community
Senior Stars: Larry and Gail Snethen
By Karen Miller
Have any of you had the plea-
sure of enjoying Vernonia Lake in the
nice weather?
If you have, I’m sure, like me,
you have enjoyed the scenery. You have
also probably had the opportunity to
enjoy the company of Larry and Gail
Snethen.
The Snethens are a couple of
our honored senior citizens in this quiet
and friendly town and the owner/opera-
tors of the concession stand at the lake.
Most days between April and October
you will find Larry and Gail there, greet-
ing visitors and friends and enjoying
some conversation on the covered deck.
Larry and Gail came from far
away—from the cold winter of South
Dakota—to be amongst us here in our
little logging town of Vernonia.
Larry hails originally from
Hastings, Nebraska where he was born
in 1937. Larry’s dad was a railroad main
depot agent and a telegraph operator.
He learned that trade from his father—
Larry’s grandfather also worked for the
railroad. Larry’s mother cooked for the
railroad workers. While raising her four
children, Larry says her cookbook was
her bible.
Larry moved to South Dakota,
where he was working delivering maga-
zines. He met Gail in her hometown of
Groton. Gail fondly remembers her par-
ents taking her to a church function at a
restaurant, the Omar Cafe. She remem-
bers her girlfriend pouring sugar into the
cup of a handsome dude whom Gail de-
cided she wanted to linger around her-
self for a sweet time. Long story short,
they have been married now for fifty-
two years.
After Larry and Gail became
Mr. and Mrs. they lived on a chicken
farm where Larry worked as the mainte-
nance man and Gail worked as a LPN at
St. Luke’s Hospital in Aberdeen, a forty
mile trip from Conde where they lived.
Gail earned her Nursing degree at St.
Mary’s School of Nursing in Pierre, SD.
Back then it was one year of training
with tuition of $150. She loved being
a nurse, Gail says, because back then
Nurses as a rule had the opportunity to
have a more personal bedside manner,
whereas today there is too much interfer-
ence with the addition of ever increasing
technology that take up a nurses time.
Larry must have exhibited a
warm bedside manner as well, working
as a hospital orderly in Aberdeen. His
job consisted of tending to patients, giv-
ing baths and other necessary care.
Larry and Gail made their hum-
ble abode in the upstairs of a farmhouse
with no running water and outdoor fa-
cilities.
The Snethens also lived in Brit-
ain for one year—Britain, South Dakota
that is—where Larry was the assistant to
the hospital administrator and Gail con-
tinued her job she loved as an LPN.
Gail’s parents were poor farm-
ers and Gail acquired her love of sewing
from her mother, which earned her rec-
ognition in 4-H; she also learned to cook
and enjoys both hobbies unto this day.
Gail’s early farm life consisted
of milking cows by hand until automated
machines came a long, raising pigs for
meat, and gathering and selling eggs.
For simple, self-made entertainment she
enjoyed playing among the tall sunflow-
ers, making mudpies, playing with dolls
and canning. For transportation, all the
kids in the family shared one bicycle.
Larry says his uncle drove a
gasoline truck for the people who were
carving Mt. Rushmore, one of South Da-
kota’s, and our nations, most famous and
recognizable landmarks.
Gail had a brother who lived in
Portland, Oregon and for Gail and Larry,
the sound of an old steam passenger train
started calling. They hopped aboard with
their three kids and 175 pound limit of
belongings, paid their hard earned eighty
dollars and headed west. But
not without Gail’s heavy Singer
sewing machine, which they car-
ried on with them because of the
baggage limit—emphasize on
heavy, they recall!
Relocated in Portland, Larry
worked for a foundry –the now
defunct Pacific Light and Metal.
Larry worked making castings
that served Freightliner, Peter-
bilts and Kenworth. The foundry
closed down in 1967 and Larry
moved on to work at Com-Met at
Rivergate, working on castings
and metal treating.
Gail worked at Bess Kaiser
Hospital serving people in need.
Gail says her favorite spot was in
Orthopedics and she worked at
the Health West Center on Inter-
state.
The Snethen family lived for
thirty-three years on Allegheny
in the same house they bought for a
grand total of $6,000—with furniture—
when they first moved to Portland. The
Snethen’s three children—Tim, born in
1960, Lori Ann, born in 1962 and Sara
Jane born in 1963—all graduated from
Roosevelt High School. Larry and Gail,
along with Sara Jane’s three children
lovingly know they will see their be-
loved daughter and mother again—Sara
Jane passed away in 2006 and is missed
by all.
Larry and Gail both retired in
1999. A note about their Portland life—
they both loved flea markets. They
november27
2012
13
bought and sold Hot Wheels, among
other collectibles. Vernonia resident
Dan Brown often patronized their booth
in Portland before they even moved to
Vernonia.
