September 2, 2023, marked the First Annual Tom Robbins Day in La Conner, WA — an event long overdue considering the decades during which its dean of letters has chosen to reside in what he has described as “this little clam-cawed outpost where I continue to follow the Charmer’s pipes down oblique paths of…well, I’m unsure if there is a fitting name for it.” Robbins’ description of La Conner is a tribute indeed to the hamlet along the Swinomish Channel whose upscale boho vibe belies its more rough and tumble past as a port town and steamboat landing. My wife and I were in La Conner for Tom Robbins Day, and we thoughroughly enjoyed the Mardi Gras atmosphere befitting its honoree. We even got in a wave at the King for a Day and his faithful consort, Alexa, as they cruised the parade route in a firetruck. I hope Tom got to make the siren go, but at age 91 I suspect he passed on sliding down the firepole. While getting a coffee at Beaver Tales following the parade and festivities, I noticed a copy of the August 30 edition of the “La Conner Weekly News.” I have a deep and abiding love of small town newspapers, and in picking this one up my gaze was immediately drawn to the below-the-fold headline that read, “Tom Robbins’ lost 1974 high school commencement address.” I can tell you that what followed was the easiest I’ve ever parted with a buck twenty-five. The story that compelled me to buy the paper was by Fred Obee, a former Oak Harbor newspaper editor. Fred had obtained a copy of the commencement address that Tom Robbins had deliverd to an “alternative” high school in 1974. Reading his description of it, I couldn’t help be amazed at how radically relevant Robbins’ remarks still felt after just shy of half a century. This Robbinsesque moment might well have disappeared from Magic Skagit history but for Fred Obee, so I’d like to honor his sharing it by reading it to you. Here then is “Tom Robbins’ lost 1974 high school commencememt address,” by Fred Obee, as narrated by yours truly. Go ahead, just try not to smile.
