole experience is. If you were among those shoppers out and about on Friday and Saturday last weeke...