This survey doesn't lie: people like Goldendale
Lou Marzeles
News Editor
It's me, again, the newcomer, late of Arizona, where this week temperatures are in triple digits. In May. And it'll stay that way, more or less, until October. Go ahead, ask me again why I left.
The more common question I get, as I've mentioned before in these pages, is, why did I come here? After all, there's all of one traffic light in the whole of Klickitat County, I was told this week. (I chuckled when the person said it; I thought sure he was kidding. He did reassure me that the light has all three colors.)
I keep telling people that, no, really, I actually do like being here. People from Socrates to Lincoln to Fred Swanson, the guy who sprays for bugs at my home in Sedona, have told us for years: one's experience with anything is what one chooses to make of it. I choose to make Goldendale a great experience.
And so do a lot of other people, I'm discovering-even people who don't live here are saying that they find Goldendale great. I have folks doing indisputable surveys around the area, such as my step-daughter who trolls the opinion byways of The Dalles and other regions. Being terribly shy (I almost wrote that with a straight face), she walks up to total strangers and announces that she's new in the area and says, hey, how are things with you? They in turn ask her about herself, and she tells them she's hanging out in Goldendale for a stretch, and they tell her-God's honest truth-that Goldendale is great, a nice place, a very vibrant community. Those are some of the very comments she's heard. Not once has she heard a negative comment.
Surveys don't lie. I almost wrote that with a straight face, too, but in this case, I think it's clear that more people than not are deciding we're onto something very good here.
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