How strange to see something I remember when it was new look so antique!

On hot days those of us who were students at Olympia High School could smell the hops. The Oly Beer work whistle marked the hourposts of our days at school.

If you took the tour of the facility, Oly Beer was excellent right out of tap, although the bottled and canned product had a bad local rap. Later, when I moved Back East for awhile I learned the beer had a mystique in those parts.

As I recall it was a light, gentle beer. And very unfairly maligned. Rainier had more of a bite. My guess, as a former home brewer and hop grower, was in the choice and amount of hops each company used.

The loss of local control over the brewery in 1983 was a major historical mark for the Oly-Tumwater community. And here we are a quarter century later still wondering what is going to become of that place.

Yes. I said a quarter century. 25 years. Two and half decades.

Combine this with the Old Brewery down on the FLOD, and I'm starting to see the elephant in the room no one wants to talk about.

Poor Tumwater. First I-5 destroys your heart and center (which has never recovered), then the Oly Beer corporation sells out, and then the State decides to wreck your traffic patterns by leasing buildings out by the Airport. I do not envy your city planners. Keep up the Farmer's Market! Open every Wednesday on the corner of Capitol Blvd. and Israel Rd. during the lunch hour (Plug! Plug!)

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I would love to see what and your camera can do with documenting Tumwater's own rustbelt, the deserted (new) brewery. There is a relief on the building on the Boston St. side crying for your attention, as well as the forlorn fountain at the entrance. etc., etc.