There's an old-time feeling in this country town with a soul

By DEBERA CARLTON HARRELL
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

This is one of the last of Western Washington's true small towns -- the real McCoy.

Edged by fertile farmland, framed by sublime mountains and forged by the sturdiest of work ethics, Arlington is a place where bumping into people you know can stretch an eight-block walk down the main street into a two-hour trek.

The Bluebird Cafe still offers $7 dinners and "plain old" brewed coffee in non-imported brown mugs. Hot fudge sundaes at the Tastebuds Ice Cream and Candy Shoppe are works of art. The bowling alley caters to families, and seats at the tiny movie theater cost half the multiplex price.

There are no parking meters, kids walk to the variety store, and the town librarian tells kids to "Shshshsh!" by name.

"This town still has integrity. It has a soul," says Mike Jones, owner of Arlington Hardware, one of the town's oldest stores and most popular meeting spots.

"The common ground for people is to see how they can make life better for other people. Arlington is more like small towns in Eastern Washington. People value that. But things are changing."

Those changes include nearby malls, a 1,200-home "planned community," and an 18-hole golf course.

Longtime residents, whose families settled here more than a century ago and logged the land to create dairy farms, want to keep this town's gentler pace and starry nights. Many who value this small-town way of life worry about the effects of upscale homes and suburban expectations.

A cherished sense of timelessness shines through turn-of-the-century stained glass windows in Arlington United Church. It's heard in carillon bells chiming at sunset and in the hymms sung on Sundays to chords from one of the state's oldest pipe organs.

While denominations of Christian faiths -- dating to the area's first European settlers in the late 1800s -- are most prevalent here, Arlington's community spirit is nurtured by a variety of spiritual practices, including Mormons and New Age believers.

And many have a spiritual connection with this place.

Anglers wade serenely into the valley's free-flowing "Stilly" (Stillaguamish River). Ultralight gliders from Arlington Airport circle silently upward as they ride thermals toward snowcapped peaks.

"It's peaceful here," says Renee Ottersen, proprietor of Mount Higgins House, a picturesque bed-and-breakfast that reflects the area's heritage. Ottersen's 70-acre property is the site of the first farm in the Stillaguamish Valley to have electricity. The barn, hand-raised in 1910, still stands.

Visitors are treated to breakfasts with apples, plums, pears or cherries picked from Ottersen's trees, and they can watch stallions gallop in a meadow beside a trout pond.

Most residents are fierce about preserving the community's integrity and peacefulness. While consensus is not easily reached in a place of disparate politics, personalities and strong sentiments, most people agree that the "small-town, old-time feel" is what makes Arlington special.

"It's a laid-back, rural community. We want it this way; we don't want it too busy," says Doris Harrison, co-owner of Arlington Bookstore. Harrison and her husband, Jim, moved here 11 years ago after he retired from Boeing.

Harrison and other merchants worry about that big commercial developments south of town, chain stores and changing times will put the town's smaller merchants out of business. While business is steady for Christmas tree farms and Bayliner boats, two longtime community fixtures have closed: a furniture store and Rotten Ralph's, which boasted the "biggest ice cream cones in the state."

Property owners, particularly farmers, are feeling pressure from development as well as possible impacts of new federal regulations aimed at protecting the Stillaguamish's chinook salmon.

"There is an old-time flavor left, where neighbors are neighbors, and people want to keep that," says Hank Graafstra, whose Country Charm Dairy has been operating in Arlington since 1953. His dairy is on property homesteaded in 1883, before Washington became a state. "Arlington is a logging and agricultural community with basically honest, family-oriented, hard-working people concerned about raising their children and trying to do their best.

"How long can you keep that? It's amazing to us that people move here, then complain about what has always been here, like animal smells, logging trucks and tractors on the roads."

"Arlington is like in the movies -- everybody knows everybody," says Delani Ambler. The 16-year-old high school student works at the Two Bits and More variety store on North Olympic Avenue, the town's main street. "I love it here. Some kids wish there was a mall, but I don't. It would ruin the small-town thing."