A five-year-old boy is sitting in the middle of the kitchen eating raw oatmeal. The kitchen is one of the two rooms in the tiny house. When his family had moved in, there was only one room, but his father built a cardboard partition to make a distinction between the kitchen and the bedroom. Five […]
Some years ago I attended the Wild West Rough Stock Rodeo at the Northwest Equestrian Center on Highway 26 and Haley Road. Along with most of the audience, I removed my hat, and placed it over my heart when the graceful teen-age girl rode her horse around the arena carrying the American flag. And I […]
With my four little children, on a MAX train bound for Gresham, I met up with a Grandma; she helped me rock the twins to sleep. Then we took turns a-starin’ out the window at the darkness. A saintly glow came over her and she began to speak. She said, “Son, I’ve made a life […]
TO: Dean of Extraterrestrial Studies Galactic University, HomeStar FROM: Agent-in-Place, Planet Earth, North American Continent SUBJECT: Local native customs and rituals: “Independence Day” DATE: July 3, 2019, local time
I’ll tell you how it started out that night: I’d gone to see my father where he lay, Determined not to try to make him hear Or summon up the memory of the guest Who’d come once more to visit him this night, In the old folks’ home. Most times he didn’t know That I […]
George was one of the thousands who came to the Oregon country in the Great Migration of 1843-1844. But he did not fit our stereotyped picture of the poor desperate sodbuster who was gradually going broke back East and had come out west to seek his fortune. George was a successful businessman in Missouri. He […]
Every so often my family and I visit the Civil War reenactment sometimes staged at McIver State Park. We were first exposed to it years ago by Bob Brooks, our insurance agent and longtime friend, who regularly took part in these panoramas. Often we would stop by his encampment after the battle and talk about […]
In honor of Valentine’s Day, we thought it would be good to include in the February issue a column of advice to the lovelorn. And who better to host such a feature than that paragon of romance, Nettie Connett? In the hills of East Clackamas County, somewhere between Sandy and Timberline Lodge, the Sandy Historical […]
Traditionally, newspaper columnists have offered up little lists about this time of year, designed to inspire, amuse, or inform their alleged readers by giving their resolutions, opinions of the preceding year, predictions, or wishes for the coming year. It seems appropriate in this space to present some historical thoughts by writers from the past on […]
On my 63rd birthday I took up bicycle commuting for the sole purpose of reducing gasoline consumption, but the residual advantages just keep coming. Last month I recounted the benefits to my health and improved general attitude, but hardly a week goes by without revealing another unexpected blessing. Probably the greatest inducement was the circumstance […]