Tag: Jim Edwards

Sweet Lorane Community News, June 30, 2022

June 30, 2022Newspaper Columns, Leave a comment

Fern Ridge-Tribune News
The Chronicle (Creswell)
Sweet Lorane Community News
June 30, 2022
By Pat Edwards

My husband, Jim, underwent a fairly serious back surgery last Monday, and life has taken on a whole new rhythm for us both since then. The surgery which involved two fusions and a break-repair went well. He was released from the hospital on Wednesday evening to come home, but there have been some complications involving surgery and medication in general that he’s had to deal with. We are so pleased that his strength and ability to do things, like roll from a reclining position to a sitting one, are slowly returning, and both of us are anxious to get through these early days. Fortunately, we are blessed to have family close by who have been supportive and ready to help out when needed. Thanks to all of you who have sent their love and prayers to him. They’ve meant a lot and have been very successful. We’re looking forward to the pain-free days and a bit more mobility which, hopefully, await him following the eventual physical therapy and exercise that he will be assigned.

There’s a major event and fundraiser rapidly approaching for the Crow Booster Club. Their 17th Annual Car Show will be held on July 9, 2022 after having two record-breaking years with over 140 cars being judged and on display.

This year’s car show will once again be held on the Crow High School Football Field. There will be a variety of activities throughout the day including raffles, a kids’ zone, pancake breakfast, silent auction and concessions. The gates open at 6:00 a.m. for everyone; participants must arrive and be checked-in with registration before 11:00 a.m. to allow for judging.

They are also offering the multi-car/class discount again this year, so bring all your cars and enter them in more than one class! Download your form at:

https://www.crowboosterclub.com/online-registration

and mail it to the Crow Booster Club at P.O. Box 1228, Veneta, OR 97487, or fill out an on-line registration and payment option that are also available!

There will be the activities mentioned above, refreshments and an awesome silent auction, too. Donations for the silent auction and to the Booster Club are still being welcomed and accepted on their website.

The Crow Car Show is an annual fundraiser that benefits all K-12 age groups affiliated with the Crow-Applegate-Lorane School District. The Crow Booster Club is not just an athletic-based organization. Its projects benefit all student interests and activities.
Be sure to join in on the family fun-filled day and help to support our school district and its students and teachers.

Sweet Lorane Community News (The Chronicle), June 23, 2022

June 23, 2022Uncategorized, , , , Leave a comment

The Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
June 23, 2022
By Pat Edwards

What glorious weather we are experiencing the last few days. The warm, but mild, weather has allowed me to go outside and make some headway on all of the “catch-up” work awaiting me in and around our yard. Most important, though, is the fact that the farmers are finally able to go into the fields and begin cutting the hay crop that is on the verge of being overdone. Our son-in-law, Brian, is one of them.

For Jim and I, the weather is having to take a backseat this coming week in our thoughts and plans. He is scheduled for a serious back surgery on Monday, June 27, and will have some disk work done on his lower back as well as the stabilization of a break that was discovered there, as well. He will spend a couple of days at McKenzie-Willamette until they are sure that all is as it should be before sending him home. Thank you for keeping him in your thoughts and prayers… the more the better.

I want to thank Noel Nash, the publisher of The Chronicle, for approaching me about researching and writing an article on Creswell’s “Fruit Lands” history. Neither of us expected the amount of information that I was able to find about A.C. Bohrnstedt, the capitalist from the Midwest who instigated that part of Creswell’s history. In addition, I was able to tie together the information that Nancy O’Hearn, Marna Hing and I had gathered on the Lorane orchards for our 1987 book, Sawdust and Cider; A History of Lorane, Oregon and the Siuslaw Valley. The two communities share similar histories with the exception that each was represented by different investment companies who used the same schemes with much the same outcome.

Old newspaper articles that I was able to access on-line provided a bounty of detailed information on the impact these orchard companies had on both communities. The stories eventually grew to the point that I knew I had gathered enough to put into a book, and Picking the Orchard Clean became a reality.

I hope that you enjoy these stories as much as I did in putting them together. The orchard industry was a large part of the histories of both Creswell and Lorane, even though it did not carry on to today’s economies as it did in the Hood River and Medford, Oregon areas which are still known throughout the state for their award-winning production of fruit.

I’ll be at the Lane County Fair’s “Oregon Authors’ Table” to sell some of my books on local history (including Picking the Orchard Clean,) all day (Senior Day) on Thursday, July 21, and I hope that some of my readers will stop by and say “Hello.”

In the meantime, I wish us all a “Happy Summer!” and a special “Congratulations” to newlyweds, Erin, our amazing editor, and her husband, Lance.

Sweet Lorane Community News (FERN RIDGE TRIBUNE NEWS), June 23, 2022

June 23, 2022Newspaper Columns, , , Leave a comment

Fern Ridge-Tribune News
Sweet Lorane Community News
June 23, 2022
By Pat Edwards

What glorious weather we are experiencing the last few days. The warm, but mild, weather has allowed me to go outside and make some headway on all of the “catch-up” work awaiting me in and around our yard. Most important, though, is the fact that the farmers are finally able to go into the fields and begin cutting the hay crop that is on the verge of being overdone. Our son-in-law, Brian, is one of them.

For Jim and I, the weather is having to take a backseat this coming week in our thoughts and plans. He is scheduled for a serious back surgery on Monday, June 27, and will have some disk work done on his lower back as well as the stabilization of a break that was discovered there, as well. He will spend a couple of days at McKenzie-Willamette until they are sure that all is as it should be before sending him home. Thank you for keeping him in your thoughts and prayers… the more the better.

This week, I want to tell you about my newest book. I just completed it about a week ago. It’s local history, as are all my books… specifically it tells about the orchard industry that had a huge effect on the communities of Lorane and Creswell in the early 1900s. I had always heard about the vast orchards that used to populate the rolling hills around Lorane at one time. We included a big chapter of our first book, published in 1987, Sawdust and Cider; A History of Lorane, Oregon and the Siuslaw Valley, about how it offered jobs and summer work for the residents of Lorane, but I didn’t fully realize until recently the scope and all that was involved in the investment “opportunities” offered by capitalists and real estate companies in the Midwest to investors all over the U.S. I had heard that these companies bought large acreages in both Creswell and Lorane and split them into 5-, 10- and 20-acre tracts which were planted to fruit trees—apples, pears, prunes, mainly. Oregon apples, especially, were in huge demand in not only the eastern and midwest part of the U.S., but in foreign countries, as well, and sold at premium prices at the turn of the 20th century.

My new book, Picking the Orchard Clean, tells about how the communities of Lorane and Creswell were referred to as “Fruit Lands,” and how these investment companies impacted the local economies in surprising ways.

I’ll be at the Lane County Fair’s “Oregon Authors’ Table” to sell some of my books on local history all day (Senior Day) on Thursday, July 21, and I hope that some of my readers will stop by and say “Hello.”

In the meantime, I wish us all a “Happy Summer!”