Frozen pipes, mockingbirds, and the secrets basements hold

Hello Fishtrap friends,

Frozen pipes are a fact of life in Wallowa County. I’ve experienced a few, including on my wedding night (“w-w-way back in ‘83), when the mercury jest plumb fell through the bottom of the thermometer (38 below, if you just want the facts). So we were all pretty proud of ourselves here at Fishtrap when we remembered to keep the faucets dripping during the cold snap we had a few weeks ago.

Then it "warmed" up, and we rested easy and went on with our lives. Until Rich, one day last week just before Christmas, went down into the basement and found, oh, a few inches of water on the floor. He shifted boxes of books to higher ground while I bailed with two buckets, all the while chewing on the question, “Where’s the leak?” No sign of frozen pipes anywhere in the house. But it turned out that we had, ahem, forgotten to have the city shut off the water to the lawn sprinkler system, and an outdoor valve box was gushing water underground and up into the basement.

The city turned off the water within seconds of our call, and Nick, Janis, Rich and I bailed and swept and vacuumed the afternoon away. We swabbed out the dark and musty coal room, now hosting just a lonely oil tank. I peeked into the root cellar, with an old freezer that the house must have been built around, and shelves of cans and bottles of dust-blackened mysteries. I took on the unenviable task of cleaning out this dungeon, when, poking out of a cardboard box, I saw some corked and foil-wrapped bottles. Ah yes, we’d forgotten about those.

We finished our gruesome task, Rich happily confirmed that the biggest damage had occurred in a box containing nothing but styrofoam peanuts, and we retired to the kitchen, where, thanks to one of Fishtrap’s many benefactors, we popped a cork and toasted our good work with a bottle of champagne.

Which is a roundabout way of saying, “Thank you!” to all who have contributed and will continue to contribute to keep Fishtrap, um, afloat.

Fishtrap’s fifth BIG READ, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, officially starts on January 12, 2010 with a Kick-Off event at the Odd Fellows Hall at 7 pm. This year we focus on Harper Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird. Events will continue weekly through January and February, culminating in a Southern foods potluck at the Hurricane Creek Grange on Sunday, February 28. Copies of the book are available at all public libraries in Wallowa County and, of course, the Bookloft in Enterprise.

For the full calendar of Big Read events, go to www.fishtrap.org/tbr_calendar.shtml.
For an annotated list of recommended books, go to www.fishtrap.org/booklist.shtml
For an annotated list of recommended films, go to www.fishtrap.org/tbrfilms.shtml

Downloadable PDFs of each web page will be available by Wednesday, December 31.

To Kill a Mockingbird, which won Harper Lee a Pulitzer prize, depicts the story of a white lawyer, Atticus Finch, who is appointed by the court in a small Southern town to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, who has been accused of raping a white woman. The story, told from the viewpoint of Finch’s young daughter, Scout, also involves a mysterious and reclusive man, Boo Radley, who both intrigues and scares Scout and her young companions.

The Kick-Off event on January 12 will feature Charles Shields, whose book, Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee, is the first biography ever written about Harper Lee. His book, a New York Times bestseller, “will not disappoint those who loved the novel and the feisty, independent, fiercely loyal Scout,” says Garrison Keillor.

The Kick-Off, which is free and open to the public, will also offer sign-ups for book discussion groups, a review of the full calendar of events, and a free book raffle sponsored by the Non-Violent Communication group. Refreshments will be served.

The popular Monday Night at the Movies series will start on January 11, the night before the Kick-Off, with 7 pm screenings of Capote at Mutiny Brewing in Joseph, the Fishtrap house in Enterprise, and the Public Library in Wallowa. Other films will include Blood in the Face, Ghosts of Mississippi, Prom Night in Mississippi, the documentary Not in Our Town, and, of course, the 1962 film version of To Kill a Mockingbird, with Gregory Peck and Robert Duvall, which will screen at the OK Theater.

Other speakers will include historian David Schmitz, lawyer Steven Goldberg, former police chief Wayne Inman, and author Mark Mathabane. Residents of Wallowa and Union counties will lead several discussions, and singer/songwriter Reggie Garrett will perform American Roots music. There will be guest newspaper editorials, panel discussions led by Wallowa County residents, live performances of To Kill a Mockingbird by Mid-Valley Theatre, Southern cuisine cooking classes offered by Lynne Sampson, and stories for children on KWVR at 7 pm on Sundays. There will also be a writing contest for school students.

I'll write more about the details of each event soon. In the meantime, save January 11 and January 12 on your calendars!

There’s lots more going on at Fishtrap, but I’ll mention just two items:

Order anthologies from Summer Fishtrap 2009 at www.fishtrap.org/store.shtml.
Check Summer Fishtrap Fellowship submission guidelines at www.fishtrap.org/fellows.shtml.

A new year is coming, and it’s going to be a good one. Because down in the root cellar, there are a few more bottles of champagne.

Cheers,

Rick Bombaci
Executive Director, Fishtrap