Sweet Lorane Community News, January 26, 2023

January 26, 2023Newspaper ColumnsCrow Middle/High Schoolpaedwards Leave a comment

The Chronicle (Creswell)
Sweet Lorane Community News
January 26, 2023
By Pat Edwards

Watching the news these days has become so difficult. The two mass shootings in California this past week were heartbreaking and the enormity of how it has affected not only the victims, their families and others on-site is mind-boggling. Trying to even imagine how any of us would feel if we were in their positions is impossible. But, on January 23, as we read the Lane County Sheriff’s Office bulletin that someone posted on Facebook, it was all brought home…

“23-0459 – School Shooting Threat at Crow High School. This morning just after 9:30 a.m., the Lane County Sheriff’s Office received the report of a school shooting threat involving a student at Crow High School. Investigators responded and learned that the involved student had made a social media post three days ago, asking other students if they would like to help shoot up the school. The involved student was identified and his parents were contacted.
Deputies took the involved juvenile into custody for Disorderly Conduct in the First Degree. He was transported to the SERBU juvenile detention facility and lodged on the listed charge. Investigators have been working closely with school officials to ensure the safety of the community. There is believed to be no ongoing threat at this time.”

Our daughter, Michele Kau, has worked as a teacher at Crow Middle/High School for many years. Our first concern was for her state-of-mind and when we were able to reach her, she was not able to give us any details (which we didn’t ask for), but she assured us that she was fine and felt that the matter had been handled very professionally by the Sheriff’s Department and the school administration. Jim and I are so relieved and thankful that a potential tragedy may have been averted. The knowledge that protocols are in place to deal with this type of situation at our local combined middle/high school is of some comfort, but it also brings the realization that we all need to be aware of those around us—children, included—who make what might seem like innocent remarks that should be taken seriously, or others of all ages who display what seems to be unwarranted anger and distrust or unusual mood-swings.

My mind keeps returning to the thought that, through 80 years of life, I am truly feeling fear for the first time for what is happening in our country on many fronts. I’ve always felt relatively safe and secure in the fact that our children and grandchildren have been raised with values of kindness and respect for others and by so doing, can enjoy a carefree childhood without fear. The concept of “shooter-drills” and teaching them how to stay safe in their school environments is totally foreign to me, but I realize that our schools are being forced by the circumstances to use these measures. Our children and grandchildren are the precious basis for my hope that, by living through these trying times, as adults, they will be able to come to terms with what must be done to bring about the changes that will allow their own children to once again feel safe and be able to enjoy their childhoods. My generation certainly hasn’t been able to do it for them.

Thank you to all of our school administrators, teachers, counselors, Lane County Sheriff’s deputies and, most of all, the students and parents who were able to alert someone about the potential threat so that it could be dealt with. I pray that the student who was taken into custody realizes the consequences of making threatening statements—even if they were not serious—and gets the help he needs to put him on the right path in life.

Sweet Lorane Community News, January 12, 2023

January 12, 2023Newspaper ColumnsCharcuterie Board raffle, Crow-Applegate-Lorane School District, Oregon winterspaedwards 2 Comments

The Chronicle (Creswell)
Sweet Lorane Community News
January 12, 2023
By Pat Edwards

There are some requests sent out from the Crow-Applegate-Lorane School District that I’d like to share with others this week. First, the district is in need of two community members for its Budget Committee to help determine the district’s budget for 2023-24 school year. It will only require a few evening meetings this spring.

In addition, the district is looking for substitute school bus drivers. Training will be provided by the district. Please contact Donna Willits at the District Office, 541-935-2100, or stop by for an application at 85955 Territorial Rd., Eugene, OR 97402.

While we are on C-A-L School District news, let me tell you about the beautiful $100 Charcuterie Board gift certificate that the Crow High School Junior Class is raffling off on February 1st as a fundraiser. The board is filled with a selection of cured meats or pâtés, assorted cheeses, crackers, breads, fruits, veggies, olives and other goodies, beautifully arranged and presented to feed 10-12 people. Contact the Crow Middle/High School office, (541) 935-2227, if you would like to purchase some of these raffle tickets.

These cold and/or rainy winter days we’ve been having lately are never fun to be “out and about” in, but they offer Jim and me a chance to let life around us slow down a bit following the busy holidays. We no longer have a fireplace or wood stove in our home. I miss the wonderful smell of wood smoke and the warmth that seems to penetrate my bones so completely. Our heat pump provides a great year-round temperature, but on rainy days, especially, the dampness and chill still seem to creep in when I’m not physically active, so I usually don a sweater. Even better, is the license I give myself to soak in a hot bath or cuddle beneath a soft, warm comforter to read a book or take a short nap whenever possible—usually with a cat or dog… sometimes both… curled up on top of me. When the need to do something productive makes itself known, I spend time on my computer, working on a book project, writing a column, answering emails, paying bills, or just browsing through the news and family photographs posted on social media. This time of year, I also find I have to coax myself into getting out all of the paperwork needed to prepare for the taxes that will soon have to be filed.

