Darlene BatesSerials Specialist
Most of us regard PLU as a home of sorts, and some among us feel they have lived here most of their lives. But there are not many within our community who can say they have lived, worked, and played within a block of PLU for so long they can truly be called "homies".
Darlene Bates is by any definition of the word a PLU homie. Her parents moved here when she was two months old, first to a farm at 121st St. and Waller Rd., then to Parkland proper in 1951. She clearly remembers as a kid getting candy in a shop on Garfield St. across from the post office, eateries like Edna’s and the Stua Cafe, and large holiday church services in Eastvold Auditorium when Trinity Lutheran Church was too small (in its earlier incarnation) to accommodate the crowd. She remembers her father working for Montgomery Elevator Co. and traveling all around the region. While growing up Darlene attended new school after new school as she rolled through the baby-boom expansion of the school system, including then-new Franklin Pierce High School. And she also vividly remembers the day she saw PLU’s new library under construction, then thinking to herself, "Gee, I wish I could work there!"
And indeed she has. Darlene was hired by Sharon Chase as a reference department page in 1973. Over the three decades since, Darlene has seen remarkable transformations in the library. During her career the card catalog was replaced with an integrated library system, barcoding was instituted for inventory control of print materials, the management of serials and other records has moved from print to electronic systems & tools, and now reference work is considerably more digital, too. Recently Darlene has been working part-time with Kerstin Ringdahl in Special Collections, where she has been processing a scrapbook once maintained by a mail carrier in Roy. Discovery of this scrapbook over the Internet by someone in England pretty much sums up the massive changes that have occurred since Darlene wistfully wondered if she might work in the library one day.
There are limits to being a PLU homie, though. Darlene does have an adventurous life away from these environs, and a very rich one at that. Currently she lives in Graham with husband Dick, whom she married in 1966. They in turn live five minutes from son Mark, who is married and has a six-year-old daughter. And they now have a fifth wheel hung on the back end of a large pick-up truck they are using to explore the world.
Homies no more, perhaps.