The Multnomah Villager

Well, a couple of weeks ago I began to notice the veritable flood of local press coverage for the upcoming Multnomah Days festival. It seems like there is lots more pre-event coverage this year. I have been weighing a pre-event pot of my own for a while, but the Portland Tribune put me over the edge.

Here’s a link to the Trib’s article about those quirky old Multnomah people and their odd festival with the dog parade.

I found this interesting since I’ve been reaching, unsuccessfully, to find a way to articulate the comments I overheard about last year’s parade, from twenty- and thirty-somethings realting to how hokey the local parade is, and how we don’t have any big-time floats or anything, just cars with signs on them and bands, and people dressed up. Oh yes, and dogs. We got us some dogs.

Personally, the parade through the village is one of the highlights of the summer, especially now that Jr. Villager is on the scene. We wlays see people we know, we end up having to dodge flying candy launched at major-league-pitch speed, we see all different breeds of dogs and their owners (they really do look alike you know) and get a chance to partake in overpriced face-painting and get at least one item with a bank logo, sometimes more!

If you read the pre-event coverage, you’ll find that there will be a more village-local focus this year, with the huckster booths being restricted to members of the Multnomah Village Business Association. This is good, last year there was a bit too much of you know, “Rare Tibetan Weight Loss Formula” and “Handmade Woven Leather Friendship Bracelets” and that sort of thing. Although the inflatable kid-slides were a welcome hit.

Come on out this Saturday! We usually hang out in from of the toy store. More info is here….

SWNI News (front page!) PDF
Multnomah Village Post

Note - the Post link is to a June story. Their website has not been updated in some time.

Today was School Carnival day at West Hills Early Childhood Learning Center. I dropped by at 2:00 to find Jr. Villager and all of his friends (the whole four year old and five year old classes) and several parents around the play area. There were many games set up, all with prizes for the kids, a snow cone machine, a cookie decorating table, popcorn and pretty much anything else that is destined to ruin any chance of eating a good dinner later.

The games included a “cakewalk” which was a sort of musical chairs that had the kids circling a set of numbered “cake” spaces, then they would stop when the music stopped (Ricky Martin… woof) and there was a drawing. If the number matched the kid’s space, they won a cake! Well, a Hostess Ding Dong in this case - which is OK with me!

There was bowling, a fishing station, a bean bag toss, and more. Each station allowed the kids to choose a prize from a bin of various things, more than half turned out to be tootsie rolls, from the look of the bag Jr. Villager brought home.

There was even a celebrity! About an hour into the carnival, I looked up to see Chuck E. Cheese. I’m telling you, this is A-list red carpet kind of stuff to a bulding full of four and five year olds.

Jr. Villager has been at West Hills four a couple of years now, he has really enjoyed his time there. We’ve found it to be a pretty good place to have him. Within walking distance of home, with a good mix of kids and an energetic and creative staff. We’ve even had some of the teachers as babysitters on more than one occasion.

We missed the carnival last year - but this was a fun event. Certainly an interesting break from the work day for me!

According to Willamette Week’s Best of Portland issue, on the streets today, our own Renner’s Grill is “The Best Bar to Shoot One Back With the Fonz”.

Back in the “I Like Ike” days, Renner’s Grill (7819 SW Capitol Highway, 246-9097) was populated by a rotating cast of cranky boozehounds. Dogs roamed through the lounge looking for handouts while the regulars tossed ice at the bartender and passed out in the booths. While this dank oasis in the midst of Southwest Portland’s Multnomah Village has calmed down since Happy Days, at least one iconic thing remains from that 1950s-flavored era: Jell-O. Or, more in keeping with Gen-Xers, Jell-O shots. While tastes change with the times (though lime and cherry are still the favorites), the price stays the same-only a buck. It makes perfect sense that they taste like gelatinous cough syrup. As the saying goes: They’ll cure what ails ya.

Although the presence of the term “Jello Shots”(definition) and an accompanying picture of said shots, should clue you in to what really attracted the Week’s staff.

So the monthly meeting of the Multnomah Village Neighborhood Association was last night. About ten people. A range of ages. Zach Horowitz, who is the current chair, ran the meeting. He is much younger than I expected, as well as sporting a more than passing resemblance to Vlade Divac.

The association seems to deal primarly with land-use issues these days. There was review of the “Good Neighbor Agreement” for the large construction project underway on the site of the former Eagles lodge, a process which has sparked much angst among the area, and will result in quite a bit more density. There was long discussion about one neighbor’s unfortunate situation with her neighbor’s construction of a garage, which has sort of sneakily grown into a two-story structure with a full apartment on top, less than two feet from her property line, with second-story windows looking down into her backyard. Brief discussion of the various open committee positions (public safety among others), and etc.

