Monkeyshines 2016

     It was a bleak, overcast February day, but it wasn’t raining. I was bundled up in my robe sipping tea over a bowl of cereal, bored. A section of the News Tribune peeked out from under my mug. Bright colors called out, “Ringing in the Lunar New Year around the South Sound.”

     YES, the year of the monkey! An earlier article in January had explained that Tacoma’s Monkeyshines project was back on.  Anonymous glassblowers around Tacoma make thousands of glass balls, medallions imprinted with the Asian new year’s animal (2016 is the monkey) and other objects of art and hide them around town. It all started 12 years ago, and was on my list of things to do. 

     Then last year, they said it would be the last year for Monkeyshines. I was disappointed that I hadn’t gotten around to searching for the handblown glass balls. Now I had another chance. I was excited that Monkeyshines was back on!

     Even though the Lunar New Year is on Monday, and this was the Friday before, the article said that the handblown globes could start showing up a few days early. A field trip to Tacoma was necessary!

     I didn’t get to Tacoma until 10 am. My plan had been to start in the Chinese Reconciliation Park, but I took a wrong turn and missed it. Instead I parked on Commerce St. in front of a bar and a vertical dance studio. The street was empty.

     I started walking and scanning the storefronts, looking along window ledges and in planters. I climbed the stairs beside the old Elks temple that McMenamins has started restoring. I was looking between the white rungs on the stairs and stood on tip toes to peer into the urns perched on corners, but there were just old plastic bottles in there. 

At the top, I headed toward the antique/theater district.

    It was a quiet walk, very different from when the restaurants and pubs are open at night. I didn’t spy any Monkeyshines treasure. However, I did see a few tempting items in storefront windows that I’d like to look at more closely when the shops open.

     I made my way back toward my car, but detoured down the hill after spotting a sign for Fireman’s Park. I’d read about a famous totem pole in the park. It was carved in 1903 to impress President Theodore Roosevelt when he came through town. It stands 80 feet tall (beating out the 60 –ft. totem pole that was in Seattle at the time). A few years ago, there was a controversy about what to do when it was inspected and found to be in poor condition. The city decided to restore it, brace it, and leave it in Fireman’s Park.

Totem Pole in Fireman's Park, Tacoma, WA

     This was something else on my list of things to see/do in Tacoma. Check! I don’t know if Teddy Roosevelt was impressed, but I was. That totem pole soars up into the gray skies over the city. 

Mt. Rainier from Fireman's Park, Tacoma, WA

     The sliver of green park hovers over the highway and has great views of Commencement Bay, the port of Tacoma, and Mt. Rainier.

 I was the only one there, and the sole hint at a Monkeyshine ball turned out to be a rock. I felt like Charlie Brown on Halloween.

     I pointed my Nikes back up the hill toward my car. When I passed by the pay station near my car, I noticed that someone had stuck their ticket on the machine. I love it that people “donate” their unused parking time to random strangers.

     Since I was parked on Commerce St. I decided a trip to Mad Hat Tea Company, several blocks down, would be a good way to warm up. I lucked out with a space right in front and watched the Link light rail streetcar pass by. That was another thing I’d always wanted to do—ride the Link.

     I got my tea to-go and hopped aboard. There are six stops along the 1.6 miles from Freighthouse Square and the Sounder train station to the theater/antique shop district, and it only takes 10 minutes to go from one end to the other. Until September the ride is free. I didn’t spot any Monkeyshine treasure along the way, but the ride was smooth and it was very clean. It was a convenient way to get from one end of town to the other. I hope it expands to cover more of Tacoma.

     Realizing that I probably started my quest too early, I drove the 20 minutes back home to Puyallup and made plans for searching again on Monday, the real start of the Lunar New Year.

     Monday morning I got an earlier start and arrived at Fireman’s Park by 8:30. This time I wasn’t alone. There were at least 15 other people there who also thought that it would be a good place to hide Monkeyshines glass balls, medallions, and art. We were all peering under bushes and shading our eyes from the morning sun to look up into trees. 
     After 45 minutes of finding nothing, I drove over to the Chinese Reconciliation Park. (Another place on my Tacoma to-do list.)

     It was built to acknowledge and apologize for an ugly part of Tacoma history when Chinese workers were forced out of the city. The pathways pleasantly meander along leading to the Fuzhou Ting, a striking red pavilion that was built by three master craftsmen from Fuzhou, China, Tacoma’s sister city.

     The park is right on the water, with scenic vistas as far as the eye can see. But as near as my eye could see there were no hand blown glass balls. Once again, I surrendered and drowned my sorrows in tea, this time at Corina Bakery.

Dancing Cranes mural.

     Not only had I not found one of the hidden glass balls, I never saw anyone else find one either. Plan A of searching two days early failed. Plan B of searching on the right day, but after the sun rose failed. It was time to implement Plan C.

     

Manhole cover on sidewalk near Mad Hat Tea Co.

