Category: Newspaper Columns

Newspaper columns that I have written for the Fern Ridge Review in Veneta, Oregon and the Creswell Chronicle in Creswell, Oregon. I began writing them for the Fern Ridge Review on August 4, 2010; on December 6, 2012, the Creswell Chronicle began printing them, as well. I am still the Lorane columnist for both papers.

Sweet Lorane Community News, May 4, 2023

May 4, 2023Newspaper Columns 4 Comments

The Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
May 4, 2023
By Pat Edwards

I have been struggling lately to get my weekly column out on time. Our days since Jim’s retirement have been filled with scheduled doctors’ appointments, haircuts, pedicures—you know… preventative maintenance for not only our home and car, but for our bodies as well—and errands to town for groceries and just the general “busy-ness” of living.

For the past several weeks, however, we’ve added regular twice-a-week visits to the Campbell Community Center in Eugene where Jim takes part in a wonderful fitness class called “Fight Back with Neuromuscular Exercise.” Many of his group of 6-8 people, like Jim, are dealing with balance and coordination issues and their caring and patient instructor, Eric Beins, takes them through strength- and balance-building exercises each Tuesday and Thursday. Since mid-April, when Jim signed up for the class, our whole family has seen how much improvement he’s showing. Jim loves the class and enjoys the social interaction he has with Eric and the others who attend with him. I am made welcome there as Jim’s “assistant.” It’s my job to make sure Jim’s walker is available when needed for the standing exercises and to move it when it tends to get in the way during the sitting segments. I’m also the official “ball chaser” when loose balls that the class uses, escape. The class takes place in a beautiful new room recently added in the renovation of the Campbell Center. It has floor-to-ceiling windows that look out onto the Willamette River as it flows past at Skinner’s Butte Park. We all received a bonus for the past few weeks when we began seeing the beautiful pair of bald eagles who built a nest this spring a short ways from the center, soaring slowing outside the windows.

In the last couple of weeks, Jim has added twice-weekly physical therapy sessions to his routine, as well. He chose to schedule them on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, 2-hours before his fitness classes, to save trips to town. The PT workouts are more strenuous, using 2-pound ankle weights to his leg lifts, and he knows he has had a workout when he leaves after each session, but he is determined to gain strength and balance before our next vacation scheduled for the end of June.

Each day, twice daily, when he is not in his classes, he works diligently on the homework exercises that he has been assigned by his physical therapist. We even bought some 2-pound ankle weights for him to use. I have no doubt that by the time we head off for our vacation in June, we will be able to enjoy it as much as we did the one we took last fall.

I am so proud of this man who has been so active all of his life as a rancher and store owner. He used to love to run 8-miles a day, several days a week, into his 60s and even completed the Portland Marathon one year. Two hip replacements, a pelvis, broken in 3 places after a fall, and two surgeries that fused vertebrae in his back brought an end to all of that, however. He’s had to walk with a cane and now, a walker, for the past 4 years. I ordered him a new walker recently because his old one was adorned with duct tape “repairs”—a trademark of Jim’s from his ranching days.

 

We will be celebrating our 59th wedding anniversary at the end of this month—on May 30. He graduated from Springfield High School in 1958 and played on the winning basketball team that year. I met him after he returned from Germany where he spent a 3-year hitch in service to the U.S. Army at the time the Berlin Wall was being built. After he returned, I was asked to keep score for his AAU basketball team in Springfield, and we were married in 1964 in the gymnasium of St. Alice Catholic Church while the new church was being built. As it turned out, basketball played a big part in our lives over the years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Anniversary, Jim Edwards… my husband… my Superman. Through this week’s column, I want to express my love and deep respect for you a bit early because we never know what our days will be like down the road for either of us.

I believe that we all tend to take our blessings for granted as we wade through the intricacies of daily living. We need to express our love and appreciation as often as possible when we feel them, especially in the winters of our lives. Life may be difficult at times, but if you look for them, there are also blessings.

