Sweet Lorane Community News, February 10, 2022

February 10, 2022Newspaper ColumnsEdwards family, Lorane Family Storepaedwards 2 Comments

Fern Ridge-Tribune News
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
February 10, 2022
By Pat Edwards

Before any more time passes, I wanted to share with you the beautiful day our family had on Sunday, January 30. Many of our family members showed up that day at the Lorane Family Store to take part in a very special photo shoot organized by our granddaughter, Stephanie Kau Furlong, to record and show our love and respect for the special memories embodied within the store and its history. Some of those who have been part of our LFS family over our 44 years in business were also present and it warmed Jim’s and my hearts to welcome them back. I hesitate to list their names here for fear of leaving someone out, but here goes: Michelle Doughty, Shana Doughty, Kandi Bartels, Kayla Pinson Smith, Shelby May Tinnes and Amanda Morrow. Included in our group photo were also the smiling faces of our current staff members, Tracie DeBoer, Kat Stanulis and Quentin Harris. (Cynthia Nickle would have been there but, unfortunately, she was ill that day.) Another who would have liked to be there but was prevented from coming because of health issues, was Kathy Warden who worked for us for many years. Sadly, three of our other original and longest employed ladies—Nancy Seales O’Hearn, Marna Hing, and Marilyn Wenger Cooper, have passed away, but their pictures were posted behind the counter in remembrance of the roles they played through the years. Of course, most of our own children and grandchildren have put in their time at the store as well—Gloria Edwards, Rob Edwards, Michele Edwards Kau, Kelly Edwards, Kevin Stevens, Stephanie Kau Furlong, Linsey Kau Haxby, Hayley Kau, Hannah Edwards, and Tia Spath… and all but one were present.

Our grandsons, Kevin Stevens and Brent Haxby, climbed a ladder to remove the large sign I had painted years ago to adorn the inside entrance of the store so it could be used as a prop for the outside photos. We had to remove many years build up of dust from it, but we’re hoping to seal and preserve it, and use it in some way for the community. It bears the words, “Lorane, Oregon, est. 1887″ on it.

After photos were taken of everyone together, followed by the individual families and groupings, we were treated to a “drive-by” parade of local residents in cars decorated with balloons and streamers, honking and waving as they drove by. Others stopped by to give us hugs and good wishes for Jim’s upcoming retirement.

It’s been a long-time coming for all of us. The signing for the final sale has had to be postponed several times because of pending paperwork and licenses held up in state and county offices, but the final one, we hope, has been promised for the end of February.

We wish to thank everyone for joining us on our special day. An extra-special thank you goes out to Stephanie for all of the time and effort she put into planning our day, and to her good friend and employer, Natalie McFarland, who took the beautiful photos of our event.

Each of you have given Jim and me such happy memories over the years. This whole long process hasn’t been easy for us and we are so thankful that we have family members and friends who have been willing to step in and help us in the transition. Where our path will lead us after the sale has been finalized hasn’t been mapped out yet; we’re waiting to plan any major trips until the current pandemic situation eases, but we’re hoping that seeing a bit more of the U.S. will be in our future soon.

For the most part, we plan to continue to be as much a part of the Lorane community as possible. For us, home is here, where our hearts will always be.

Sweet Lorane Community News, January 27, 2022

January 27, 2022Newspaper ColumnsGroundwaters magazine, Groundwaters Publishing LLC, Jennifer Chambers, Jim Burnett, Jim Burnett Sr., Judy Hays-Eberts, Pat Broome, Sonny Hays-Ebertspaedwards Leave a comment

Fern Ridge-Tribune News
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
January 27, 2022
By Pat Edwards

I’ll wager that some of you may remember picking up free copies of a colorful 32-page magazine called Groundwaters at your local library, organization or community store every three months for quite a few years. They featured wonderful family-friendly stories—fiction, memoirs, nostalgia, essays—and lots of poetry that stirred the heart, all written by local talent. Veneta resident, Judy Hays-Eberts, started the publication in the Fall of 2004 and produced a new issue quarterly—every three months. She distributed it to the communities of Veneta, Elmira, Noti, Cheshire, Lorane, Crow and other nearby areas. After a few years, however, health issues caused her and her husband, Sonny Hays-Eberts, to make the decision to shut it down. Four of us who were helping her at the time—Jennifer Chambers, Pat Broome, Jim Burnett Sr. and I—offered to take it over and continue this publication that we had come to love. We set it up as Groundwaters Publishing LLC and in June 2008, it was signed over to us by Judy and Sonny.

