Octomural Chapter 3

As I write this, we are, as a city, nation and world in the throes of the Covid-19 pandemic. Like everyone else I’m on edge about what will happen next. However, I am heartened by stories I hear of people looking out for their neighbors and sacrificing in creative and significant ways. These are the kinds of acts of service I wanted to celebrate with the arms of the octo on our mural wall. From the head of the octopus five arms wend their way to the right down the long block to the end of the wall while three reach up the street and around the corner to the top of the mural. Starting with the three top arms, what follows is the task of each.

Arm #1: Picks up litter- in particular, an apple core, and a student’s crumpled up math homework.

Arm #2: Pushes a wheelchair of a visitor to the Navy Museum or Admiral Theater.

Arm #3: Picks blackberries for the annual Bremerton Blackberry Festival.

Arm #4: Hammers in a nail on a Bremerton Habitat for Humanity home.

Arm #5 : Takes a photo of Emma of Emma’s BBQ, a local business that years ago was open on the site of the current building. Emma’s descendants owned a home across the street from the mural at the time of the painting.

Arm #6: Plays basketball with kids who live across the street from the mural and who, at the time, actually played as often as they could with a stand-up hoop that looked just like the one in the mural.

Arm #7: Paints itself (an octo) in a mural within the mural to bring cheer to a neighborhood.

Arm #8: Assists a nurse at the health services center to check heart and lungs of a young child with a stethoscope.

Stay tuned for Chapter 4 where I will elaborate on other visual details of the Octomural and their significance to Bremerton and my neighborhood.

Basketball-loving neighbor ponders progress of the painting of an octopus playing basketball.