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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 12, 2021)
B Tuesday, January 12, 2021 The Observer & Baker City Herald BETWEEN THE ROWS WENDY SCHMIDT Ferns are a fine fit in any location The beauty of ferns is appreciated by gardeners everywhere; whether as houseplants or in the outdoor land- scape. There seems to be a fern for every location and occasion. Ferns are vascular plants. They have tube systems to conduct water throughout the plant. Ferns produce no fl owers or seeds. Their leaves are called fronds. One-fourth to one-third of all ferns are epiphytes. This means they grow on other plants. The licorice fern, for example, grows on trees. Ferns form rhizomes. They don’t like drying out between waterings. On the other hand, their roots (rhizomes) will rot if kept sopping wet. Evenly moist soil is a requirement; drying out stresses them. Many ferns enjoy oc- casional misting. Ferns can reproduce by sexual means (spores produce gametes that are male and female — sperm and ova) or vegetative means (with offsets or dividing the clump). In Victorian times, ferns meant humility and sincerity. To the Maori of New Zealand the ferns meant new life and new beginnings. To the Japanese, ferns mean family and future genera- tions. Generally ferns mean eternal youth and renewal. The fronds are also appreciated in art and design. If you have garden questions or com- ments, please write to greengardencol- umn@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading! DORY’S DIARY DOROTHY SWART FLESHMAN No new calendar? No problem We all deserve a good laugh now and then — perhaps now more than ever — so I have one on myself to share in regard to our New Year 2021. Prior to the annual changing year date, I have become accustomed to the generosity of businesses where I trade to make available an assortment of annual calendars, most with beauti- ful scenic pictures of nature, visits to the farm or wilds for animals caught unawares by cameras or stroked by the artist’s pen, or cuddly little pets to cheer us. Or, we can fi nd other types more to our needs and suitable to our purposes. Mine were the ones with big black numbers. I never came home empty-handed and my choices, hanging or set-by, were handy to each room — kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, den, living room, and home offi ce. Why the date seemed so important I’m not real sure, but a glance at the wall where they hung somehow seemed reassuring that tomorrow would come and I should be ready for whatever duty was to be mine. Along with these date-trackers, I have one called the Calendar Pal that hangs on the side of my refrigerator and has large open spaces in which to fi ll the events of the day and alert me to any duties that I may have to perform. It also has worked well for future reference if the need be. Then came the pandemic of COV- ID-19 with the “stay at home” message that (at my age) I try valiantly to obey along with wearing a mask when need- ing to be out and about. See Dory/Page 2B Abel Uribe/Chicago Tribune--TNS Learning how to fl ip ingredients in your pan as you saute is a helpful technique to up your cooking game. And it’s cool too. C OOKING R ESOLUTIONS “But, how?” you squeak plaintively. “How?” How, indeed. James P. DeWan Chicago Tribune Speaking of home cooking, I was stroll- ing through a cemetery the other day, the historic Graceland on Chicago’s North Side. Holy cripes on toast, you should see the mon- uments. This one dead guy, Potter Palmer — you’ve heard of The Palmer House Hotel? That’s him — he’s got an actual 16-columned Greek-style temple with matching sarcopha- gi for himself and his wife, who literally was named Bertha. Here’s my question: Obviously, Potter (or “Pooter,” as he was known in grammar school) spent 37 tons of cash on his upscale tombstone, but, does that mean he also gets to be more dead than the rest of us? Like, he’s up there in First Class Dead having free Champagne poured over his carcass by the horned and gnashing fl ight attendant while the rest of us suckers are back in Coach Dead not being able to decide between the chicken cordon bleu and the beef tips. Because we’re dead. Regardless of our seat location, though, if we’re fl ying the Airways Styx, we’re all landing on the same runway. And there, since we’re still in “pre-boarding” mode — from my lips to God’s ears — we should spend some time, right now, making ourselves — and, consequently, the world — a better place. that fl at and fetid roadkill of a year, receding in the rearview. Why you need to learn this Aren’t you tired of being you? Jeepers, if I had a nickel for every dejected sigh of resigna- tion I heard in 2020 alone, why, I could spend eternity in corpsey comfort next to Bertha and the Poot. Let’s make 2021 be the anti-2020, then, until it’s so crammed with awesome per- sonal betterment that it explodes like a foie gras goose. And this being Prep School, let’s start with working on your cooking game. Some resolutions, then? • Resolution No. 1: Order some carryout. I don’t know if you’ve seen the papers, but, there’s a pandemic. Among its many victims is the restaurant industry. So, here’s one good thing you can do: Find a restaurant you love, then pick up the phone (call them directly — those delivery apps cost them money) and fork over some cash. Once a month would be great, every week if you’re loaded. Those line cooks and hosts, those servers, dishwashers and The steps you take bussers, lots of them barely scrape by, even in When I was a kid, my mother used to tell the