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BOOTH GARDNER: BACK IN ACTION Tuesday, May 30, 2000 - His hair is grayer, longer and now covers much of his face. The expensive suits have given way to sweaters and loose tan pants befitting a much more relaxed lifestyle. His office has become a modest restaurant at a public golf course, not an opulent office in a huge domed public building. He plays golf instead of running marathons. He works wood in the basement of his Vashon Island home, instead of working rooms of people in a never-ending stream of motels and meeting halls to build support for his programs. And he's battling Parkinson's disease instead of political foes. But the impish grin and often self-deprecating sense of humor that served Booth Gardner so well during eight years as one of Washington's most likeable and popular governors have not abandoned him. They were much in evidence last week as he emerged from nearly eight years of virtual self-imposed exile from public life. He was interviewed by his friend and former Chief of Staff Denny Heck on the TVW program "Inside Olympia." Before taping began, Heck asked how the Parkinson's affected him. "I slept in the car coming down," Gardner said. "Who drove?" Heck asked. "Me," Gardner quipped. Whatever happened to Booth Gardner? So completely did he disappear from public view after his eight years as governor ended on Jan. 11, 1993, that most of what was left were rumors and speculation. He answered the "whatever-happened-to" question in detail last week in the TVW interview to be broadcast beginning this week and in the first in-depth newspaper interview he has given about his life after politics. The post-governor years have not been easy: a mind-numbing, tedious trade job in Geneva; a 1995 diagnosis of Parkinson's disease; a quiet return home to battle the disease and a nearly total withdrawal from meeting or even talking to people; a separation from his wife, Jean, which is leading to a divorce. But he has slowly re-emerged after getting his Parkinson's medication in balance. He now plays golf, does woodworking, and has returned to helping children through athletics and tutoring. He has plans for a Parkinson's clinic bearing his name, and dabbles in public and political issues when he chooses. He's developed a new relationship with a woman he met in Europe. He has seven grandchildren he loves, six boys and a girl ranging from 9-years-old to six months. At last, it seems, he's arrived at some peace in his life. "I've never been happier," said the 63-year-old Gardner. "Politics was going against the grain of who I am. I don't like being out there very much. I'm really quiet and introverted. I learned to do the speeches, work the rooms. And I think I got as good at it as anyone." But it's not who he is. The man who said yes to so many requests for most of his life has learned to say no to most of the many requests for a piece of his time and his life. "I don't have to do a damn thing I don't want to any more," he said he realized in the middle of the night recently. Leaving office That's how he felt the day he left office, riding high on public approval, but sunk low on energy, burned out and anxious to not lead the state anymore. "I was worn out at the end of eight years," he told The Olympian. "I thought I got good at being governor and I was good at relating to people. But I would go into a crowd to work a room or go somewhere to give a speech and my battery would discharge. And at the end of that event, I was just wasted. "I didn't have an ability to sustain it after eight years. I was too tired." President Bill Clinton gave him a job as ambassador to GATT, the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs -- or "The General Agreement to Talk and Talk," Gardner suggested wryly. It was the predecessor to the World Trade Organization. Gardner moved to Geneva, Switzerland, and traveled around Europe, which he loved. But in hindsight, he wouldn't have taken the job, he said. He had been a governor, used to making quick decisions. "It's very tedious, very time-consuming," he said of the GATT job. "Progress is made in micro-inches. It was not a good job for me because it was too detailed and too slow moving." He served there 31/2 years. "When I got there, they were talking about bananas. When I left, they were talking about bananas," he said. Struggle with disease In 1995, Gardner began to experience unusual symptoms. "I started feeling like the Tin Man," he said. "I'd be doing something and I'd get rigid. Then I got a cold and that turned into depression and I couldn't shake it." His European doctor noted they had been together 10 minutes and Gardner hadn't blinked once, a sign of muscular disorder that often tips off Parkinson's. The diagnosis was confirmed six months later. "I went downhill fast," he said. "I was undermedicated. I went through a couple of years of a very difficult time." He returned to Washington, but often didn't even return phone calls. He felt miserable and didn't want to share the misery with any company. "I was bouncing along at the bottom," he said. "I was dysfunctional. I went four to six weeks one period without being able to sleep at all during the night. I had involuntary movements where you're sitting here and all of a sudden your arm jerks or your leg kicks. I kind of detached myself from the world." Adjusting medications to level out the diseases is difficult, he said. "The damn disease won't sit still," he said. But finally, slowly, his medication began to kick in. A new drug called Mirapex helped even out the highs and lows of the major drug he was using, Sinemet. He wasn't sure he could believe it. He was afraid the feeling would be only short-term, then he would regress. "I put a toe in," he said of rejoining the world. "Then I became more involved." A big part of his life focuses on the Parkinson's. He can tell you 36,000 to 37,000 people in the state have the disease. He can also tell you that something needs to be done to help them. That's why he decided to help start the Booth Gardner Parkinson's