CATEGORY: CENTRAL OREGON
PHOTO: LETTER FROM ZACH’S FRIEND

Zach and I were tootling along in his little Volkswagen on our way to Seattle.  He was driving, but he wanted to study the map to figure out how best to enter Seattle in order to get to the house of his old college buddy with whom we were to stay.  He asked me to take the wheel while he studied the map.  Then he took the wheel and I studied the map.  Then he. Then me.  Suddenly we were over the edge of the highway and starting down an embankment.  After he miraculously got us back on the road (thanks, I believe, to Volkswagen engineering) he exclaimed, “I thought YOU had the wheel”!  I answered, “I thought YOU had the wheel”!!

Before this trip, I was working part time for a place in Bend that sold fabrics.  This place had gotten in some white velvet (not velveteen. Velvet!). My experience with velvet was that, if it got crushed or something wet spilled on it, no amount of cleaning would make the nap come up again. This was inexpensive velvet and all the more suspect.  I designed a sheath dress that could be made out of a little over one yard of white velvet.  I thought that, with my store discount, I could afford to sacrifice that amount of money for a special Seattle dress.  It had a modestly low but wide neckline, no sleeves, an empire waist, no side seams, and a slit up the only vertical seem: in the back.  We were going dancing in Seattle, and I was sure I would not be able to wear the dress again, if from nothing else than sweating while dancing.

Zach’s friend with whom we stayed fell in love with this dress.  He could not believe that I would not be able to wear it a second time.  While staying there, I discovered he had no hot dish holders.  When we got home I cut up the dress and made white velvet pot holders with leather loops for him as a thank-you gift.  I chose velvet that had wine stains on it.  The following is the thank-you letter I got from him in return.

(Dear Jean, Thanks intensely for the most unusual gift I ever received. Only a place like Neiman Marcus or some totally kookie specialty store in Carmel or West Palm Beach would ever have white velvet pot holders. The leather loop is a nice masculine touch.  I’ll now have to find something appropriate to hang them on – a gold-studded nail or at the very least a platinum pot hook. I think you should advertise that you make them out of ruined gowns. Thus: “Recall forever that magic New Year’s Eve when you threw up all over your watered blue silk.  Have a pot holder imaginatively fashioned out of the stained remnant.”  OR, “Why not have a practical keepsake created from that bathing suit the boys ripped off you at Fort Lauderdale?” OR, “Don’t let that drunken slide into the mud puddle that ruined your brocaded evening cape ruin your spirits. For only $9.99, Jean of Bend will turn what’s left into a half dozen elegant pot holders.” As you see, the possibilities are endless, so thanks, thanks again. Yours, Bob ________.)

While we were in Seattle we went to a Russian Restaurant.  Our going there was Zach’s special treat for me, so that I could experience eating Piroshki.  It looked like an evenly browned whole peeled potato, but it was a flakey crust containing beef, mushrooms, and vegetables and some illusive combination of herbs.  Both the Piroshki and the trip were delicious beyond imagining.

We managed to make it home without running off the road.