Greetings from Vancouver, Washington! I am currently the Resident VIP at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.

No, not Very Important Person – I am a Volunteer in Parks; in exchange for a site with full hook ups on the Fort grounds, I staff the desk at the Visitor Center or Pearson Air Museum four days a week, with three days off (Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays).

I arrived at the beginning of June, and I am staying for eleven months, until May 2024, when I will head East, sightseeing for at least a year before I volunteer again. (More about that in a future post.)

My Temporary Home 

Vancouver is in the southwest corner of Washington, directly across the Columbia River from Oregon. When I was practicing law, I appeared in Superior Court in Clark County on occasion, and downtown Vancouver was not much to look at back then. Now there is much to do and see, including a new riverfront development with shops, green spaces and restaurants, which boosted the town’s economy, and population.

(Susin & Clinton stopped by for a visit in June.)

On days off I sometimes take Vinnie Van Go-Go to visit friends in the Seattle area. Portland is also only a few minutes away, and I am enjoying being back in a city that I know fairly well already, with ample time to revisit favorite places.

(With Marsha at a favorite tiki bar in PDX)

A Weekend In Brownsville, Oregon

As most of you know, I enjoy making pilgrimages to film locations. Sometimes I happen upon them, like this stop in Moab, Utah last summer with Annmarie,

but I mostly seek them out, such as Mackinac Island, Michigan for “Somewhere in Time,”

Bodega Bay, California, for Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,”

Mansfield, Ohio, for “The Shawshank Redemption,”

Cleveland, Ohio, for “A Christmas Story,”

and Monument Valley, Arizona, mainly because of westerns like John Ford/John Wayne’s “The Searchers,”

(That’s me on the horse!)

but also many other films, television shows, music videos, and commercials.

In 1985, Rob Reiner shot “Stand by Me“ in Brownsville, Oregon, and every year the town commemorates the occasion with a festival.

Vinny and I camped in town at Pioneer Park, on the Calipooia River, where $15 per night (weekends only) gets you a site with no hookups or showers, but public restrooms are provided. (The blueberry pie eating contest was filmed in the park.)

Here’s “Castle Rock City Hall.”

and this is the house where Corey Feldman lived.

This is the where Vern finds a penny at the end of the movie, and the town imbedded a coin in the crosswalk to commemorate the scene.

This is the alley where the boys shot Chris’s dad’s pistol,

and a mural, added for the movie, was recently restored by the townspeople.

A blueberry lady handed out treats,

the Pez Girl gave out cherry Pez (Vern’s favorite food),

and four boys dressed as the characters sold raffle tickets.

I enjoyed the movie stills posted around town, which helped me remember certain moments in the film.

At the fan appreciation event in the community center, the big celebrity appearance was the man who played the dead boy, Ray Brower, who told a disgusting story about having live bugs crawl out of his mouth, but the scene wasn’t in the final cut!

The film was shown several times throughout the day in the county history museum, where a no-hands blueberry pie eating contest was also held outside, but there was no shade on a blazing hot day, and I couldn’t see over the crowd, so I gave up and went back to the van to cool off (and watch the movie again).

The town of 1,700 people really put on quite a show, complete with an a cappella singing group, who performed tunes from the 1950s, including the titular song, of course.

I bought one souvenir, suitably van-sized, so if you and I ever go for a hike to see a dead body, I may not remember to bring any food, like Vern, but our hairdos will be on point (as long as the comb doesn’t fall out of my pocket on a bridge).

If you ever find yourself between Eugene, Oregon, and Salem, Oregon, towards the end of July, stop by Brownsville for Stand by Me Day.