We negotiated an arrangement with the Applegate Regional Theater (ART, Inc.) to operate under their non-profit umbrella and began producing 700 copies of each quarterly issue. I printed those copies at home on 11″ x 17″ paper on our dependable HP workhorse printer and we all got together the first part of every January, April, July and October for the next 7 years to fold and hand-staple all 700 copies. We expanded our distribution to Alvadore, Junction City, Creswell, Cottage Grove and Eugene, thanks to some generous donors, and under the 501c3 license, we were able to sponsor some writing projects at the local grade schools with grant monies we were awarded.

We stopped publishing the quarterlies after the April 2015 issue was distributed due to the increased cost of printing and the fact that there were only two of us remaining to produce it. Pat Broome and my brother Jim Burnett, aka “Jimminy Cricket,” were no longer able to continue. Since then, Jen and I gave up our 501c3 status and began producing annual paperback anthologies that were the equivalent of 3 issues of the magazine.

Why am I giving you this bit of personal history? Because I have been storing multiple copies of those 32 issues in file cabinets and boxes all these years and I’ll no longer have the storage space for them. We’ve been putting together sets of the issues to give to area libraries that don’t already have them, senior centers, and individuals who have asked for them. We still have quite a few copies left that we really don’t want to dispose of if we don’t have to.

Pat Barons, who organizes the annual book sale for the Friends of the Fern Ridge Library in Veneta, has agreed to distribute them at their sale this year on February 11 and 12, and on their “every day” book/magazine sale cart.

There are also quite a few issues in the free box at the Lorane Family Store, too. We are not charging for any of these.

For people who want certain issues that they cannot find, I will be happy to provide pdf files so that they can be read on-line or printed off individually. Just contact me via email at edwards@groundwaterspublishing.com. These stories and poems by many of your friends and neighbors need to live on and be enjoyed by as many as possible. These timeless issues have already provided readers with many hours of enjoyment over the years and can continue doing so. We offer our thanks to you and all of the authors and poets who have shared their talents with us over the years.

Sweet Lorane Community News, January 20, 2022

January 20, 2022Newspaper ColumnsLil Thompson, Lorane Oregon Facebook page, Margie McNutt, Marissa McNutt Cooper, Marna Hing, Martin McClurepaedwards Leave a comment

Fern Ridge-Tribune News
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
January 20, 2022
By Pat Edwards

I’d like everyone who uses social media to take a moment to imagine yourself holding down the voluntary job of moderating a community Facebook page in these volatile times. I was the original administrator of the Lorane, Oregon page. I set it up many years ago because the makeshift email distribution tree Marna Hing and I had been using just wasn’t getting the community news out to enough of our locals. Since then, four other administrators have come on board to help me make decisions and “keep the peace.” Thanks to Marissa McNutt Cooper, Lil Thompson, Martin McClure and recently, Margie McNutt, we have an idealogically-balanced and caring group of people who spend a great deal of time dealing with arguments and “situations” that break out within the community.

For the first few years—actually, the majority of the time we’ve overseen it—the page has been an extremely useful way of disseminating information to Lorane residents and our neighbors. Events are publicized, concerns are discussed, lost and found pets are reported, dangerous situations involving livestock on the road or thieves in the area have kept us all informed and have bonded us as a community.

For the past two years, however, with stress levels high from the pandemic, tempers on edge because of political differences, and the overall “unsettled” blanket lying over our world, our job has become more and more difficult. In this past year alone, we have had to take down volatile posts, rude and personal, harrassing comments that are targeted at either the original poster or other commentors—or us. We have been called names and have even been threatened with lawsuits for trying to do our jobs impartially.

Our guidelines don’t allow political opinion posts, so the postings that tend to get out of hand can be on a subject that can still be controversial. The successful ones are those that discuss the pros and cons respectfully and they can be useful tools for the community to learn about various concerns our neighbors have. The ones that tend to “blow up,” are those where usually one of the first commenters will use a tone in disagreeing that invites controversy and that tone sets the stage for more, increasingly rude and disrespectful comments from those on both sides of the original post. Comments frequently become personal and confrontational to the point where we are forced to intercede.

Lorane has always been a friendly community. We have long proven to be good neighbors and in a recent post reminiscing about the 1987 Lorane Centennial Celebration, many of the comments on it showed the love that is still felt by those who were lucky enough to grow up here:

“Never forget that was a big day in our little town! It was a wonderful place to grow up. I’d love to live back out there now.”

“Those really were the good old days. So proud of this town.”

“Love it and the memories of living in Lorane.”

“It still is a GREAT place to live.”

And, it still is a wonderful place to live. The short tempers and impatience shown on the Lorane Facebook page are universal. I’ve seen similar ones on the Crow, Veneta, Creswell and Cottage Grove pages and it’s a sad commentary of the times in which we are living right now.

One of our administrators said it best: “I feel we are better as a community than some of what I have seen in comments.”

I think many have forgotten or misplaced the Golden Rule we learned as children—“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Let’s once again try to show respect to our neighbors… on-line or off-line.