Candle cups with the monkey seal were being sold and the funds raised would go to support the Monkeyshine project, but you were supposed to go online to purchase them and then pick them up at one of two locations. Creative Forces a shop filled with locally made art in the Murano Hotel was one of the pick-up spots. I went there and fortunately got one of the last two Monkeyshines candle cups.

    I know that it’s not one of the precious, hand-blown glass balls. I have no triumphant tale of discovery, but it does have the monkey seal pressed into glass, and it was handcrafted in Tacoma. I crossed a lot off of my Tacoma to-do list, got some exercise in, didn’t get rained on, and saw quite a bit of art along the way. Still, looking closely at that monkey’s face on the candle holder, I have to wonder, is he laughing at me?

Laura Keolanui Stark enjoyed her wild monkey chase. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com.

Life Is a Game Show

Whenever I win control of the remote in our house, if there’s a game show on TV, that’s what I’ll be watching. I like Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, but my current favorite is Cash Cab. When we visit New York City again, I’ll be looking for Ben Bailey.

         Sarah and I were watching a Cash Cab marathon one day when I asked, “How come it’s always the MAN who gets to be the one to give the answer?”

          We started getting all feminist riled up about that, “Yeah! What’s that about?”

          After a few episodes, we realized it wasn’t a gender thing. Whoever sat in the seat that was not directly behind the driver got to be the one who answered for the group. Most of the time, it was a man in that seat because men are chivalrous and let women and children get in the cab first. We felt a little stupid.

         Then I started wondering, if the winners split the money evenly when they got out of the cab, or if they divided it according to how many correct answers each person gave?  Who would I call for a mobile shout out? Could you choose based on the question?

          It’s always interesting too, if they haven’t gotten kicked out of the cab, to see if the contestants will take the double or nothing gamble at the end of the cab ride. And, it's refreshing to see how polite New Yorkers are.

          Years of watching game shows meant that I was fully prepared on one of the first sunny days of summer last year. John had played hooky from work and we went to eat lunch on Ruston Way, Tacoma’s waterfront.

           Afterwards, we walked out onto the end of a pier to look out at the water. That’s when we spotted an old piling sticking up out of the water covered with coins, mostly pennies. John dug in his pocket, and I dug in my purse for pennies. We were tossing coins, trying to make them “stick” to the top of the 6” diameter piling, watching them bounce off or miss entirely and plunk into the Puget Sound, when a couple walked up to us and issued a challenge.

          They were about the same age as we are, but not married. They were dating—long enough for the guy to feel comfortable launching passive aggressive barbs at his girlfriend and her supposed lack of intelligence. 

          Then he turned his spotlight on me, “I bet YOU can’t name the colleges in the Pac-10.”

           I had no choice but to start naming them, from north to south along the west coast. Mr. Obnoxious held up fingers as I rattled them off. The girlfriend got more excited the more I named. At eight, I stalled. He started gloating.

         John threw me a hint, “Our friends, Pat and Stephanie, moved to . . .”

         "Got it! Arizona and Arizona State!”

          Quiz guy was disappointed. His girlfriend high-fived me.

          Then I turned to him and threw my gauntlet down, “OK, now you have to name ten designer handbags.”

          His girlfriend beamed, “Yeah! Yeah! Name ten designers!”

          He looked stunned, “Calvin Klein?” I held up one finger.

          John looked at me, “What’s that one? The purse that you got for Sarah in China? Dooney & Bourke!”

          “OK, that’s two.” The girlfriend was practically jumping up and down. We waited. They had bupkis. 

         Together, she and I came up with eight more. I was glad she knew because to tell the truth, I was bluffing just to watch him sweat. I buy my purses from Fred Meyer’s or Penneys.               

         We left that day, and I thought the Ruston Way game show was an isolated incident, until a couple of weeks ago.

         Sarah and I were in downtown Tacoma to do some shopping. I was feeding coins into a machine to pay for parking. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man walk up. I thought he was waiting to buy a parking ticket too, but instead, he was running his own impromptu game show.

         “I bet you can’t tell me who invented penicillin.”

         Sarah looked around for a camera. Maybe we were on Jay Leno. I was trying to figure out how many minutes we’d get for a quarter, how long we were going to be, and how much change I had. Without turning around and looking at him, I answered, “Salk.”

         “Wrong! But you were headed in the right direction. It was Alexander Fleming.”

          Dang it! I pulled the ticket out of the machine. Salk cured polio (and NOT with penicillin either). All I saw of the random quiz master was his backpack as he walked off down the street. And, I’d bought 30 minutes more parking time than I needed. Dang it again!

           So if you go to Tacoma, be prepared. As my teachers used to say, “make sure you take your thinking cap with you.”

Laura Keolanui Stark is hoping she’ll make it to the bonus round. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com. (The Pac-10 consisted of: Washington State University, University of Washington, University of Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, California, UCLA, USC, Arizona, Arizona State.)