Through most of my life, winter has been my least-favorite season; as a farm wife, I always hated having to bundle up, put on knee-high rubber boots and wade through the mud to do the necessary chores. I didn’t mind the chores themselves so much, because I loved our livestock and the warm, fragrant smells of a barn sheltering them from the elements. The part that I disliked so much has always been the deep mud outside the barn that occasionally sucked a boot off, threatening my balance and sometimes miring my foot in the goo. But I find that, as I have aged—now that there is no more mud to contend with (but no livestock either)—I find more and more to like about these winter days. I can put aside the guilt of being lazy and enjoy the perks of enjoying hearth and home. I believe that I’ve earned this time to regenerate as best as I can so that I’ll be ready to head out into the sunshine and warmth of late spring days to prepare flower beds, pull weeds and mow lawns on the riding lawn mower. With its aches and pains, life is most certainly winding down as time passes, but we are able to find the comfort that can accompany each day if we are willing to look for it and, best of all, I have been able to leave the guilt behind.

Our prayers are with those in California right now whose lives and homes are being destroyed by the catastrophic floods and mudslides that Mother Nature has sent their way. We are thankful that our Oregon winters are usually much kinder to us.

Sweet Lorane Community News, December 29, 2022

January 7, 2023Newspaper ColumnsBook project, Happy New Year 2023paedwards Leave a comment

The Chronicle (Creswell)
Sweet Lorane Community News
December 29, 2022
By Pat Edwards

One more Christmas is in the books for Jim and me. It was a good day filled with lots of love, good food and with 7 of our great-grandkiddles, ages 2½ to 7 years, in attendance, there was lots of joy and excitement as we counted our blessings and honored the season. Gloria’s traditional prime rib still rates as the best I’ve ever had, and we ate way too much of everything.

We are now preparing to say goodbye to 2022 and welcome a much kinder 2023—we hope. I don’t make New Year’s resolutions usually… they are much too easy to break… but Jim and I probably should give thanks for making it through one more year. I do have a wish list for the new year, however. Besides kindness, it is my wish that we all strive to offer each other things like acceptance, respect, patience and honesty. We need to trade selfishness for generosity and “attitude” for the ability and willingness to listen and communicate respectfully, even if opinions differ. Most of us already do this, but, sadly, too many of us don’t.

With that said, I’ll move on to the plans I’ve formulated for my 2023… I plan to begin another book project that will be a compilation of my newspaper and newsletter columns, letters-to-the-editor, and articles on Lorane and its people spanning the past 50 years or so. I will be including many stories and photos that were used in my “Pat’s People” 4-H newsletter written in the 1970s, in The Lorane Historian newspaper that I wrote and produced in the mid-1990s, and my past weekly newspaper columns for the Fern Ridge Review (later, Fern Ridge-Tribune News) and the Creswell Chronicle (now The Chronicle) that I have been writing since 2010. I am also asking those of you who have photos, memories of special times and events in Lorane’s recent past to share them with me for possible inclusion in the book. I’d love to get some additional photos and memories of the 1987 Lorane Centennial or other activities involving the Lorane Elementary School, Lorane Grange, Lorane I.O.O.F/Rebekah Lodge/Theta Rho, Lorane Christian Church, Lorane Fire Department, Lorane 4-H, as well as the wineries, businesses, farms, long-time families that are residing in a photo album or a box of memorabilia that has been stored away and all but forgotten.

The Lorane Historian included articles on local families called “Family Portraits” and “New Kids on the Block.” Businesses, farms and activities were also featured and some of the actual issues were dedicated to a single theme or subject, including the Lorane wineries, profiles of Lorane veterans who served our country, or long-married couples who shared their wedding stories with us.

My newspaper columns have included the heartbreak we all felt at the closing of the Lorane Elementary School, the fear we felt during the 2015 Lorane wildfire, the goodbyes we said at the passing some of our beloved neighbors, and other memorable events and happenings each week for the past 12 years.

If you have a connection to Lorane and if you get a chance to go through some of your photograph albums, newspaper clippings and written memories and find things that you would like to share, please send copies of them to me at paedwards42@yahoo.com. Photos should be scanned at 300 dpi (minimum). This project will take some time on my part, but I’d like to have all outside material in hand by February 15, 2023, if at all possible.
Happy New Year to All! May 2023 be good to each of you.