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The Slice: Of course, the Dodgers/Spokane link came much later
But I thought of it again this week while watching the PBS documentary on Jackie Robinson.
What if Spokane’s minor league past had collided with a major moment in history?
If, instead of Montreal, Robinson had played in Spokane while being groomed for his groundbreaking baseball career with the Dodgers, how would he have been received here?
A) He would have been the target of unrelenting racist abuse. B) There might have been a few incidents, but mostly he would have been welcome here. C) Spokane would have reacted about like most places. D) It would have been so ugly that Spokane’s reputation would have been tarnished for decades. E) It would have brought out the worst in some people, the best in others. F) Perhaps Spokane would have provided the model for how to embrace the future. G) Other.
Fill in the blank: The Spokane area is home to more than its share of wannabe (________)?
A logic runs through it: John and Marilyn Mraz were with their two granddaughters in Ellensburg when the 6-year-old caught sight of a colorful looking local business, an outdoor outfitter.
“Why,” she asked, “is there a picture of a fish on a fly shop?”
Upon quitting smoking: “I immediately turned into a blimp,” wrote Jeanette Ping, a Whitman County resident. “That 21-inch waist is long gone.”
Thanks: To Slice reader Doris Whittaker for sending along an S-R Sunday comics section from Aug. 25, 1940. Her son discovered it while remodeling a house on Grand Boulevard about 10 years ago. “Thought you might enjoy seeing how wide the pages were,” she wrote.
It makes today’s newspaper look like a napkin.
Here are some of the comics in that section (one of two comics sections that day): Tarzan, Blondie, Pepsi and Pete, Ella Cinders, Dick Tracy, Ned Brant, Jane Arden and The Captain and The Kids.
Warm-up question: Compared to other places where you have lived, how does Spokane rate when it comes to having sidewalks in residential areas?
A) Spokane has far fewer sidewalks. B) About the same. C) Who cares? I use my car for any trip farther than 10 feet. D) Communist pedestrians annoy me. Can’t they walk their dogs in their backyards? E) What are sidewalks? F) Other.
Today’s Slice question: Ever bought a round for the house?
Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Maybe someone should conduct a study on the efficacy of staring at the downtown waterfalls as a way to lower blood pressure.