This took me back. Used to live on E 52nd (I think). You had me scrolling Google maps in my bed at 5 am revisiting memories I haven’t thought about in 15 years.
I see from your substack that you were in the military. Were you stationed at Lewis-McChord? My time in Tacoma had me around veterans all of the time. That part of the experience changed my outlook completely. One time, the Egyptian immigrant who worked at the Shell station told me, with tears in his eyes, "The soldiers here are so different from anywhere else."
I was stationed at JBLM. Went to Afghanistan from JBLM. Divorced from Afghanistan. My Tacoma time was short but filled with life. To this day, areas of Tacoma stand out in my mind and fill portions of my fictional writing (not that anyone would ever know that). Specifically the port area and the small downtown area beside it in the vicinity of the glass museum.
Cool. I miss Tacoma. It exists as if it were plucked out of time in my head. Some parts of it were like entering a time zone that is decades behind ours. I hope the recent gentrification has not changed it too much.
This took me back. Used to live on E 52nd (I think). You had me scrolling Google maps in my bed at 5 am revisiting memories I haven’t thought about in 15 years.
I see from your substack that you were in the military. Were you stationed at Lewis-McChord? My time in Tacoma had me around veterans all of the time. That part of the experience changed my outlook completely. One time, the Egyptian immigrant who worked at the Shell station told me, with tears in his eyes, "The soldiers here are so different from anywhere else."
I was stationed at JBLM. Went to Afghanistan from JBLM. Divorced from Afghanistan. My Tacoma time was short but filled with life. To this day, areas of Tacoma stand out in my mind and fill portions of my fictional writing (not that anyone would ever know that). Specifically the port area and the small downtown area beside it in the vicinity of the glass museum.
Cool. I miss Tacoma. It exists as if it were plucked out of time in my head. Some parts of it were like entering a time zone that is decades behind ours. I hope the recent gentrification has not changed it too much.