Sweet Lorane Community News, April 27, 2023

April 27, 2023Newspaper Columns, 2 Comments

The Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
April 27, 2023
By Pat Edwards

Last Thursday night, the Lorane Grange hosted a presentation by Lane County Sheriff Cliff Harrold to familiarize our community with the upcoming Lane County Jail levy that will be on the May 16, 2023, ballot. Jim and I went to the meeting and were pleased to see a large number of residents in attendance including West Lane County Commissioner, Ryan Ceniga.

I explained in an earlier column what the levy entails, but I feel it is vital to repeat it now that the ballots have been sent out. The proposed levy would “fund a minimum of 255 jail beds for local offenders, as well as 8 detention and 8 treatment beds for youth offenders, including associated treatment services. Currently, the jail has 317 beds for local offenders, 62 more than the minimum required by the levy.”

If the levy is passed, it will be a renewal, meaning the current tax rate will not increase. Residents won’t have to pay any more than they are already paying in taxes. The tax rate for this levy is $0.55 per $1,000 of assessed value. It is the same rate that was approved by the voters in 2013. At that time, funding had been cut so drastically by voters that dozens of dangerous convicted criminals and those awaiting trial were being released because of a shortage of beds at the jail. This levy, which is up for renewal, is the same one that was passed in 2013, and in our opinion, it is vitally needed. We urge everyone to give the Lane County Sheriff’s Department the support that it needs to help keep crime in check for those of us in unincorporated areas of the county who do not have local police departments and depend on them.*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Jim and I have lived, worked and raised our family in the small, unincorporated community of Lorane for over 57 years. It is “home” to us in so many ways. We owned the Lorane Family Store for almost 45 years until we sold it a year ago, so I feel that I can speak of the pros and cons of living in a rural setting with the knowledge gained through our experiences.

We are surrounded by Mother Nature and have experienced all of her moods, up close and personal, both good and bad. We’ve been able to help build “community” with our neighbors that allows us to share our common concerns and goals through the friendships we’ve made in the organizations we’ve formed. Over the years, we’ve learned to work with and get to know people—our neighbors—from all walks of life. At the store, we welcomed them all—the hard-working members of our community who frequently came in with grease-smudged faces, dusty work jeans and corked boots; the farmers who came in from the hayfields with sweat and dirt-streaked faces to get a cold drink from the coolers or a quick snack. Then there were the families coming in to buy groceries with their food stamps—the same ones who struggled to pay their rent each month. And, of course, we had our resident locals who fought their battles with addiction who brought in cans and bottles to enable them to buy a bottle of wine or a six-pack of beer. We also welcomed the wealthy members of our community who fit right in with those less fortunate. One local business owner, in particular, frequently came in dressed in bib overalls to look through our hardware offerings to find something for one of his do-it-yourself projects.

Unfortunately, over the years, many of us has had to witness and/or deal with crime of all kinds—theft, assault, illegal drugs, vandalism, dangerous drivers on our roads, etc. We have set up neighborhood watch groups and kept an eye on suspicious activities and reported them to the Lane County Sheriff’s office. As one of the many unincorporated communities in Lane County, we have no local police force. In the first 30-or-so years we had the store, it was broken into several times to steal beer and wine; it was vandalized, and one time, someone rammed a large truck into the store’s front door and the ATM machine that was sitting along the front wall was hauled off. During those years, deputies from the Lane County Sheriff’s office came right out to investigate and many of the culprits caught. That, however, is no longer true.

Funding has been cut so drastically for Public Safety through Lane County, that currently, only 3.5 deputies are available to respond to crime reports in our unincorporated areas ranging from coastal communities to Oakridge. When a crime takes place, if there is not an imminent danger to human life, no deputies will arrive to investigate. The victim is required to call or go into the Sheriff’s office to file a report of their complaint. No on-scene fingerprints are taken; no interviews of witnesses can be done because of the shortage of available deputies to do these jobs.

