Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 6, 1995)
6 Feature The Clackamas Print Wednesday, December 6,1995 Dog people versus cat people Linda Barr Batdorf Even though she sat on old Contributing Writer Chuck, Shirley is a cat person. There are those people who She can walk down a busy love dogs and those who adore city street and cats follow her like cats and some, like my Mom, who the pied cat piper. Shirl has a love any creature that’s feathered voice she uses for cats that sounds or furry (Mom can cuddle a just like most cats look. Just chicken for Pete’s sake). While I imagine it. think that cats have many fine Over the years, Shirley and qualities — like I have devel oped an entire having combs 4 6 on their tongues repertoire of and their tidy pseudo-animal habit of using a voices and cat-bathroom songs for each — I am basi of our pets, cally a dog per proving the son. theory that dog So how do AND cat people can be seriously those who are true cat people mentally ill. manage to affa You can imag bly co-exist with _______________ 9 9 ine the turmoil dog people vis-a-vis? created in our household as we When I was in the 6th grade grew up with one sister being a I was a cat person because my best serious cat person and the other friend, Penny Jean Wilson, was a dog person. a cat person. OK, I was a weenie Her cats would shed,’sleep and sort of followed the crowd on and poop in the laundry basket, this one, but I came to love my walk around looking bored and cat Chuck, even if he just looked wake up with a start when she kind of bored and yawned most forgot to look in the easy chair of the time. He never acted happy and sat on them. My little peek-a-pom, Tiki, to see me and would run away for months at a time after my sister was charming, well-mannered, Shirley accidentally sat on him brilliant and could not be broken one day. He was never quite the of a disgusting habit of pooping over by our stereo. Only when any same after that. Dog people and cat people can peacefully co-exist living thing happened to look in the general direction of our home did he yap like a fiend with his dog-wife and several dog-chil dren. This was a sound that could awaken the dead and probably did for several counties over. One Sunday morning, Tiki and his charming dog-family had as usual, done their doggie duty all over the floor by our stereo. Shirley came in the room, dis gusted and requested that I clean it up. Being a sorry, manipula tive sophomore in high school I said sure, if she’d go out and get the Sunday paper. This seemed like an incredible deal to her and she made for the door. Some dog people have a little mean streak in them. As she walked down our driveway and to the paper box, I grabbed up the doggie-doo and flushed it down the you-know. I quickly washed my hands and dashed into the kitchen for some brownie dough that was in the fridge. After some artistic shap ing of the brownie dough, I rushed back into the front room and acted as if I was just leaning over to pick up the dog deposit from the floor with a paper towel as Shirley made her way into the house, newspaper in hand. “I’ve got the paper,” she said, in her own cat-loving little way. “Here’s the dooder,” I re plied, “now what do you want me to do with it?” “I don’t care what you do with it!” she said, “just get rid of it!” On that wonderful cue line, I ate it. As a dog lover, that was the best practical joke I ever played on anyone and I thought that Shirley was going to faint. It was great. It was great until one of her cats — all on its own — put a live snake in my bed. Dog people and cat people can peacefully co-exist in the same household, but they’ve got to keep their guard up. An inside look at the groundskeepers at CCC Megan Friedow Staff Writer Have you ever taken the time to stop and appreciate the scen ery or wonder who deserves the credit for Clackamas Community College’s well-groomed grounds? Tom Powell and Mickey Bergeron, groundskeepers, are the two individuals responsible for the upkeep and maintenance on the CCC campus. Powell initially came to CCC to further his education follow ing his employment with a com mercial landscaping company. He has been on the CCC mainte nance crew for five years. Powell has had the opportu nity to participate in the class- room teaching students the fun damentals of this particular field of study. He focused on pruning, vertical mulching and identifying suitable areas to perform labs. Both Powell and Bergeron are working closely with the hor ticulture classes organizing and assisting with the material for the ongoing perennial garden. Bergeron has been at CCC for two years following seven years at Mount Hood Community College and also at a commercial landscaping company. She has a two-year degree in Ornamental Horticulture. Both Powell and Bergeron have 15 years background expe rience pertaining to this job. They would both like to pur sue teaching careers, “I find the land at CCC to be much more interesting and the maintenance practices are more Photo by Paul Ulmen Groundskeepers Tom Powell and Mickey Bergeron work to keep the campus looking immaculate year round as well as assisting the horticulture classes with their perennial garden. horticulturally correct,” said Bergeron. Their job title goes beyond that of groundskeeper. They are involved in several aspects of in stallation, minor and major repair jobs, plumbing and basically any thing that requires special atten tion on the CCC grounds. Due to budget cuts, they are unable to work overtime on Sat urdays as they had in the past, but still continue to work a five day week doing what they enjoy most. “It is a great atmosphere to work in. Everyone is nice and we always receive a lot of com pliments,” Powell said. Both Bergeron and Powell agreed it was a never-ending pro cess. Each season leads into a new cycle of duties. Fall and Spring seemed to be the busier seasons as leaves are falling and weeds are sprouting, yet they were not complaining. The winter months begin the pro cess of draining and weathering pipes, along with shutting down the irrigation. Their main goal, “is to keep the areas and surrounding grounds looking nice for as long as possible.” One of CCC’s more promi nent problems is the combined nuisance of seagulls and the wind dispersing the campus garbage around the parking lots. Other than that, they didn’t really have any complaints. They said it was difficult to find any thing wrong or things to drasti cally change. About cigarette butts, Powell replied, “I wouldn’t say it is a problem-just time consuming. “We dedicate a lot of time on a regular basis to pick them up, so we try to prevent it from be coming troublesome,” he added. They said improvements de pend on funding, but currently they are just concentrating on doing the best they can with what resources they have. “I want the student body to continue to enjoy the campus,” Bergeron said, as they both com mented on the great appreciation expressed by the campus commu nity. “I don’t feel responsible. It is a beautiful campus that takes care of itself. We are just here to help it along,” agreed Powell. Campus will be CLOSED December 22-25 ffapptj from The Clackamas Print
