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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (May 3, 1995)
FEATURES The Clackamas Print Page 7 Wednesday, May 3,1995 The springtime I met the man with Sterling those eyes: reflections on dates Continued from Page 6 by Linda Barr Batdorf Staff Writer Springtime re minds me of the day I first met the man of my dreams who shall forever remain my hand some, fancy boy friend -- my hus band, Alan. He was in a dark corner, hunkered over an ail ing VCR in the video department here at CCC when I first saw him. I had graduated the year before and had come back to Clackamas to edit some footage I had taken for the medical school up on the hill. An old friend, Gary Eppelsheimer, was helping me with the project and in so doing, introduced me to my future husband. “This is Alan Batdorf. We’re working on a video project about Portland’s bridges,” Gary said. Actually, he could have been talking about his latest den tal bridge, because at precisely that instant, Alan looked up from repairing the sickly VCR and looked me right in the eyes. Time stood still. Now this was odd, because I wasn’t an “eye person.” I had a friend who (believe me, this is true) would not date a man with blue eyes. Eyes were her thing. If the guy had brown eyes, he was in. He could look like Quasimodo and smell like Mr. Ed, but if the guy had just the right “eye thing” going, she was pre pared to have his children, and plenty of them at that. It’s said that the eyes are the windows of the soul. It could be that since Alan was destined to walk down the aisle with me on a rainy Valentine’s Day in 1982, that it was indeed his soul that first attracted me to him in the springtime of 1978, because I just couldn’t shake the memory of those eyes. I had dated other men before I met Alan, but I had never no ticed their eyes. I didn’t notice the eyes of the insane man who used to send me envelopes full of hawk feathers. I always wondered how he got the feathers. He called me once, and after telling me that “Bengal ti gers don’t LIVE in Oregon!” said he no longer had a hawk. “I saw a good deal of S. If I were to die tomorrow, Africa. It was an overwhelm I would have no regrets in the ing experience and I learned experiences I’ve had. I still more than I ever would have crave attention. had I not gone there, but it was “I still desire to achieve my nice to come home,” he added. goals and reach that caliber of So Patrick Sterling left S. recognition. But I’m pretty sat Africa and came home. Not isfied. just back to the United States, “There’s still tomorrow. It but back to the area, and once is something I will always be again, back to CCC. working towards, but I tend to “I really believe there is get comfortable in any given falsity in the old adage ‘you can situation, and I don’t work to never go back’ because there get past those boundaries. I’m is truly nothing in the world pretty happy and comfortable more important than family and with what I’m doing, but I still friends. I am always drawn crave that recognition. back to this area because of this “Those hard core starving very fact,” actors in LA S ter 1i ng who do the said. theater rep If I were to die tomor circuit de Cur - rently, Ster row, I would have no serve more ling is a regrets in the experi respect than manager at me,” he said. ences I’ve had. I still Ye a t s y s Sterling Cafe crave attention. suggests that - Patrick Sterling, student Mexicano, a it is impor restaurant in tant for as Lake Os piring actors wego. And in his spare time, to keep their tools polished. he ventures out to the theater “No matter what you do, at CCC where he spends time how, when or why, whether it rehearsing for the spring play, is at the community college “Betty the Yeti,” in which he level or on Broadway, the ex will play a logger. perience in and of itself is ben Sterling said he was a jock eficial,” Sterling said. in high school. Sports were his One day, Sterling hopes to passion. Until he accepted a open his own restaurant. “I dare from one of his “jock love this business. I’vebeenin friends. I auditioned on a dare this business off and on forever. by some of my jock friends, and I’m going to keep auditioning. I was cast as Lysander in “The LA scene is question Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer able, if I get my big, lucky Night’s Dream.” break. If I get a break, I’ 11 take “I was hooked. Now I au advantage of it from there,” he dition as often as I can,” he said. Until then, you can find said. While Sterling still hopes Sterling in our own theater, pre to find the big break someday, paring for his latest show, Betty he said he is content with the. the Yeti, which will run May 18 successful acting career he’s al to 20 and June 2 to 4 in the McLoughlin Theater. ready had. -__________ 5 9 Gee, what did he do? Keep yanking them out of his deceased pet? Where was he getting them? Did he have a hole in his pillow or had he mugged a wandering sapsucker? This in itself was a bit unnerving. Andjust what was it about big bird feathers that he thought I would find appealing? It certainly wasn’t the smell. I didn’t notice the eyes of the man in the theater department who used to sing at the top of his lungs to any old tune that hap pened to belch its way out of the radio, either. He wanted our friendship to escalate and I was hesitant to hurt his feelings and say a resounding “no!” until one day when we were returning from a program at a re tirement home and he insisted on singing every song from here to Oak Grove and back at a decibel level that Pavarroti himself has not yet achieved. When he leaned over the back seat to sing directly into the back of my head to the tune of The Commodore’s “You’re ONCE, TWICE, THREEE times a lay- DEE,” I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I switched the radio off before he could get to the “THREEE.” There he was, bellowing out his merciless tune, suddenly left with no Lionel Richie to do his back-up vocals. Since I seemed to attract men with obvious mental problems, it was no surprise that another “gentleman” playing two socks short of a pair would want my phone number. Had I looked into his eyes, I never would have gone to a movie with him, and I never would have had to walk home from Damascus to Estacada after said lunatic tried to slip something into my 7-Up. The same loon called me the next day — after I had walked 13 miles in the middle of the night - - and asked me if I wanted to go to another show with him. Good grief. I should have suggested that he and Mr. Hawk Feathers go together and see “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Many of my dates in the early 70’s were similar. I came to con sider the distinct possibility that all men were deeply disturbed. I was just an innocent little “potata from Estacada...,” what did I know of the heart of a true creepizoid? In fact, most of my dates pre Alan were so deranged that I wrote a play including many di rect quotes from some of them, and it was produced here at CCC. A little old lady sitting in front of me during the opening night said, “gosh, these charac ters are a little unbelievable...” She took the words right out of my mouth. I remember the heartaches and hassles of dating “way back then,” with all of the inherent bumbling and teenage awkward ness. One of my friends here at CCC was Colleen O’Hara. I re call the vision of my friend stand ing outside, between the build ings, looking aimlessly about as if searching for someone. With the heart and soul of a writer, she has always been quite the poetic type. So when I asked her what she was doing and she replied, “wait ing for Mr. Right,” I stared at her for a moment or two and went to my next class. I didn’t find out until much later that she was re ferring to her science teacher Mr. Wright. It seemed as logical a place to meet Mr. Right. After all, I met mine here. Not only did he sweep me off my feet and save me from the loony-toons of the world, but after 16 years, I still love to look into those eyes. BATÏODAL ASTRODORY DAY The Haggart Observatory, in conjunction with The John Inskeep Environmental Learning Center will host its third annual National Astronomy Day. Saturday May, 6 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. The day’s events will include: Hands-on exhibits, including crater building, lens and mirror demon strations, models of the solar system as well as models of American spacecraft, and much more. Admission is Free For more information, call ext. 2351
