Memorial Installation, Long Beach

     Behind the police station in Long Beach, in the area that was all too briefly the Friday Market, a new and interesting memorial is being placed.  It will involve a semicircle of flags, the central one in the arc a “ginormous” one, according to the city worker who spoke to me.  Each of the concrete supports will house a floodlight and be faced with a bronze plaque honoring one of our services – army, navy, air force, marines, coastguard, plus one for the POWs. The flags will surround a concrete patio with a huge bell.
     I don’t know the story behind the memorial yet.  There has not been an article about it in the paper.  So, I was more than curious and, I have to admit, I had some uncharitable thoughts – like “what about Verna Oller’s swimming pool?”
     I talked to a few people about that and, as I suspected, I was looking at apples (mom and apple pie, more likely) and asking about oranges (or, maybe by now, lemons).  The city of Long Beach is still vigorously exploring the pool possibilities but, so far, the sticking points continue to be on-going maintenance, liability insurance and other operating costs – expenses that Verna specified could not come out of the four and a half million dollars she left to the city.  It’s a BIG problem.
     Meanwhile, the memorial behind the police station was a straight-ahead project – apparently affordable and doable in short order. And, very probably, it will be enormously popular.  After all, Long Beach is the city that boasts “Loyalty Days: Since 1950, the longest consecutively running loyalty celebration in the nation.”
     My thoughts also flew to what creates a town’s character.  Is it significant that Long Beach never voted funds for a library but might have more go-carts per capita than any other town in the Northwest?  And what single image comes to mind when I think of other towns here on the Peninsula?
     In Seaview, it’s tree-lined streets with their charming Victorian cottages.  In Ocean Park, it’s clam guns at Jack’s Country Store and easy beach access.  In Nahcotta, it’s the piles of oyster shells near a dock crowded with oyster dredges.  In Oysterville, it’s the quiet bayside vistas and the “time stood still” feeling.
     I wonder what comes to mind for other people.  How personal is a sense of place and how does a place determine its priorities?  Thoughts to ponder…