November 2008

While a ride on the trolley is but a nostalgic memory for longtime West Seattle residents, people today can still take a train home from the Junction. But of course they will have to buy it first.

Thirty-year West Seattle resident Scott Law opened the Electric Train Shop 10 years ago, Nov. 4, at 4511 California Avenue, and has kept model train enthusiasts all aboard and on the right track ever since. He sells and repairs the little N, smallish HO, and larger O Scale model trains, including the charming "Post-war O Scale" Lionel classics, popular with collectors.

"Older trains from the 40's and 50's are like stamps and coins," said Law. "There are guidebooks that point out rarities, like one model might use a different kind of screw, so it's worth double.

Chief Executive Office Navos (formerly Highline West Seattle Mental Health).

When Chris Hill was honorably discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1982, he made sure to remove the medical records in his permanent file about his visits to a psychiatrist. Hill, who was experiencing severe anxiety attacks, was afraid to be labeled as a veteran with psychiatric problems.

"I was embarrassed about it at the time," says Hill, who now works as a mental health counselor for the Jefferson Center for Mental Health in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.

A recent Wall Street Journal article listed Seattle as the number one market in the nation to being begin bouncing back from the economic slump. That news brings a smile to the faces of Phyllis and David

Danforth, who have some news of their own. They have just completed the purchase Coldwell Banker Del Bianco realty in Burien.

The Danforths have been a Coldwell Banker affiliate since 1993, with principal offices in Federal Way and boasting 250 agents on their roster.

The Burien/Normandy Park Fire Department will replace its two stations after voters overwhelmingly approved a bond measure in the Nov.

Madison Middle School has been awarded the Learning Improvement Award and recognized as a School of Distinction by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Jill Hudson, Madison Middle School principal, is proud of the school’s consistent teachers.

"They're a really dedicated hard-working staff," she said.

Madison is one of 98 schools in the entire state to win the award.

Democratic candidate for 36th District representative Reuven Carlyle checks early results during his Nov. 4 election party. Results have shown Carlyle leading fellow Democrat John Burbank by a steady 30 points.

John Burbank, Democratic candidate for 36th District representative, watches from his election party as Barack Obama delivers his acceptance speech, Tuesday Nov. 4. It was a good night for Democrats, but unfortunately for Burbank, his opponent, Reuven Carlyle, is also a Democrat.

Despite capping an otherwise bleak Ballard football season with a 30-7 victory over Garfield High School on Oct. 30, some parents are calling on the school to replace first-year coach John Bowers after the team was outscored by more than 200 points this season and finished 1-8.

Parents accused Bowers of favoring inexperienced seniors - some of them first-year players - over more talented underclassmen.

Iron sharpened iron.

Playing toe to toe and all-out for all the 50/50 balls on the beautiful Starfire field turf for a good-sized crowd on both sides, Kennedy and Mount Rainier wrote a good script for soccer excitment, won by the Lancers, 2-1, over the Rams in both team’s regular season ender at Starfire in Tukwila Wednesday.

Kennedy won the Seamount with a 15-0-1 record while the Rams settled for only their second loss of the season in finishing 12-2-2.

War is Hell. - No one knows that better than today's young folks in military service and those who fought for America's freedom years before them.

Ask any veteran - and those who have loved and waited for them. Yet they are proud to serve.

"We joined the service hoping nothing really bad would happen --and prepared for the worst," two local young Marines, Pat Klobucher and Chris Irwin, said.

Assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and dispatched to Jordan, Kuwait, Africa and Iraq after basic training, they traveled by helicopter to strategic locations.