Contrary to popular local opinion, the Skagit Valley does not resemble the Netherlands, says Bela Berghuys, owner of the Islands Inn and the Petite Wine Bar in Anacortes. “The only similarity is the soil,” she says, “the polder land.” Polder land is land that used to be underwater, reclaimed from the sea and protected by dikes. It is good for growing tulips, both here and in the Netherlands. “But there is no Mount Baker in the distance,” she continues, “no mountains at all. The Netherlands is really flat – your vision fades as you look into the distance. Plus it is rainier and there are...

Anthony Young moved to Anacortes 2 years ago from the South, where he had lived all his life. Now he wonders, “What took me so long to get here?” Anthony was born in the 1960s in Columbia, South Carolina, the fourth of Annie and Roosevelt Bay Young’s 5 children. He is named after his mother – her first and middle names are Annie Laura and his are Anthony Lorick. Annie worked in the cafeteria of the neighborhood elementary school that Anthony attended. “For many kids, it was their only meal of the day,” says Anthony. “She made sure they were well fed at lunchtime.” Segregation was still...

Life has been a long, arduous journey for Markéta Vorel, but she finally feels at home in Anacortes. “I’m not sure why,” she says. “I come from a landlocked country.” Markéta was born in 1969 in Jihlava, Czechoslovakia. Jihlava was founded in 1240 as a silver mining town in the Czech-Moravian Highlands. Its present population is approximately 50,000. Czechoslovakia was a communist country until 1989, when its citizens peacefully overthrew the communist regime in the “Velvet Revolution.” In 1993, the country divided amicably into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, both parliamentary...

“There are lots of bumps in life,” says Robert Schaper. “I believe we’re put on this Earth to help each other over them.” For him, the first bump came early. His mother Stella was a “sophisticated prostitute,” a fact he discerned when he was very young. Her johns didn’t pay her in cash, but generously returned her favors in other financial ways. Bob was born in 1939 in Hettinger, North Dakota, a town of about 3,000 people. The last time he visited, there were still no fast food restaurants there, and a car dealership stood where his family’s house once was. Bob has one older sister,...

“I don’t know how I found time to work for a living,” John Alcorn says facetiously. Now that he is retired, his three hobbies consume all his time. The first is pencil drawing. “I’ve been drawing ever since I could hold a pencil,” he says. His fine, large, detailed drawings are usually social commentaries – some satirical, some not. Now he is working on a series of illustrations of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, social commentaries in their own time. Another lifelong hobby of John’s is building static scale model airplanes (that don’t fly). One of the proudest moments of his life was...

Some people have a bear story to tell, but Betty Negro has 6. She encountered 5 of the bears on fishing trips, but the sixth is the most memorable. As she drove through Yellowstone National Park, a bear suddenly appeared in front of her car. The collision killed the bear and cracked the car’s radiator. Fog, fire, dramatic snowstorms and rainstorms, a cattle drive of longhorn steers – Betty has driven through them all. She always drove, while her husband Jim sat in the passenger seat beside her. “Jim never drove because of his poor eyesight,” explains Betty. “He used to call me Barney...