The Clackamas print., February 28, 1996, Page 5, Image 5

The Clackamas Print
Wednesday, February 28,1996
Feature
Student battles homelessness
along road to self discovery
LANEY from page 4
jockeys in California. But it was
news-copy writing that spawned
Laney’s dream to become a jour­
nalist.
For the next few years, Laney
enrolled in and dropped out of
college and held various jobs. She
also hustled pool for awhile, and
won first place and $25,000 at a
San Francisco amateur tourna­
ment.
She also married and soon
divorced the father of her daugh­
ters during this time.
Despite the divorce, the en­
suing years were good for Laney.
She was living in Los Angeles,
and had a high-paying job.
People in L.A. thought she was
Hispanic because of her brown
skin and accepted her. And she
had her kids. But L.A. was be­
coming increasingly violent and
unsafe. She didn’t want to raise
her pre-teen children in that en­
vironment.
So in 1988, Laney and her
kids moved to Oregon, where she
had a job waiting for her. When
she got to the Willamette Valley,
she felt at home. It was a lot like
the valley where she grew up, but
without the reservation fences.
Again, people believed she
was Hispanic because of her skin.
But things were different this
time. Laney learned that many
Oregonians don’t feel the same
way about Hispanics that south­
ern Californians do.
“When I’m in stores stand­
ing in line, the checker would
check out people in front of me
and say, ‘Hi, how are you doing’-
- being friendly and chatty. Then
when she got to me— it was usu­
ally a woman checker— she
wouldn’t look at me. She
wouldn’t say a word,” Laney re­
called.
Laney could endure that.
She’d been enduring comments
and looks of disgust from bigots
for much of her life.
“As I leave I always say
loudly and smiling, ‘Have a nice
day,”’ Laney said. “My grandma
always said if you get angry, it
doesn’t work. But if you kill them
with kindness, it gets them every
time.”
While Laney had an answer
for bigotry, she was unprepared
to be laid off from her job after
just a year.
“I didn’t know about laws to
protect me, or how to seek help
in any way. I didn’t know how to
file for unemployment. I was 36
and I was totally lost,” she said.
With no money to pay her
rent, and without the permanent
address required for public assis­
tance, Laney and her two pre-teen
daughters were soon homeless.
Everything they owned fit in the
back of her Datsun. For the next
year, she moved 17 times, alter­
nating between friends and home­
less shelters.
For about three months of
that time, she and her kids slept
nights on the reclined back seat
of the Datsun, with possessions
and towels blocking the windows.
Her children occasionally bathed
in the sinks of business rest
rooms.
Local band ready for main stream
Matt Doran
Staff Writer
“It still hurts,” she said, her
By the time we arrived at
eyes watering. “I felt like the big­
Denny
’s to do the interview, I had
gest failure because I let my kids
spent two,and a half hours with
down. But they tell me now that
what they remember is that I was Lane Action Princess. In that
time, I came to the conclusion that
always there for them.”
Finally, Laney got a job with .these are four talented individu­
a local transport company, which als who enjoy their music and
got her and her children off the each other. As Lynn Kelland says,
streets. She worked there for four “we’re just four sub-average guys,
years She also married again, but playing great music.”
Lane Action Princess is the
soon divorced.
brain
child of singer Lynn “Neato
Then she met Marlin.
“He’s probably the person Bondito” Kelland, guitarist Sean
who changed my life. He believed Crissell, bassist John Baker and
in me and helped me pick myself drummer Adam Nash. Each
back up. He taught me a very member has brought their own
valuable lesson. I didn’t need contribution to the band, musi­
anyone to tell me I was a good cally and other wise. Kelland
takes care of the business side of
person,” she said.
They soon married, and the band, getting and scheduling
Laney spent the first year at home the shows for the band. Crissell
while he worked. She’d never is the perfectionist of the band (ac­
done that before. She also began cording to his associates his phi­
to fear her own happiness and losophy is, “if it doesn’t play, it
became agoraphobic, afraid to pays.” Everyone in the band says
that Baker is the most improved
step outside her house.
musically
and he also inspired
“It was like watching myself
them
all
to
grow goatees (al­
from a distance. I was so afraid.
Here I was, crazy in love, and this though Nash shaved his off).
man just wanted me to be happy. Nash is the most musically tal­
It was new to me. I thought if I ented and knowledgeable (he’s
went outside, it would go away,” been playing his instrument
longer than anyone in the band).
she said.
The band started at Rex
But slowly, the anxiety dis­
Putnam
High School where
appeared, and now Laney is ex­
Kelland
and
Crissell met in P.E.
panding her horizons like the
class.
