Feature
The CI ac I camas P rint
5
WedNEsdAy, OctobeR 11, 2000
DeLay reconnects with M-isle
1
MAGGIE JIRASEK
Feature Co-Editor
» \ One of Portland’s outstanding
i
i
blues musicians, Paul deLay, per
formed on campus September 28
¡for the Associated Student
Government’s barbecue to “Get
Out the Vote,” and met up with
an old friend he hadn’t seen in
more than ten years— Bob
Misley, life science instructor at
Clackamas.
“ In sixth grade Paul and me,
we were best friends,” Misley
stated. “Paul was such an incred
ible, unique person, even at an
¡early age. He came from such an
artistic background, you could
tell right away.”
DeLay and Misley attended
the same grade
[School
and
¡shared one big
hobby, their mu
sic. But they lost
touch with each
[other
when
Misley moved to
Estacada while
deLay went on to
Milwaukie High
School.
I “I ended up
moving away in sixth grade, and
¡only was able to keep in touch
with Paul as I followed his career
in the Portland music scene,”
Misley explained.
I “I know Paul has played in a
blues band culled Brown Sugar,
one of the first real blues bands
getting a lot of club work done in
the Portland area. He then went
on to play in numerous other
bands and he has recorded and
toured Europe.”
Playing in various local
groups throughout the 70’s, Paul
assembled the first version of
the Paul deLay Band in 1979.
While displaying an affinity for
Chicago blues, the deLay Band
has always mixed jazz and gos
pel into their sound, enhanced
by deLay’s amazing skills on the
chromatic harmonica.
Today, deLay, singer, harp-
player and songwriter, is re
garded as one of the world’s
most outstanding blues har
monica players and as a blues
artist on the way to his break
through.
The Memphis-based Blues
Foundation nominated him in
1999 for two
W.C. Handy
Awards- best
harmonica
player; and
best song (“14
Dollars in the
Bank,”
on
deLay’s new
CD: “Nice &
Strong”).
While deLay
was building a
name in music, Misley, who also
plays in a “surf-rock” band, pur
sued a career in education.
“Now, here is the strange con
nection,” Misley mused. “I
haven’t seen Paul for over ten
years. My son, who is now in
sixth grade, found this old pic
ture of Paul and me. He was just
looking through pictures down
at my mom’s house and he picks
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY THE DELAY FAMILY
Pau/ deLay, center, celebrates his sixth birthday with friends, including Bob Misley, future
life science instructor, left, at Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor in Portland.
out this picture, he brings it back
to me and says ‘Dad, who are all
these people?’; I looked at the
picture and I just got transported
in time. I was able to name every
person in the picture. Now what
does that say about memory of
events in the sixth grade? I can’t
even remember names of people
that I had in my class a year ago.”;
Not knowing that deLay
would be playing at Clackamas
only a week after the discovery
of the picture, Misley kept it, won
dering what would have happened
if he had not moved away and
deLay and he had stayed in touch.
“Maybe I would be part of his
band today, who knows,” Misley
wondered. “But when I found that
old picture there and saw that Paul
was playing at the college, I took
it up to him and, not letting him
know who I was, I put the picture
down in front of him and he did
almost the same thing I had done;
he pointed at the picture and said
‘That’s Bobby Misley’.”
Although deLay and Misley
haven’t seen each other for a long
time and have their own lives and
careers, they remember the friend
ship they once had.
“We are still friends,” said
Misley, “it’s just that both of us
have been so busy and we didn’t
really get to see each other a lot.
It’s the irony or the timing of my
son passing that picture to me and
then seeing a poster saying that
Paul is playing at the college that
has brought us together again.”
I Connections program Exchange program brings Costa
pians European trip Rican students to Clackamas
I_________ TAM OLIVER________
Feature Co-Editor
“Connections,” Clackamas’
■program for women, affiliated
■with the American Association
of Women in Community Col-
lleges, will meet Monday, Octo
ber 16 to plan its fifth European
■trip for women, at noon and 6
p.m. at the Community Center,
■room 217.
I The trip will take place around
I^mid-June of next summer and will
cost approximately $2300. It
consists of a 10-day educa
tional tour of London, Paris,
and the Swiss Alps and is
peantjo be introductory in
nature.
The trip organizers, Linda
Vogt and Carol Evans, have led
these tours every other summer
since 1991. According to Vogt,
they are designed to help women
“...see and do things they didn’t
realize were possible.”
Vogt explained, “We’ve dis
covered there’s a benefit in cre
ating this experience for women.
Often women haven’t traveled on
their own.”
Mothers, daughters, sisters,
and friends are encouraged to
attend one of the two planning
meetings to discover this safe
and affordable way for women
to travel. Extended travel op
tions will be available for those
interested.
MAGGIE JIRASEK
Feature Co-Editor
Clackamas will host retired
Costa Rican professionals Tues
day, October 17, as part of its
annual cultural exchange pro
gram, coordinated by Cariota
Holley, former foreign language
department chair and Spanish in
structor at the college.
Twenty Costa Ricans arrived
last Wednesday in Portland for
a month’s visit, sponsored by
the Oregon chapter of the na
tional organization Partners of
the Americas, the largest volun
teer organization in the western
hemisphere to foster and pro
mote Inter-American friend
ships, cooperation, understand
ing and social and economic de
velopment.
“The program is very impor
tant to me because it strength
ens our understanding and our
relations with South American
countries,” Holley explained. classes, will keep them busy.
“We get to understand one an
“We want to provide the stu
other better and we can develop dents an opportunity to meet with
our perspective.”
the visitors and
Within the orga
practice the lan
nizational frame
guage. There will
work of Partners ‘ This program is '
be a luncheon for
of the Americas,
the Costa Ricans
each state in the 'verf-^portai^wj'-. on Tuesday, Oc
U.S. is paired with me... it strengthens
tober 17, at the
one of the Latin
college, ” Holley
our relations with
American coun
said. “It’s a good
tries of Central South American
experience for the
America, South countries.
students as well
America, Mexico
as the visitors.
Cariota Holley
and the Carib
They have never
Former foreign
bean. Oregon is
seen a community
language chair
paired with Costa
college because it
Rica. To date, Or
doesn’t exist in
egon and Costa
Costa Rica.”
Rica are the only partners to have
Since the inception of the pro
pioneered a Retired Persons’ Ex gram, more than 600 individuals
change Program.
have participated in the cultural ex
The visitors will stay with local change. In January, a group of Or
families and varied activities, in egonians will travel to Costa Rica
cluding a visit to Clackamas’ Envi to experience some of that
ronmental Center and Spanish country’s culture and customs.
www.c tackamasHr i i? î. c a tn