Pierce County Reads Together Features Speeches by Jamie Ford, Author of The Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Jamie Ford, author, spoke at Pierce College near Puyallup as an ending high note to the Pierce Couty Reads 2012 - The Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.  He will speak again at another location this evening.  I was early but two dozen people already were in the foyer at the Pierce College Theater, along with a book sales table monitored by King's Books' owner Sweet Pea.  I had not realized King's Books would manage the sales.  There were very close to a hundred when they opened the door at 11:45.  Among many Jamie Ford opening comments was the contrast of the audience to his usual bookstore talk crowd.  Some audience of students came in just at noon, most were Pierce County Reads people who appeared to be book club members, they arrived in groups of four or five.  They were still discussing the book - I heard the people behind me after I sat down.

When Books At Twelve-Ten discussed The Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet on Tuesday a similar contrast held.  They groups heading in at Pierce College were larger than our threesome, even with the email input we brought in from others.  One comment I made was something about how the unfolding of characters and plot works well with the context to increase tension as the Executive Orders occur. 

Jamie Ford said that within this geographical location we have an Institutional Memory of the Japanese Internment, across the Rockies this memory goes away.  Perhaps his Hotel, while of course a real hotel that is still there, in the title is also a reference to Institutional Memory.  It would be, also, an ironic reference to the camps as a hotel, an idea that occured to me as our bus went past the Western Washington Fairgrounds where Camp Harmony was seventy years ago. 

The 400 bus stops at the Puyallup Railroad Station.  Beyond the tracks is a restored old cannery, was it the drop-off point for a lot of berries?  Many Japanese were produce farmers.  When my mother and uncle referred to the Japanese Produce farmer who brought a wagon to the bottom of their hill, they inevitably mentioned the Japanese being sent to camps.  They did not talk about more details geographically.  I did not encounter the Japanese Language Center until the University of Washington was planning a branch in Tacoma's Downtown.

It was such a beautiful afternoon that I found my way along parking lots to the College exit, crossed medians to reach a sidewalk along a stressful street.  Along my way construction was going on for a Medical Facility.  At last I reached the mall where the transit center was.  I did not want to wait for the bus.

Along the ride there were flowering trees, horses in a field where I had looked for them on the way out.  March was rather busy so I did not hear Michael Sullivan speak about the Tacoma Japanese Community.  That day I went to the Swedish-Finn Historical Society and to the U of Washington News Microfilm - but I went through the Quad and saw the Cherry Trees in blossom.