Wednesday 17th June 2009 – It’s a Small World

When I was planning my trip, I made contact with Barb Dunham, the Manager of the North Bend Visitors Center. She pointed me at http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM2YC4 , which became a bit of a symbol of the trip. In fact, I framed a copy of it and gave it to the Lord Provost of Glasgow Scotland before I left.

Yesterday, she arranged for me to meet the 'Mayor' of Glasgow, Oregon, the 'Jack Stevens' of that sign. He was as hospitable as it is possible to be. It was a special privilege to meet him.

Jack even ennobled me as the Honorary Cribbage Champion of Glasgow. I shall, for the present, assume that I am the only Glasgow Cribbage Champion on the planet, until I am challenged from elsewhere.

All this took place at the Glasgow Store, which Jack has run for the last forty years.

The local press remarked on it:

http://www.theworldlink.com/articles/2009/06/18/news/doc4a3a7961145d0757812947.txt , as did the local television: http://www.kcby.com/news/48562472.html?video=pop&t=a , who also carried it online: http://www.kcby.com/news/local/48562472.html .

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This is Glasgow from the south shore of Coos Bay, in North Bend itself. If you look closely, you'll see the northern end of the bridge on the left. The houses on the side of the hill are pretty much the whole of Glasgow: a community of about a thousand people. It is a kind of semi-detached bit of North Bend. It used to be the ferry terminal before the bridge.

Jan Willis, the city manager of North Bend, and Howard Graham, the local councillor, were kind enough to come along and greet me too. There was much light-hearted banter about the relationship between North Bend and Glasgow.

The whole day was an insight into how small communities work, and how small the world truly is. I was, of course, very excited by the whole day, and couldn't keep track of all those things I should have been keeping track of, but I don't want you to think I'm just making this up. So I have made an unusual effort to reconstruct what happened.

As I understand it, Jan Willis told her friend Sarah about me being there. She has a Scottish heritage, and is a fan of Charles Rennie Macintosh. She came along and asked me to sign her book. This is the first time I have ever been asked for my autograph by a lovely woman. No, no, I'm trying to be accurate: this is the first time I've been asked for my autograph.

Anyway, Sarah told her friend May Livingstone, who lives further down the coast, and she came along too. Someone said mine was the only Scottish accent around, and an accent much like mine said oh, no it wasn't.

May also came from Glasgow, Scotland (a long time ago). When we started to talk, it turned out she had been brought up only a few hundred yards from where I had been brought up. Isn't that amazing?

So here, in a small community in Oregon, I've had a reminder of how small the world is.