As a consequence, more and more residents are buying their own guns and setting up security systems, putting up locked gates on their driveways that keep out not only thieves, but neighbors, as well. We are suspicious of and report to each other unfamiliar cars in the area to beware of—many of whom are merely people pulling off the road to talk on their cell phones.

We need solutions that will make us feel safer and allow the Lane County Sheriff’s Department to once again be proactive in helping us to prevent and solve crimes in the area. We need to make Public Safety a priority by voting for the levies that will allow us to live our lives with less fear in the places we have chosen to live and raise our families.

It’s worth the additional tax dollars we must pay for such a vital service.

Sweet Lorane Community News, April 20, 2023

April 20, 2023Newspaper Columns, , Leave a comment

The Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
April 20, 2023
By Pat Edwards

Last weekend, Jim and I attended the annual Lorane Talent Show sponsored by the Rural Art Center and the Lorane Grange. I sometimes take a few of my books for the “stationary” art that is put on display and it seemed like a good time to do it this year. I could tell, however, by the frequent reminders, that the organizers were having difficulties finding willing talent entries this year. In the past, there have been some seriously wonderful talent performed… either singing, playing an instrument, dancing or doing a comedy routine. But there have also been some equally entertaining quirky and fun hidden talents that some of our friends and neighbors have chosen to share. One of those that comes to mind that took place years ago was the lady who put a cherry stem in her mouth and proceeded to tie it in a knot using only her tongue… as we all watched in amazement. These shows have never failed to entertain the audience.

This year was no different as far as entertainment quality was concerned. There was a good-size audience of about 17 people, but sadly, due to illness and changed plans, only one talent entry had been able to attend. Fortunately, though, the “comb band” provided the impetus for a fun and lively affair in which those of us in the audience were able to participate. As they raised their instruments—long-toothed plastic combs in cellophane sleeves— and pressed them to their lips, the comb band members—Lisa, B.J. and Chris—accompanied by Dean on the bass fiddle, began humming tunes which we—the members of the audience were challenged to identify. After a short while, I was able to determine that the first was the theme song of a TV show, but none of us were able to identify it as the song from the 1970s “My Three Sons.” I was able to identify the next song as “Home on the Range,” and won a small bag of cookies. By the time that two other prizes were given out, we were all warmed up and thoroughly enjoying our time together.

Kat, one of the audience members decided to share her hidden talent with us, then. As she came to the front of the room, she began to tell a sad story, and as she did, tears began rolling down her cheeks. We were all wondering whether we were supposed to applaud or sympathize with her, but at the end, a huge smile came over her face as she wiped the tears from her wet cheeks, bringing laughs and applause.

Not yet wanting to go home, we were pleased when Dean, the bass fiddle player, told us that he was going to play a song, but he needed us, the audience to play the part of the horns on cue. By the time we had all helped him finish the song with our “toodly, doodly” singing voices at the appropriate places, we were all laughing and thoroughly enjoying a pleasant afternoon with our friends, neighbors and some we had never had the opportunity to meet until then. After we adjourned for some refreshments in the cafeteria, we visited some more—and I even sold three of my books—before we headed home, in a much happier frame of mind than we had when we arrived.

Our world needs so much more of what I like to call “innocent, impromptu fun”… not the kind that is “manufactured” through the haze of alcohol or recreational drugs, but the honest-to-goodness willingness to let down our guards and allow our good natures and senses of humor to shine through… the qualities that many of us unwittingly bury and keep hidden under the busy-ness of our lives and the anger, distrust and disrespect that we seem to be surrounded with these days by the evening news.

Let’s all strive to find the fun in our lives again. We still need to do our parts with the serious stuff of life, but for our own emotional health, let’s find the laughs and giggles and wonderful endorphins that accompany “innocent, impromptu fun” that so many of us have been missing for so long.