Wallingford, Wonderland.

In this life we are looking for places to put ourselves, positions to occupy, and projects that will make us stand out. We look to each other for approval and recognition of whatever places or positions we fill, and for ideas of what the next project might be. We are subject to the weather and to the seasons. No matter the decade, or the extent of high tech toys available, we are affected and forced to make choices based off of our surroundings. Wallingford presents itself as a place to reside amongst our surroundings and let life happen.

I have lived in Wallingford for most of my life. There is something about this cheery, down-to-earth neighborhood that keeps bringing me back. I have traveled to Europe, lived in Canada, and beheld the most breathtaking views from some of the world’s highest mountaintops, and yet I keep coming back to this place. Where the streets are familiar, the smiles are usually kind, and the sun is a mystery guest.

Wallingford is located in the north end of Seattle, just across the water from beautiful downtown. Seattle receives an annual average of 36 inches of rain each year. While this number alone may not be enough to give Seattle the title as one of the nation’s rainiest cities, the name is well deserved. The rain in Seattle is slow and persistent. The clouds that bring it will show up days ahead of time, release a light drizzle for a few hours, and then remain for days after their delivery has completed. This can make for some monochromatic views and emotions, but the citizens of Seattle battle it out. In a city where eight months out of the year can be described as grey and gloomy, Wallingford is a welcoming world that offers a little bit of emotional relief from the chaos of weather-gone-wrong.

There is a wonderful mix of small-town friendliness and big-city livin’. The well-known 45th Avenue is the main stretch through the center of Wallingford and is lined with old buildings, warm coffee shops, odd boutiques, and a mixture of people. The Guild 45th is the neighborhood theater and services any age, but is especially great for couples that have a few decades behind them and are looking for a way to get out on a Friday night. Everything is within a comfortable walking distance whether its QFC, Hollywood Video, Dick’s burger joint, or Molly Moon’s for some ice cream. There are a good variety of grungy, little bars that offer an escape on any night of the week. Especially Moon Temple, a poorly lit bar attached to a mediocre Chinese restaurant with a jukebox and a few smiles to help move the night along; a personal favorite of mine. These things make for a quirky environment where anyone is welcome- from stuck-up, uptight schoolteachers to crack addicts desperate to get off the streets; anyone fits even if not everyone is readily accepted.

This may seem like a negative spin, but in reality it is just life functioning as it has done for years in a colorful and rain-kissed neighborhood. Representing the confused, preteen underbelly of the city of Seattle. The city is young and still trying to find its feet. Neighborhoods like Wallingford express this with an eclectic mix of modernity and history. The people that live here reflect this mix of old school tradition and new school liberalism and together create a comfortable, unique environment to live in.

Having been a Wallingfordian for most of my life there are a few things that I have come to expect and own as part of who I am and part of my upbringing. These additions likely apply to anyone that has lived, or lives in this unique pocket of Seattle. Being from Wallingford means that I have spent time among many types of people. It means that I am liberal, and that I likely vote democrat (and I do). It means that I spent many Friday afternoons in high school getting drunk in public parks under the false protection of trees. It means that I agree with the mayor when she decides to shut down the city for a mere two inches of snow. It means that I have smoked marijuana in a park with bunnies in view, or on the back porch of someone’s parents house during some aimless summer day when I was 17. Being from Wallingford means that I have felt the seasonal lows due to lack of vitamin D and too much rain, just as much as it means that I have rejoiced with a heavenly excitement when the sun showed up again in May; the mystery guest returns and is more than welcome every time.

The point is that Wallingford offers itself to the city of Seattle as a location of life; as a place to reside and play out the days among a colorful variety of people with a large diversity of self-proclaimed purpose. In a city where the weather will likely bring you down and get the best of you, this collection of homes, lives, and scenes will give you the zest for life that is sometimes hard to come by. Wallingford will do this just by showing you all the faces and all the places that life could take you, but always welcoming your life and providing you with the courage to live it out and live it good.