Dear Editor,

In 1984, I was hired as the fourth Town Administrator where I proudly served for over four years. The combined total of my predecessors record did not exceed my time in office. I remain proud of that. I ultimately lived there 12 years and only got divorced once. Nederland remains one of only three places in my life that I think of as home.

My welcome to Town was to serve as the Town's primary court witness in the dinosaur mural sign code violation at the Rock Shop, truly a case my heart was never in . . . but that was the job.

I was so pleased to see in the next edition of The Mountain-Ear that George Blevins had skewered me in one of his editorial cartoons. I have carried a framed version of that around with me ever since.

George is and always was one of my favorite Nedheads ever. I still have an original Nedhead rooftop t-shirt based on George's work before it was changed to the Swiss Chalet edition. I reread his cartoon books over and over and have never, ever forgotten my roots in Nederland largely thanks to George and many Sunday mornings at the long gone donut shop.

Nederland is unrecognizable to me these days after years of raising my children there, fighting the Town fights, indulging in the fireworks displays and the Frozen Dead Guy in later years. Generations come and go as they do everywhere. In my mind, it will always be the Nederland of George's amazing quill pen and all the talking creatures.

I am so thrilled that you are honoring George, especially while he is still living. For him, I am fairly sure he prefers it that way. May you never stop drawing and skewering George!

David Clyne

Independence, Oregon