Sunday, May 8, 2016

Originally I thought I'd put this book with the post for Tourism Day, but it was one of those powerful, positive reads so I wanted to put it on a different trail ...

Miracle Town: Creating America's Bavarian Village in Leavenworth, Washington, by Ted Price. In the early 1960's Leavenworth was a dying town. Stores were vacant with windows boarded up. Could anything be done to save it? Just outside of town Ted Price and Bob Rodgers opened a Bavarian themed restaurant and motel which was a success. Could they expand on this idea? With a lot of hard work (and no government funds) the community came together, gave the little town a huge makeover and created a Bavarian village, complete with festivals, food, and all sorts of shops. Leavenworth is now a destination for millions of tourists each year.

Written for the 50th anniversary of the familiar Seattle landmark, Space Needle: the Spirit of Seattle, by Knute Berger is a wonderful look back at the history, design, construction, and influence of the structure that makes a Seattle cityscape so easily recognizable. Many of the workers did not wear any sort of safety gear (makes me shudder just thinking about that). (!) And I did know that the sections in the rotating restaurant were color coded (it was very subtle) so that the servers could find their tables, but I did not know that they, too, had that same color coding in their uniforms.

Here's one more that fits the 'positive' description: The Little Free Library Book, by Margret Aldrich. It started small, as a way to honor his mother (a teacher and avid reader). Todd Bol built a box, filled it with books and a message to 'take a book, leave a book' and installed it in his neighborhood. There are now thousands of them world wide. From how to build your own Little Free Library box, to how they affect the people who use them, this is just a wonderful read! And while I understand how they are promoting reading, encouraging literacy and so forth, I will admit I really loved seeing the huge variety of designs! A favorite is the TARDIS found in Bloomington, Minnesota. The builders love Doctor Who and, as they said, like the TARDIS, books are bigger on the inside. :-)

Reading Hermit With Dog

No comments:

Post a Comment