One
day
they discovered
ever-reaching branches of a Cali­
fornia Redwood. Her career goal that they both played the guitar
is to be a broadcast journalist. Her and decided to get together and
personal ambition is to make sure jam. Soon they recruited a drum­
her children and other Native mer named Clayton Anderson.
American children don’t experi­ Next they need a bassist, so they
ence the self-doubt she experi­ went were anyone who was look­
ing for a bassist would go,
enced much of her life.
Laney believes the keys to Denny’s. There they met Baker
making that happen are education
and pride in one’s heritage.
That’s why she’s president of
CCC’s Native American Club.
Jennifer Howcroft
Her two children attend the club
ASG Legislative Senator
meetings, and her oldest daugh­
In 1971, Oregon was the first
ter wants to start a club at Canby
state to adopt a bottle bill. The bill
High School.
stated that all beer and carbonated
“I want their adult life to be
beverage containers be subject to
different than mine was,” Laney
a deposit which would be re­
said. “I want them to get an edu­
funded upon return.
cation and a sense of who they are
The bill reduced roadside lit­
and where they come from. I
ter by 80 percent in its first two
want them to be proud of their
years and also reduced the amount
heritage.”
of landfill space taken up by re­
And Laney wants her daugh­
cyclable material.
ters to know that happiness is not
When Governor Tom McCall
what you own, but who you love
signed the bill into law, non-car-
and who loves you.
bonated beverages like Snappie,
“When I had material things,
Gatorade and Evian did not exist
I wasn’t any happier,” she said.
on the market.
“The times when I didn’t have
Now a coalition led by the
anything but my two kids in my
Oregon State Public Interest Re­
lap were among the happiest
search Group wants to add the
times in my life.”
photo by Matt Doran
Lynn Kelland, Sean Crissell, John Baker and Adam Nash
make up Lane Action Princess’.
and after coaxing him from the
band he was in at the time, they
finally got together to play. The
only problem was that Anderson
never came to practice, and in the
whole time that Baker and Ander­
son were in the band together they
never met. So now they had to
find another drummer, that’s were
Nash comes in.
Now they have been together
for two years. They have gone
from playing what they describe
as “crappy punk” to what they
now describe as “stripped down
rock and roll, with a twist.” Their
plans for this next year include
playing at least 20 shows, maybe
one at La Luna. They also want
to keep progressing musically and
not get stuck in a rut like most
bands do. Lane has just finished
recording a demo tape and for
only being together for two
years, it is an impressive album.
Musically their influences
range from Alice In Chains to
Jane’s Addiction. Lyrically
their topics range from being
hurt, to being poor, to their fam­
ily life. Even with these influ­
ences, they definitely have their
own sound and in a music scene
where most bands can’t make
more than two songs that sound
different (i.e.
Bush and
Candlebox) that is a big
achievement. With the progress
they have made in the past two
years, they should definitely be
on their way, with a little more
experience.
Coalition hopes to update Bottle Bill
non-carbonated drinks to the bill.
The coalition needs to collect
73,261 signatures by July 5 to get
the new bill on the November bal­
lot.
Over 24,500 signatures have
already been collected.
“I think environmental pro­
tection is a key element in
Oregon’s economic future. New
businesses come to Oregon be­
cause of our quality of life. Ex­
panding the Oregon Bottle Bill is
not only good stewardship of the
Earth, but it is good for our
economy,” said Senatorial Candi­
date Harry Lonsdale.
The problem with getting the
bill passed is that the grocers and
bottling companies are opposed to
it. They claim that the bill puts
an “unfair economic burden” on
grocers.
“In 1971, big business
claimed it wouldn’t work,” said
Ken Eschelman of ASG’s Envi­
ronmental Committee. “They
were wrong then and they are
wrong today.”
According to Eschelman, he
and many other students from the
Environmental Committee have
so far collected 303 signatures to
expand the bottle bill and will
continue to do so through Spring
term.
From Perry Alason to
tlie Brady Bundi!!
Open M-Th, 3-6pm; Fr-Sa, 9am-6pm; Sun, Noon-5pm.
Phone: 659-4919
16703 SE McLoughlin
Milwaukie, Or. 97267
(in the old Tax Service office)
Corner of Naef Rd. and McLoughlin
variety of shifts to fit a busy schedule. $8-$9/hour
and great benefits are part of our part-time
package. Package-handling positions require lifting
up to 70 lbs.
IF A PART-TIME JOB IS THE
SOLUTION TO YOUR TUITION EXPENSES,
CALL rte JOBLINE 800-382-0945
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦An Equal Opportunity Eaployar+♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