A crucible is a container that is designed for withstanding extreme, hellish temperatures for the purpose of melting metals into new alloys and forms. A crucible makes the consitions possible and allows the new metal to be poured into a new mold or into grain or ingots for later use.
I was not born in Olalla. But, I might as well have been. The nearest hospital that permitted a sterilized landing pad for my journey to this world was in Penticton. t was in Penticton, but it might as well have been in Olalla.
My mother used to say that the word Olalla meant “beautiful place” . Maybe in French. Oh – la – la! And Olalla was beautiful. Tall fir trees with their reddish bark, cracked deeply, as though they had wizened over years and the wrinkles were evidence of strength and value. A pebbly creek of magic water descended from five thousand feet above or more, water that rippled with sunny diamonds and was so clear and pure that as a child I would simply put my face in it and drink if I were thirsty. It would slake our thirst.
It would sing to me a lullaby of comfort with its burbling. I sleep well near running water to this very day.
Olalla is in a narrow valley just on the north edge of the Similkameen Valley in the southern interior. The valley is narrow, maybe just a few hundred yard wide. On both sides are mountains of several thousand feet. The Cascade Range. Pacific Ring of Fire.
The beautiful place is in between. In between the two mountains. In between the Okanagan and Similkameen, although we identify with the former.
it is a land of rattlesnakes and black widow spiders. Western Diamondbacks.
Sage brush.
goats cllamber on steep thousand foot climbs.
juicy olallies grow on bushes everywhere. Olallies from Olalla. Because so many of them grow in Olalla. This is what we learned as kids. ‘Local’ historians say it is the other way around – but they aren’t from here. They weren’t born in here. They definitely were not formed here, or by here.
Cougars,
Bears
Mule deer
Moose
Ticks
Scorpions
Cactus.
Olalla Creek 