Serving the communities of Stayton, Sublimity, Aumsville, Lyons and Mehama
My best friend in the world is one of the coolest people I’ve ever known. She’s super smart, super fun, really considerate and a great cook.
She’s been all over the world and is never afraid to venture into the unknown.
Author Jane Kirkpatrick has a grasp of how to blend Oregon’s history with fiction that grabs the interest of readers.
More than 50 people came out in June to hear Kirkpatrick talk about the power of stories in everyday life as part of the Stayton Public Library’s seniors program, said librarian Pam Pugsley. The popular author also talked about living and ranching in Eastern Oregon, Pugsley said.
“Jane is a superior speaker,” she added. “I’m still getting comments on how good the talk was.”
Who’s it going to be?
By the time the Democrats meet for their national convention in Denver at the end of this month, and the Republicans meet in Minneapolis during the first part of September; speculation over who Barack Obama and John McCain will choose as running mates will have reached a crescendo.
Will it be some young up-and-comer or some old-line party operative? Will it be a breath of fresh air or the same-old same-old, as they say in politics?
At the Stayton Relay for Life on July 11, Peggy Wilson walked the survivor lap, ate a burger, and then joined teammates for another hour around the Regis High School track.
“Everyone was so energetic,” said Wilson, a cancer-survivor with the Stayton Cooperative Telephone Company team.
Wilson’s team was the top money-raising team for the third consecutive year, earning more than $7,000 for the American Cancer Association, a nationwide community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer.
To me, before I began searching my family roots, my great-great-grandfather, Charles “Charley” Herb, was just another name on a tombstone. One of his grandsons remembered hearing that “he was sick a lot.” My dad, Charley’s great-grandson, never heard even that much.
Then a cousin located and shared statistics of Charley’s military service.
In 1862, 17-year old Private Charles Herb enlisted in Company D, 21st Wisconsin Volunteers. A veteran of three major Civil War battles, he was shot in the leg and face and taken prisoner at Chickamauga, then endured 17 months and five days in various Southern prisons.
Thurman Smith is one lucky dog!
“That’s what they called me when I came close to being bombed out of the air,” said Smith, a 90-year-old veteran of three wars with the U.S. Army Air Corps, which became the U.S. Air Force after World War II.
Smith, who has lived in Lyons for the past 35 years, still has plenty of stories to tell about his fighting days, his love of horses and his childhood on his family’s northeast Texas farm.
With gas topping $4 a gallon, the local bus system is bursting with new riders.
“We have been picking up regularly,” said Frank Brown, interim road supervisor for Chemeketa Area Regional Transportation System, also known as CARTS.
Brown said April statistics showed ridership up throughout CARTS’ service area by 18 percent, an amount he expects to jump another 3 percent with the next count.
Attention car lovers!
Some of the area’s hottest vehicles will be on display Sept. 20 at the ’50s Cruz-In at the Lake in downtown Detroit Lake.
“This is a very positive event for the city of Detroit,” Mayor Pat Carty said. “It brings people together from the east side of the mountains to the Willamette Valley. And we always have a very good mix of new and different cars that have never been on display before.”
Parks got pruned, schools were painted and city offices got a little TLC recently when Christians in four cities took the biblical edict to “love one another” straight to their communities.
“iServe came about from the conviction that Christians should aspire to a servant heart,” said Tim Schabel, who initiated the neighbor-helping-neighbor outreach last year and saw it come to fruition with the help of Community Pastor Tod Schlomann and layman Tim Hophan, both of Foothills Church in Stayton.
“We’re trying to be good servants in our community, to say we’re the church and we’re here for you,” Schabel said.
Blacksmith artist Tom Dudkowsky of Stayton will give a metal work demonstrations at Fresh to You Produce & Garden Center from noon to 3 p.m. Saturdays in August.
Dudkowsky is the owner of Ironvision in Stayton. For 30 years, he has created custom pieces using metal and taught blacksmithing classes.