So I take my dog for a walk every morning, and usually I take her to the same place. It’s many acres of grassland over by Clackamette Cove. The cove was a gravel quarry until 1993, and the area between the cove and the Clackamas River and I-205 used to be a landfill and is now a water treatment plant. There are lots of big piles of gravel and the remnants of busted-up concrete sidewalks (complete with old drinking fountains, and sometimes playground equipment), so I think Clackamas County dumps construction waste there or something. So we’re not talking manicured parkland here. We’re talking the kind of place out to which you drive your pickup if you need to dump a body. (For some reason, I tend to like to ramble in places like that. I blame my generally solitary nature, and my dream of someday getting murdered by a drifter.)
It’s my favorite place to take the dog, however, because it’s full of places where I can get off by myself with the dog and work her with dummies and bumpers without anyone giving me the stinkeye about an off-leash puppy. I can scent her dummy with eau d’quail and make her sit while I throw it into a deep stand of grass or brush, and then tell her to go find it, and it’s the bestest game for her in the whole world. And after she gets all muddy and dirty, I can rinse her off in the nice clean Clackamas and we’re all good!
Anyway, here’s the weird thing that happened on our walk today. We were walking along this gravel road, by these piles of broken up concrete. And on top of the pile were tomato plants loaded with red ripe fruit! I don’t know how I never saw those before, as I’ve passed this way with the dog literally dozens of times this summer. I picked a bagful into a (clean!!! unused!!) poop bag, and will go back to harvest the rest as they become available.
I am stymied as to how these tomatoes came to be growing here. My husband believes it has something to do with sewage and black water and the way tomato seeds pass undigested through the human intestine. He refuses to eat the tomatoes because he believes they are hideously tainted. But heckfire, everything grows from shit, people! Every damn thing.
Anyway, no one will have to worry about shit or slagheap tomatoes much longer. Apparently some big development company, the same people who developed Portland’s lovely clean twee RiverPlace Waterfront, is going to be developing the whole area into condos and high-end retail and doctor’s offices. Because gee, doesn’t Oregon City need a whole bunch more undersold condos and untenanted high-end retail? It’s certainly better than a bunch of dirty ol’ gravel and slagheap tomatoes. The Gods of Commerce must be served!
