I was enjoying a sunny Sunday afternoon at the end of Blaine's public fishing pier, watching the sailboats and the gulls -- surprised to find myself alone there on such a gorgeous day, but enjoying the solitude nonetheless. After a few minutes, a battered old pickup came chugging down to the end of the pier with a teenage boy behind the wheel. He maneouvred back and forth on the wooden planks, carefully turned around, and then revved the engine and popped the clutch. The old truck lurched off, the tires making a wonderful shrill squeal on the slick creosoted decking.
Ten minutes or so went by, and another pickup came rattling down onto the pier, this time a small white import of questionable vintage driven by a different young man. I watched as he too carefully turned around, took aim at the road ahead, and sped off with a squeal of tires. When just a few minutes later, the same thing happened again with yet a third teenage driver, I began to ponder the significance of this solitary and carefully orchestrated Sunday afternoon drag racing.
In small-town America, football is king, and a football team's mascot is an image of strength and athletic prowess befitting such a manly pastime. I thought back to my high school mascot, a fierce-looking Indian chief, and our rivals -- the Mustangs, the Cougars, the Spartans, and the Bulldogs -- all strong and powerful totems that were sources of pride to the student bodies of these high schools.
Now ... consider Blaine. Their high school football team is called "The Borderites", and their mascot is a miniature Peace Arch. Is it any wonder that the town's youth is a bit neurotic when forced to participate in halftime shows featuring an animated arch prancing and cavorting about on the field? I no longer felt annoyance towards these young drag-racers, but instead great compassion for this burden they must bear. So, to honour all the Borderites out there -- past, present, and future, this cache is for you.
NOTE: You will see some signs in the vicinity of the cache that say "Danger Keep Off". These signs are not referring to the pier area itself, but to the steel breakwater down below. The cache is in a location safely and easily reached from the public pier area, with no need to climb over the railing or do anything hazardous.