In this episode we deviate slightly from our usual programming to chat with Charles Crooks, aka “Chuck,” our friend and ghost-whisperer and honorary Good Time Guy, who just started offering Bellingham Ghost Tours this year.

This episode is about spring festivals in Bellingham. 2023 is the 50th anniversary of the annual Ski to Sea Race here in Bellingham. The race officially started in 1973 as part of Bellingham’s Blossomtime Festival. That festival traces its roots to Bellingham’s first spring fling - The Tulip Festival - born out of bulb cultivation in Whatcom County. We dive into Bellingham’s days as “Tulip Town” and the evolution of spring festivals and events through the years. Find out why the Tulips took off to Skagit County and the Tulip Festival turned into Blossomtime and then Ski to Sea. It’s a surprisingly wild ride.

At the turn of the 20th century, a boy from small town Iowa chose the stage name “Huntress” and followed his dreams, using his many artistic skills to find success. Imagine Huntress rolling on a sparkling snowball across the vaudeville stage of the Grand Theatre in Bellingham in 1905.

This episode is about exotic birds as pets…  particularly Parrots, weird parrot stories we’ve collected from BellingHISTORY.  You’ll meet a few Polly’s and a parrot thankfully named Mildred, hear the stories of beer guzzling bar birds and Whatcom County’s oldest feathered friend. 

In this episode we tell the story of Hill’s Ostrich Farm, operated by William E. Hill in 1911 in Bellingham, on Electric Avenue near Whatcom Falls Park.  We delve into the history of Ostrich Farming and how there came to be such a feather-brained idea in the first place, the fate of the farm and the Ostrich plume craze, as well as some more recent news from the world of ratite farming.  Ostrich burger anyone?  

This episode is a general basic overview of the history of this area, the background that might be useful to know while listening to our podcast and our stories based here in this town and this place on the planet. If you don’t need a quick refresher on US/Washington/PNW and the basics of how the town came to be here, feel free to skip this one!

This minisode, like all of our other episodes, is about history… only this is our history! The origin story of The Good Time Girls and this podcast. Where did we come from, what we do and who we are as business owners and guides. In this episode we give you the lowdown on what we are all about and why we decided to make this podcast. If you are already familiar with the Good Time Girls, we won’t be offended if you skip this one - but if you are new to the Good Time Girls and want some more background on us, or just can’t get enough of listening to us babble, this is for you!

Last fall when I started thinking of ideas for columns for the Betty Pages, I was excited to write interesting stories about early drag performers here in our corner of the world. However writing about these stories has taken on a weightier context as a wave of anti-drag hysteria has escalated across the country, and bills designed to restrict and prohibit drag performances work their way through state legislatures.

The Good Time Girls’ Sea Shanty Sing-a-long is back! The Bellingham Good Time Girls' will lead a rousing sing-a-long of sea shanties for a great cause—Bellingham SeaFeast! Join us at Boundary Bay Brewery on Saturday, March 11 from 5-8pm. $10 donation at the door.

In June of 1905 Beck’s Theatre in Bellingham advertised a magnificent vaudeville bill for the summer that included “The Great Richards and his $5000 diamond dress.”

We are officially winners for "best cultural event" in the entertainment category in Cascadia Daily News Readers' Choice Awards! We'd like to thank everyone in Bellingham! And Whatcom County! And Beyond! We'd like to thank Sarah and Andra for accepting the award on behalf of all of us Good Time Girls and Cascadia Daily News for the honors. We are proud to be a part of this community! Cheers!

I had previously run across Vardaman in the Bellingham Herald on a vaudeville bill from the summer of 1904, advertising “the Auburn-Haired Beauty.” Further described in the paper as “the celebrated Vardman (sic) the female impersonator… can hardly be told from a female, so clever is he.”

The marker was a small reminder that issues of gender identity are not new and that drag shows existed here in Bellingham at the turn of the previous century. The marker has been lost, and the historical record of Joseph Noel’s life is sparse. We can keep telling what we know of his story: Mr. Noel wore a dress and welcomed the guests.