Charles E Bates

There was always an element of fun, and sometimes mischief, on adventures with Chuck! We went skiing at Crystal Mountain in high school days. I had an 8mm movie camera and we were going to emulate Warren Miller by creating an epic ski film. Lacing up our leather boots at the bottom, riding the chairlifts to the top, heading down Lucky Shot, and some great jumps off a big terrain shoulder, it was going to be fantastic. Weeks later we got the developed film back and talked our gang of friends into joining us at Chuck's house on Magnolia Boulevard for the big premier. The fim started out perfectly: good color, in focus, anticipation building until we got halfway down Lucky Shot to the jump-site. Whoever took the camera down below the jump, to film us as we tried our best to fly high off the knoll, got some snow on the lens. The whole rest of the film was a blur of white with occassional color flashes. Boy were we crushed, our film career ended before it began! I wish I had been at the Shilshole boat ramp with my film camera when Chuck reportedly was finally set to burn some rubber in his mom's weak-engine Dodge. As I heard the story, he started up from low enough on the ramp where it was a little wet and slippery to get the wheel spinning. With the engine racing, the drive-wheel was spinning all right but instead of coming up the ramp laying a perfect strip of rubber, the car rather quickly slid backward into the saltwater of Puget Sound...ending the career of an otherwise serviceable family car! Always fun adventures with our good friend, Chuck❤ Fond memories from Bjorn