Mutonomah’s 100th anniversary is in 2008. The need to formulate some plans at some point was mentioned.

The neighborhood association has a website now - linked in the sidebar, @ Multnomahna.org, minutes of the meetings will eventually find their way to that site.

I’ll probably keep attending these meetings, as my schedule allows.

At the Multnomah Center, at 7PM. See you there?
Perhaps.

Multnomah Village is home to one of Oregon’s best toy stores. Thinker Toys has got lots of toys intended to spark creativity, etc. but manages to avoid the intellectual stuffiness that usually accompanies such a mission. There’s a huge selection on Thoas the Train stuff, lots of costumes and puppets, a wide selection of frisbees, flying things of all descriptions, Legos, and the types of European toys that I always associated with rich kids when I was younger.

The friendly staff will gift wrap things for you, and doesn’t seem to mind when Jr. Villager hands over a roll of quarters to pay for something.

Jr. Villager’s drug of choice is Playmobil.

Thinker Toys has a good selection of Playmobil, in fact they’ve increased the amount of sets they stock in recent months. Also, they have some of the bagged pieces, which are cool if you’re trying to fill out a particualr setting or something. Still though, I wish they had a larger selection of smaller sets - since it is sorely tempting for Jr. Villager whenever he goes in there and is faced with the large mega-sets, which are NOT on our impulse buy list.

Thinker Toys has a very wide selection of games and I’ve often stumbled across organized chess games in the back. One of the things that I like about them is that the store is not chock-full of licensed properties. They have the important stuff, like Star Wars Legos, but if you want the latest Cartoon Network characters or a bunch of Disney stuff, better stick with Toys R Us, or the fantastic Toy Bliss in Pioneer Place and Lake Oswego.

My toy store drug of choice is Magic: the Gathering, and although Thinker Toys has a few booster packs, I’ve recently discovered Alternate Universe (who really should have a web site) in the Hillsdale Shopping Center up by the Liquor store, which is an incredible place to get your fix - if your interest in games runs towards role playing games or CCGs.

And I cannot post this without mentioning that Thinker Toys has a website, although it is not updated, and I must admit - not a shining example of graphic design excellence. Still - the information is there. Perhaps the folks at Thinker Toys should contact the Villager - I’ll do a new website in exchange for some Playmobil!

So on the way home the other night, I noticed anew that Multnomah Village has yet anouther plaque set in a large stone, similar to the World War II Memorial I posted about the other day.

This one, I am calling the Multnomah Village cornerstone. Although I must point out that it does not exactly inhabit a space of honor in the neighborhood, being tucked behind the Key Bank sign on the corner of 35th and Multnomah. Still, I hopped out of the car the other morning with my camera to find out just what this stone was for, and what the plaque said.

The text reads as follows:

MULTNOMAHEstablished in 1908 as a freight passenger station on the newly completed Oregon Electric Railway that ran between Portland and Salem, it was located a block south on the N.W. Corner of 35th & Multnomah Blvd.

Multnomah’s first U.S. post office was installed in 1912 in the Nelson Thomas Store, thereby giving the community and official identity.

Marker erected by Kiwanis Club of Southwest Hills

Dedicated September 25, 1976.

The Nelson Thomas General Store was in the building that is now occupied primarily by Marco’s Cafe, and a number of massage therapists and other professional offices.

So on the way to the airport this morning, to pack my Mom back to the East Coast, we stopped up in the Village to eat at Fat City. Things looked kind of quiet… Sure enough, Fat City was closed, with a sign taped to the door saying that they were closed on account of “cleaning up after a fire and would reopen soon”!!

The interior looked OK… Must have been in the kitchen. I’ll have to check back and see what’s up.

So I’ve often wondered what the plaque says that’s under the tree at the left-had side of the parking lot of the Multnomah Center. On my way to the airport on Thursday (the reason for a few days of ‘blog inactivity, I decided to find out.

It is a World War II memorial, apparently dedicated in May of 1946. The text reads:

This memorial is erected in honor of all men and women from this community who served God, country and the cause of freedom during World War II and under this plaque is an urn containing a parchment scroll of their names

“These have served and we have entered into the fruits of their service”

May 19, 1946

Interesting. May 19, 1946 was my Dad’s 7th birthday.

The quote is clearly from something but after much Googling I cannot find its source. If anyone can enlighten me, please do.

There’s also quite an exuberant pumpkin patch (at least they look like pumpkins to the Villager’s untrained eye) right on the corner here. This should be intresting to watch as Oregon’s much delayed summer passes to fall.