Clinic, which will be a free-standing clinic at Evergreen Hospital north of Bellevue. Former Gov. Dan Evans and his wife, Nancy, also are involved in the project, Gardner said. It is expected to open in early July. "It's an uneven delivery system," he said of treatment. "So we're trying to focus it so people who aren't sure they are getting the proper treatment or they want to get tested or they newly contracted Parkinson's and don't know where to turn, they can go to the clinic and receive assistance." The clinic will focus on therapy, treatment, testing, and caregiver assistance, he said. It will not be a research facility, since that work is being done elsewhere. He hopes it can help about 150 people a year. "Our hope is that people who have Parkinson's can lead a decent quality of life," he said. "And that's the end toward which we're working." The clinic will be financed with private money, including some of Gardner's own. "And we're hoping the drug companies will weigh in," he said. Physically active all his life, he played tennis, ran marathons, climbed Mount Rainier and coached soccer. Now, he's taken up golf. With his usual zeal, he's dropped his score over the past two years and shot 86 and 88 the past two rounds. This from a man who's had 30 dislocated shoulders, six shoulder operations and possesses two artificial shoulders. He has broken his collarbone twice, has gout in his knees, a messed up Achilles tendon -- and Parkinson's disease. "I always figured when I retired, I'd be able to do things I couldn't do before," he told The Olympian. "Now I can't do them." Among the things he can't do is run. He was more philosophical with Heck: "I'm not limited to doing anything. I can do anything. I just can't do it as well." Back in the swing Gardner not only took up golf, he took over the golf course -- actually three of them. The city of Seattle leases out its three courses: Jefferson (where pro golfer Fred Couples learned to play), Jackson and West Seattle. Gardner talked a friend into becoming executive director of the Municipal Golf Association that runs them. In return, Gardner became president of the board. They have helped rehabilitate courses that had become rundown. He's also returned to the central area of Seattle, where he tutored and led athletic programs before and after college. Now, he's trying to get everybody playing on the same field again. "To be very candid, a lot of people think black kids have an advantage over white kids, so they don't want to play them," Gardner said. Fear of coming to the Central Area or playing superior teams has led to situations where a nine-team league had four teams drop out. Gardner wants to help correct the problems and provide other opportunities for 8- to 12-year-olds in the area. As always, he's looking for results. That's what he likes abut woodworking. "You can see the results of what you've done," he said. When the contractor remodeling his Vashon Island house talked about how he always wanted to have a woodshop, Gardner told him to build one for him. The contractor built it and Gardner found someone on the Internet to teach him woodworking. He now turns out clocks, benches and rockers with the same apparent ease he used to turn out large crowds to cheer him on. But he's stayed largely out of public life. He serves on the Blue Ribbon Commission on Transportation, appointed by Gov. Gary Locke. He's lent his name to the re-election campaign of Attorney General Christine Gregoire, whom he helped promote when he was governor. He serves on the Seattle/King County YMCA board of directors. But he's very careful about his public and civic time. He'll never run for office again. "Been there, done that," he said. Besides, "I really have to watch my stress and fatigue." He turns down "19 out of 20 requests" people make of him. He pays little attention to the state government and politics that once so dominated his life. "I read the paper," he said. "I kid the other living governors that they just can't let it go." He lives half his time next door to former Gov. Albert Rosellini on Vashon Island, on a street re-named Governor's Lane. He also lives half time at a condominium in Seattle's Madison Park. Asked what he thinks of the current state of state politics, he pointed outside a restaurant window to a weekly newspaper with a cover picture of Locke contorted into a spineless position. "I don't miss that," chuckled Gardner, who was once labeled "Prince Faintheart" by a Seattle Times columnist. He also doesn't miss the public recognition. About once every two or three days someone will figure out who he is, even with the beard, he said. Mostly, they just want to say hello. He gets up at 5 a.m., reads books -- "novels, like Ken Follett, no-brainers" -- takes his medications at 6, works out three mornings a week with a trainer, then does his other activities from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Once a week, he has dinner with his kids, Gail and Doug, and their kids. He seems to have returned to an essentially upbeat attitude, even with the Parkinson's. He hopes others can try to deal with it as he has, he said. "The message is 'You've got it, you might as well live with it and makes the best out of it you can." He feels good, likes his life, is glad to have cleared the hurdles he has, and looks forward to the next ones. "A lot of the fun in life is having a goal in life, reaching it, and going, 'What do I do next?' " he said. Bob Partlow covers state government for The Olympian. He can be reached at 753-1688. TVW interview An "Inside Olympia" interview with former Gov. Booth Gardner will air at 7 and 11 p.m. Thursday, then again at 10 p.m. Saturday and at 6 p.m. Sunday. TVW, the state's public affairs network, is on Channel 23 in Olympia. BOB PARTLOW, THE OLYMPIAN The Olympian Copyright 2000 http://news.theolympian.com/stories/20000530/HomePageStories/76218.shtml janet paterson 53 now / 41 dx / 37 onset 613 256 8340 / PO Box 171 Almonte Ontario K0A 1A0 Canada visit my website "a new voice" at: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/