Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1995)
4 The Clackamas Print Wednesday, Novenber 1,1995 ~Feature Thoughts on aging and Oscar Mayer to the park? Are you kidding? I have my nails to do and besides, I’m busy developing a bad case of ulcerative colitis...” Some jerks even make fun of those who are older than they, as if being long lived isn’t a goal we all hope to at tain. Growing older is a Growing older isn’t such a curious thing. How we disagreeable deal. It certainly react to growing older is beats the alternative. even more interesting. I will never forget the sight; Remember when you of my eighty year-old grand were eight and just mother walking up to me, sternly about everything waggling her finger in my face for seemed like a game or a a moment before exploding into secret spy mission? a stirring rendition of, “Oh-h-h... What’s wrong with do I wish I were an Oscar Mayer ing that now that we are Wiener...” adults? Why not pre Grandma knew the secret. tend that the loathsome Grandma never grew old. test in chemistry is just I would like to think that a fun game of Aggrava some of her sparkle and joy of liv tion? Why not make ing extended down my way. Af that hurried commute ter all, Grandma knew well the from school to work and misery that life could dish out, but home again an exciting she never chose to dwell on it. spy and snoop mission Instead, she focused on her stead like you used to? fast faith and that “joy in the game Where do we put that child of life.” like love of wonder, anyway? Did Grandma left a legacy that we send it off in a manila enve laughter, especially laughter di lope to the IRS, or did it disap rected at ourselves, is the besf pear with that overdue bill from fountain of youth around. Be the electric company? Have we sides, people who take life too let the headaches, the broken- seriously are not much fun to be down car and responsibilities of around. Studies show that we growing older turn us into the don’t usually have to be around kind of adults we loathed and them too long anyway, because avoided as children? they “serious” themselves to As I write this column, I fight death. off the notion that I am growing You’ve seen them. “Noway, older, that I am past my prime, can’t go to the show with you and that I am neither what I used to the kids, I’ve got a report and a be nor a spring chicken anymore. heart attack to work on.” Or “Go By the time this article hits print Linda Barr Batdorf Staff Writer “ Whether seventy or sixteen, there is in every being’s heart a love of wonder; the sweet amaze ment at the stars and starlike things and thoughts; the un daunted challenge of events, the unfailing childlike appetite for what comes next, and the joy in the game of life. ” Samuel Ullman, 1984 I will have turned forty years old. Now I am perfectly aware that no one really gives a rip how old anyone else is — generally speaking. My age or your age or the age of the checker down at Safeway is of no real import in the grand scheme of things. But it is often the case that whenever one of us is looking at a birthday that changes the first digit of our chronological age, for some reason, we can find that nu meric adjustment disturbing. My six year-old son, Andy must have overheard me commis erating about my pending digit change and remarked excitedly, “Don’t worry Mom, you look like you’re in your thirties!” Whew. I have decided to make this birthday the best one yet, because in many ways, it simply signifies a new beginning. This year, when the candles are blown out and jokes about dentures and Depends subside, maybe we will just start singing that old Oscar Mayer tune. Jack Benny said it best, “Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” Steven Katz reads fiction at Clackamas Writer of 16 novels including Wier & Pouce, Florry of Washington Heights and his newest, Swanny’s Ways, visits Vicki Welch Copy Editor Steven Katz, author of “Wier & Pouce” and “Florry of Washington Heights”, visited Clackamas last Friday,from noon to 1 p.m., to read part of his new book “Swanny’s Ways”, which is the last book in his current trilogy. “More credibility should be given to the experiments of three-year-olds. I tried a chicken in a rain barrel and learned it couldn’t swim. It died instead, and that gave me my first taste of megalomaniacal ecstasy, which was one of my first reasons for becoming a novelist. Characters are quite like chickens; you can kill them for your sport fry them if they refuse to come home to roost.” When talking about his new novel, Katz remarked “What I’m trying to do is write a narrative.” He then read a part of “Swanny’s Ways”, “Wine”, which is set in New York City. This is the story of a man, Wil liam “Swanny” Swanson, who is trying to rectify the past, some thing Katz thinks is incredibly in teresting. Katz has considered himself an author since high school. He has written 16 books between 1962 and 1995. He has been pub lished by several publishing com panies including Sun and Moon Press, Bamberger Books and Ran dom House. “In my experience it doesn’t get any easier to write; if any thing, it gets harder.... Getting my new novel right is the most difficult thing I have ever done. I tend to ask more questions of my work, and want more from it. I suppose there is an advantage in this, that if ever I felt I’d written a perfect work, I might stop and what keeps the writer alive, what keeps the culture alive, is the con tinual reframing and telling of the stories. Perhaps everything I do as a writer is by way of figuring out in what language to atone for once drowning the Hardens’ chicken.” Authors at CCC get published Dan Anderson Staff Writer Clackamas now boasts five faculty members who have contributed to the body of mod ern literature in prose, poetry and drama. Craig Lesley, currently on sabbatical supporting his latest offering “The Sky Fisherman,” has published three novels. Lesley’s works focus on small town rural life, the Native American experience and real- life images. He has also com piled and edited two compila tions of other authors’ work, most notably “Talking Leaves,” a collection of Native American legends given him directly from people living on Oregon reservations. The sign outside writing instructor Diane Averill’s of fice reads: “Do you have enough poetry m your life?” If anyone has enough, Averill does; she has published one complete collection of poems entitled “Branches Doubled Over with Fruit,” and a smaller chapbook called “Turtle Sky.” Averill offers this advice to stu dent writers: “It’s good for beginning writers to familiar ize themselves with all kinds of writing, not just one type. It’s important to read, read, read and write, write, write.” Actress, playwright and part-time instructor Susan Mach has produced two full- length plays. The first, titled “Monograms,” a kind of biog raphy of 1920’s personality Hazel Hall, was nominated for a Grammy for best off- broadway play. In April, an off- Broadway theatre will produce “Monograms” for a New York audience. Her second play will show in Boston, in November, Jim Grabbil has become a finalist for the Oregon Book Award this year for his work of nonfiction, “Through the Green Fire.” Grabbil also has a collection of poems pub lished. Tim Schell, a native of the Northwest, has written many short stories. They have been published in several publica tions, including “Discovery,” “Tokyo Journal,” “Signature” and “Sports Illustrated.” He was also the Fiction Editor of “Hayden’s Fairy Revue.” f WANT MORE?'! if you re sma^rf enougk io know ma^rkeiing is wkeré ike money is a<n4 environmeniaj soluiions a»re a> koi commo4iiy> iken join our ieam. $5K~ $10K+++/monik. Ho joke. Offices in Porila»n4, Sajem, Ougene. We iraùn. For inierviewî photo by LoraWahrgren (503) 363-8342 J
