Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
August 16, 2018
By Pat Edwards
Awww… this has been a week of much-needed rest… well, maybe that’s not the right word. It’s a week where I have been able to stay at home—no meetings!—sitting in front of my computer while trying to catch up on a large backlog of emails.
Last Wednesday was also the deadline for submissions for the 2018 Groundwaters anthology which Jen Chambers and I have been producing for the past 4 years. Before that it was in the form of a quarterly magazine that was published and distributed through this area for over 11 years.
We have enough amazing material to produce this fourth anthology. My brother Jim Burnett, Sr. (aka Jimminy Cricket), who was a major part of our Groundwaters family for many years before his health forced him to retire has been helping us to read and review the submissions. He’s baaack!… Jim’s recently been diagnosed with cancer and spends 3-4 hours daily for a week at a time, having his chemo “cocktails.” Reading the entertaining stories and poems gives him a much appreciated escape. There are many talented writers in the area who are willing to share their stories and poems with us and they are the reason for Groundwaters’ success. For the past 3 anthologies, there have been over 60 contributors published in each one.
The unveiling of the Lorane mural went very well on Sunday, August 12. Karen Pidgeon and Alix Mosieur received the respect and appreciation they so richly deserve. We estimated there must have been at least 100+ people in attendance. The day was windy and the drapes covering the mural were clothes-pinned together to keep everyone from getting an early “peek.” After I finished my reading, long-time Lorane residents, Bruce McDonald, Gary Thompson, Jim Edwards and Jim Bailor removed the drapes to reveal the gorgeous legacy that Karen, Alix and the Lorane Community Association have provided our current and future residents. You really need to stop by the Lorane Family Store and see it in person. Photographs just don’t do it justice.
Sunday morning, I attended a baby shower for our granddaughter, Linsey Kau Haxby, so I wasn’t able to attend the Lorane Community Potluck or the Ice Cream Social, but Jim and his brother, John Edwards, went up to the potluck and enjoyed the great food and visited with others from the area. It was a rather small turnout, but it’s hoped that more community members will take part next year.
Lil Thompson reported that a large number attended the annual Lorane Fire Department’s Ice Cream Social in the afternoon. “Many enjoyed the dunk tank, the bounce house, fire truck rides, rides in the EPUD bucket lift, the water hose challenge, the music provided by Kyle and Jim and, of course, the delicious pies and ice cream.”
The cooler weather this past week has been so very welcome. I have a sensitivity to sustained, direct exposure to sun and heat which I probably developed during the many years I helped Jim in the hayfields, driving the tractor—sans umbrella or air conditioning. I recently pushed my luck during the Art in the Country Festival and again when I was shoveling bark chips around the mural in preparation for the unveiling.
Fortunately, the mural was outside our store, so when I began to feel overheated, I was able to go in and sit in the walk-in cooler for awhile. Such a perk!
All Things Lorane 