Previously I wrote about our fun teasing of Ray while we were picking strawberries, but it was in good fun and I considered Ray a friend until he passed away 20 years ago. For certain he gave as good as he got.

In the seventh or eighth grade I occasionally accompanied him on crazy adventures. 

On one boring day Ray told me he had a 22 rifle and a box of bullets and said we should walk to the slough north of our houses and shoot carp. Why not, I thought, that sounded like fun. So here were two young boys walking through the neighborhood with a rifle and apparently no one thought much of it. 

We lived in the northwest end of Portland’s St. John’s district which is close to the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers. West and north of our homes the land slopped down close to the river’s elevation and there were sloughs and backwater swampy areas a close walk away. The slough just north of Swift Boulevard was our destination. It was a muddy, slow-moving body of water and the banks were also very muddy and slippery. A great place for two boys with a rifle to play.

As I remember we shot up the box of bullets with uncertain results, but we filled a boring afternoon with another adventure.

Ken Kaiyala
11-17-2024