So what brought the Snethen’s
to Vernonia? Camping with friends at
Anderson Park, they say. They discov-
ered this cute town with friendly people
and fabulous fireworks. One of the first
homes they looked at had a red toilet,
bathtub and sink—guess that was a bit
much so they kept looking until they
settled on their house on A Street.
Luckily the Snethens missed out
on the 1996 flood in Vernonia but in 2007
Larry and Gail were snowbirding in Ari-
zona when they were notified of the di-
saster to the town and their home. Larry
made Gail stay behind as he hopped the
next plane back. He returned to find that
his old friend Dan Brown and a crew
from the Nehalem Valley Bible Church
were taking care of his home and had al-
ready started on the repairs.
In present day Vernonia, Larry
and Gail’s friendly faces will be missed
around here as they once again prepare
to head to Brookings, OR for a few win-
ter months. Their card playing friends
will miss them as well. Gail will take
along her nonfiction western books to
keep herself entertained as they enjoy
the majestic beauty of the coast from
Riverside RV park.
Larry and Gail seem to be enjoy-
ing life right now—I would say they de-
serve some rest after hearing about their
hard work as well as the hardships and
trials wrapped around the good times
they have shared together.
On their bucket list: Gail says
she would like to travel all across the US
in a travel trailer, while playing the ac-
cordion that she learned in third grade.
Larry...he just likes life the way it is.
So make sure to stop by Verno-
nia Lake when Larry and Gail Snethen
return next spring. They would love to
hear your stories as well.
Have fun in Brookings you two
and thanks for sharing your story with
our Vernonia’s Voice readers!
Better Parenting: 7 Refusal Tactics To Help Our Kids Stay Out Of Trouble
By Sonia Spackman MA, MFT
Consider Developing Family Guidelines
If your family has made rules about making
good choices regarding any illegal activities, including
drugs, alcohol, and tobacco this will increase the likeli-
hood that your kids will make healthy choices.
But knowing what’s expected doesn’t mean
our kids will make the right choices in a risky situation.
We must make sure they know what to do when it gets
harder for them to say no.
A Risk Factor Are Friends That Use Drugs
When our kids are little, we protect them from
strangers. As they get older, it is more likely that their
friends will be the first to offer them sex, tobacco, al-
cohol or other drugs. One of the strongest risk factors
that can lead to drug use is a friend that is using drugs.
Since friends are very important in the lives of teenag-
ers, how can we protect our kids when they are with
kids who might get them in trouble?
When Kids Want To Say No They Need Strategies To
Help Them
We can teach our kids strategies on how to deal
with friends that want them to do something wrong.
This could be going against family or school rules or
breaking the law by stealing or trying a cigarette or a
beer. When kids want to say no to a friend, they really
need refusal strategies to help them. As adults we might
need to say no to a friend ourselves. So let’s have some “I can’t do it, I have to be somewhere on time.”
Sometimes humor is the best way to react when you’re
fun learning refusal strategies together as a family.
caught off guard.
EIGHT REFUSAL TACTICS AND WHAT TO SAY TACTIC #5 MAKE A JOKE
Teach your kids how it will help them stay out of (Laugh) “You really think I will want to do that?”
“Thanks, but no thanks, that is not something I am
trouble if they ask questions ahead of time.
into.”
TACTIC #1 ASK QUESTIONS
“Where are we going?” “What are we going to do?” Follow up after you have named the problem.
TACTIC #6 SUGGEST DOING SOMETHING
“Why would we do that?”
Teach your kids that they can avoid a problem ELSE
completely if they know there is going to be trouble. “I have an idea, why don’t we go shoot hoops
Let your teenager understand how it helps to name the instead?”
“Let’s go get something to eat.”
problem.
TACTIC #2 CALL IT WHAT IT IS - NAME THE If there are other kids involved you could invite one or
two by name to join you. There may be others that don’t
TROUBLE
“That is stealing.” That is vandalism.” That is want to participate.
TACTIC #7 TRY TO SELL THEM ON YOUR
wrong.”
Teach your teenager to tell their friend what could IDEA, MOVE ON, AND LEAVE THE DOOR
happen. They may realize the consequences and it OPEN FOR THEM TO JOIN YOU.
“If you change your mind I’ll or we’ll be…….”
could keep you both from getting into big trouble.
TACTIC #3 IDENTIFY THE CONSEQUENCES
“If we do that we can get suspended from school.” Have Fun Learning Refusal Tactics Together As A
Family
Or “If my parents find out they will ground me.”
Get the family together and have the kids
Whatever you say stick to it, if it is staying out too late,
imagine that a friend comes up to them and asks them
or hanging out where problems could come up.
to do something that is wrong. Let them know you un-
TACTIC #4 MAKE AN EXCUSE
“That sounds like it would be fun but I’m going to derstand that it can be hard to say no to a friend.
Instruct them to write down some things that
pass I have something else I have to do.”
continued on page 19
