Huckleberries: Kellogg is in blogger’s past; cancer is in his future

I‘m proud of the fine writers and North Idaho expatriates who comprise my Huckleberries Online blogroll. I want you to meet one of my newbies: Bill Woolum/Kellogg Bloggin’. His blog, he sez, “focuses on Kellogg, my understanding of this place that has so shaped my thinking, my feelings, and my soul. It’s not a romantic, sentimental blog. It is, however, written from love and devotion to my home town, which I return to as often as I can.” Bill writes under the pseudonym Raymond Pert in honor of his father, Raymond “Pert” Woolum. He now teaches English at Lane Community College in Eugene, Ore. His posts are must reading for anyone who experienced the Silver Valley’s heyday. Here’s a sample of his work: “Cancer is prevalent in the Silver Valley. My father died of it. My mother is in remission. My mother taught at Silver King School, located about a quarter of a mile right below the Zinc Plant. Almost all the teachers she worked with at Silver King have died of cancer. Dolly, Arlene, Sylvia, Betty, we rattled them off one night. I expect to develop cancer. When I was nearly killed working to help overhaul a flash roaster at the Zinc Plant, what nearly killed me was inhalation of sulfur dioxide and zinc/cadmium/lead and other mineral dust. I listen to my upper chest rattle, the way it has for over thirty years now, and I listen to my chronic cough and clearing of my throat, and I can’t help but think a cancer will grow in there some time.” You can find Kellogg Bloggin’ at Huckleberries Online or at www.kelloggbloggin.blogspot.com.