best of times. Order some carryout. Seri- me — a lot, actually, and usually at dinner, ously. Oh, and tip big. Always. when I’d frown at some grim gastroterror like • Resolution No. 2: Repeat after me: “I, canned, cubed beets in heavy syrup — “You (state your name), hereby resolve that, with know what your problem is? I’ll tell you what dog as my witness, this year I’ll cook more your problem is. Your problem is, you don’t good food.” know what’s good. That’s your problem.” Here’s what’s cool about that resolution: Happily, after a lifetime of experience and You can emphasize the “cook more” part or the no small amount of therapy, I believe I have “good food” part. If you don’t already cook a lot, learned what’s good. Compassion, for one. And start. If you do already cook a lot, now you can nonslip shoes. improve your technical skills or expand your But, also an acknowledgment that self-im- repertoire. Learn to move faster or just make provement has no limit, and the quest for said your food taste and look like something you’d is, of itself, good. Let us think, then, on ways want to put in your piehole. to improve ourselves and, by extension, the See Cooking/Page 2B world, as we at long, long last leave that 2020, Buildings share history with their neighbor By Ginny Mammen Traveling farther east on Adams Avenue we come to two buildings which were also built in 1892, and very likely constructed by the same builder as the build- ing at 1110, although they were constructed for two different owners. I believe this because the three facades were originally identical on all three, including the cornices. The fi rst one located at 1112 Adams (currently housing Nate Conklin State Farm Insurance) was constructed for J. D. McKen- non who was the owner of the grocery store next door. The historic name of this building at 1112 Adams on the National Register of Historic Places is the McKennon Building. The earliest occupant according to the 1893 Sanborn Map was a restaurant. Ten years later the map shows a barber shop on one side of the building and a jeweler on the other. The barber was Henry A. Armstrong and the jeweler was J. H. Peare. By 1910 the entire space was occupied by a meat market in the front and a sausage factory in the rear. Over the years this building sheltered a number of various businesses. The second building at 1112 1/2 Adams (currently housing Or- egon Rural Action) has the histor- ic name of the Grandy Building/J. H. Peare Jewelers. The owner of born in March of 1838 in New York. In the early 1860s he and his family were living in Iowa and decided to head west for Oregon. They joined the Speel- man Wagon Train, which started in April 1862 with 10 wagons and increased to 15 wagons along the way. (To read more about the journey google “Speelman Wagon Train Journey.”) It so happened that the emi- grant train in which they were crossing the plains was a young woman named Lydia Palmer, who was traveling with her Larry Fry Collection family. In September 1862 they The Grandy Building/J. H. all reached La Grande and both Peare Jewelers building at families camped here and decided 1112 1/2 Adams Ave., at left. to stay. In 1865 Lydia and Ben were married. She was 19 and this building was Ben W. Grandy he was 24. Over the years they and his fi rst occupants were a became parents of eight children. stationer and a cobbler. By 1903 Ben was listed as a farmer on there was a new occupant when early census records and for a Peare moved his jewelry business number of terms he served as into the larger space. mayor of La Grande. During his The original attractive facade lifetime he acquired a great deal of these two buildings over the of land. According to the 1900 years has been remodeled so that census his profession was listed they no longer have any resem- as Real Estate Broker. blance to the original structures. It was said at the time of his But as with our other buildings, it death that “the townsite of La is not the bricks and mortar that Grande was once the Grandy are the most interesting, it is the homestead and almost every deed people who were involved. to city property here carries in Ben W. Grandy was 20 years the abstract the name of Ben W. older than J. D. McKennon, Grandy.” The 1893 City Directory whom we learned about in the showed his residence as “Fourth last article (Dec. 29). Ben was Street northwest corner Adams Avenue.” Ben Grandy died in La Grande in 1916. John Hickey (Jack) Peare was born in Garrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, on Nov. 13, 1866. As a young man he found a love for track and fi eld and was awarded many medals. In the late 1880s it was reported that “he competed in an international meet for all-round championship of the world, where he won third place in competition involving three jumps, three fl at races and the high hurdles.” In 1890 newlyweds John and his wife Catherine immigrated to the United States. They arrived in La Grande in October 1890 with their 3-month-old son. In 1891 Jack opened a jewelry store. It was reported that he said he started with only one window in 1112 and then later expanded into 1112 1/2 where he remained for over 50 years. The business in 1912 became J. H. Peare and Son — Jewelers and Optometrists, when his son William “associated with him in the business, adding optometry to the services of the establishment.” Jack Peare was remembered for several things including the fact that he wore a fresh white carnation or rose in his lapel daily and that he and his son were the local “Union Pacifi c Watch Inspectors.” See History/Page 2B
