Oh morgyne...

Crazy Evelyn died in Dec, if you didn't hear.


For all of those not raised in Happy Valley (my hometown, Wenatchee, WA, at one point had the highest per capita of Prozac prescriptions in the nation, thanks to a couple of quacks passing it out for every ailment under the sun,) Evelyn Gilbert was our town character. She was this, quite literally, clinically insane person who people put up with, admired, laughed at, laughed with, got skewered by, and tolerated in a very kind way, most of the time. She was known to scream obscenities at passing cars on the main street in town... but it was always funny, not mean, usually poking fun at someone just passing by innocently. She attended every city hall meeting, PUD meeting (Public Utility District. It wasn't until I moved away that I realized that electric companies were normally privatized. It wasn't until later that I realized there was another way to pronounce that other than spelling out the letters,) and as the paper put it, anywhere there was free food. She once interrupted a state senator's speech to tell her happy birthday, and give her a purse. My mom remembers eating at the Owl Drugstore in town, back when they had lunch counters, and Evelyn walked in, sat down on the lap of a young gentleman, and asked in a loud voice, when he was going to fuck her hard again. In 1964. His wife was sitting across the table. Evelyn gave him a peck on the cheek, laughed, and walked out smiling, while folks around the shocked couple were trying to explain to them about Evelyn. She'd tell anyone, regardless of rank or office, *exactly* what she thought of them, and had about zero tolerance for BS or grandstanding. I don't ever remember seeing her without a hat of some sort, and most of them would have put the Southern Church Hat Ladies to shame. She was quite schizophrenic, but refused treatment, and everyone sort of looked after her... not that she really needed it, but as she got older, she accepted it.

Crazy Evelyn was what everyone called her, but it was her title, not her burden. She added some zest to a backasswards, sleepy little ag town, and I think most people appreciated it. Some folks were appalled by her, some never got her, some just seemed embarrassed to have her around... but they were the distinct minority.

She died in her sleep Dec 17th, and it was front page news in the town paper. Her memorial service writeup on the 21st took an entire page. I particularly liked a quote from the Manager of the funeral home in town... "There are people in life who march to a different drummer. Evelyn was the majorette."

Drum up the band, my friends, we all need more majorettes.

Oh morgyne...

Crazy Evelyn died in Dec, if you didn't hear.


For all of those not raised in Happy Valley (my hometown, Wenatchee, WA, at one point had the highest per capita of Prozac prescriptions in the nation, thanks to a couple of quacks passing it out for every ailment under the sun,) Evelyn Gilbert was our town character. She was this, quite literally, clinically insane person who people put up with, admired, laughed at, laughed with, got skewered by, and tolerated in a very kind way, most of the time. She was known to scream obscenities at passing cars on the main street in town... but it was always funny, not mean, usually poking fun at someone just passing by innocently. She attended every city hall meeting, PUD meeting (Public Utility District. It wasn't until I moved away that I realized that electric companies were normally privatized. It wasn't until later that I realized there was another way to pronounce that other than spelling out the letters,) and as the paper put it, anywhere there was free food. She once interrupted a state senator's speech to tell her happy birthday, and give her a purse. My mom remembers eating at the Owl Drugstore in town, back when they had lunch counters, and Evelyn walked in, sat down on the lap of a young gentleman, and asked in a loud voice, when he was going to fuck her hard again. In 1964. His wife was sitting across the table. Evelyn gave him a peck on the cheek, laughed, and walked out smiling, while folks around the shocked couple were trying to explain to them about Evelyn. She'd tell anyone, regardless of rank or office, *exactly* what she thought of them, and had about zero tolerance for BS or grandstanding. I don't ever remember seeing her without a hat of some sort, and most of them would have put the Southern Church Hat Ladies to shame. She was quite schizophrenic, but refused treatment, and everyone sort of looked after her... not that she really needed it, but as she got older, she accepted it.

Crazy Evelyn was what everyone called her, but it was her title, not her burden. She added some zest to a backasswards, sleepy little ag town, and I think most people appreciated it. Some folks were appalled by her, some never got her, some just seemed embarrassed to have her around... but they were the distinct minority.

She died in her sleep Dec 17th, and it was front page news in the town paper. Her memorial service writeup on the 21st took an entire page. I particularly liked a quote from the Manager of the funeral home in town... "There are people in life who march to a different drummer. Evelyn was the majorette."

Drum up the band, my friends, we all need more majorettes.