By LARRY LANGE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The atmosphere in town is still casual. Kids stroll the street after school, or take a walk in the park or ride bikes on the track behind the grade school. People wave at each other and stop to chat in mid-day. Thousands show up for the annual Fourth of July Parade, and fireworks are still legal in town.

Auto mechanic Jeff Benson moved here from Bellevue, escaping what he says was a keeping-up-with-the-Joneses attitude.

"Here, if I make $5 an hour, I'm the same (socially) as the Joe who makes $10," he says as he worked on a customer's Toyota truck.

Benson also praises Carnation as a safer, more wholesome place for his kids. Some youngsters are bored for lack of things to do, but others occupy their time by looking for community-service projects.

Inside Carnation Elementary School on a recent afternoon members of Girl Scout Troop 1149 made sewing kits to earn a badge. Their volunteer work includes picking up garbage, clearing storm debris from a trail and donating stuffed animals to the local fire department, to be given to children of accident victims.

One troop member, Jessica Sode, 11, says when she grows up "I'm going to live here -- or in Canada. I like woods. It's peaceful, and I can have a horse."

On Wednesdays, Carnation schoolchildren engage in a unifying ritual. At the stroke of noon a siren on the fire hall blows, signaling a flood drill in which the kids and teachers move to high ground on established routes. It's a precautionary exercise, designed to help evacuate people in the event a water-supply dam on the Tolt River breaks.

Continued:

• Small town has a big heart
• People are beginning to discover remote town