Musings – on the editor’s mind

This is a once upon a time story set in our place, right here. There is not a palace but a property, and a historic La Conner couple, Donna and Gerald Blades, are at the heart of it.

The Blades owned an Exxon gas station on Morris and Fourth streets, where the Slider Cafe is now, and the property behind it when those lots were zoned residential. In 1986 they must have worked arduously, lobbying the town council to rezone the three lots facing Center Street, then spelled Centre – a staff sign painting misspelling, I heard – for commercial use.

The evidence of the Blades’ efforts wer...