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About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (July 21, 2004)
Page 16 Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, OR Wednesday, July 21, 2004 … Sonny Moore, owner of Sonrise Tile, a teacher’s aide at Lorna Byrne Middle School, a Little League coach, and outgoing president of I.V. Little League Where are you from? Southern California, born and raised. My parents actually came from San Jose, but moved to Southern California in 1963. I graduated from Cypress High School. I played left tackle offense for six years in junior high and high school and was the team captain. I was also on the student council. I was the president of our junior class. Junior high was 7th, 8th and 9th grades; kinda’ different than it is here. Any brothers and sisters? I am the baby of the family. I have three sisters, Becky, the oldest, Cindy and Colleen. My sisters used to dress me up. Colleen is a beautician by trade, and so I was her guinea pig. She always took me down and colored my hair or something. One time my hair turned green when she tried to color it. There are even some family photos with me dressed up with long hair and wigs; I was kinda’ like their dress-up doll. However, I grew up and got bigger than them, so they respect me now. We were al- ways rich in family life. My mom stayed home, and my dad worked for 30 years manu- facturing ceramic tile. He was the branch manager for a store in Anaheim, and I worked for him; that’s how I got interested in what I do today. Where do you work now? I’ve owned my own company, Sonrise Tile, since 1998. It hasn’t been a full-time thing yet, just supplementary. In ‘93, my wife, Lisa, and I moved to Portland with our family. Since I had experience working for a company called Dal Tile, a carpet company in Portland wanted me to help them expand into flooring and ceramic tile. Once I finished with that, I had the opportunity to work with Home Depot in ‘95. They had just started coming out with the big expo design centers. We had clinics during the day to teach home owners how to do different projects such as plumbing, flooring and other stuff. The high- light of that was the kids workshop on Saturdays. I think that is when I realized I wanted to work with kids. To see their faces light up when they finished their project was neat. Have you and your family taken many trips together? We went to Disneyland last year. I had been there before for my high school gradua- tion party, and since I grew up nearby, we pretty much spent every other day there. Our grad party was neat because they shut it down and all the high schools came. Instead of standing in lines for several hours, we got to run around and go on as many rides as we could. It was the first time my kids had been there though. I thought we’d go on some of the bigger rides, but we ended up on attractions like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Haunted Mansion. It was fun reliving my experience with my kids. One tradition I grew up with was go- ing to “A Night With Mr. Lincoln” before leaving the park. It always fascinated me; I would stare at that mannequin and wonder if it was real. It was neat watching my kids grapple with that too. How did you end up in Cave Junction? My grandma lived here since I was little. We used to come up on vacation all the time. After she died, we started coming down once a month from Portland to cut the weeds and clean up the place. My parents had purchased the property from her before she passed away with the intent to retire and move to CJ. I had always wanted to step out on my own and do tile work. My wife and I had talked about opening a place and came here in ‘98 with that idea. What attracts you to this area? Well, I have met a bunch of great people here. People said coming here from the city would be culture shock. It’s always been a dream of mine to go to a restaurant where peo- ple know you; you don’t get that in the city. I have an aunt here who is still living. My cousins, who grew up here and graduated from Illinois Valley High School, all moved away. They thought I was nuts to move here. They worked all their lives to get out; it’s just the opposite for us. We love living in such a close-knit community. In the city, there’s always a mechani- cal hum. When I came here, I remember hearing the crickets for the first time again, it was so loud. At first, it was hard to adjust to the silence; you could practically hear your heartbeat. You also don’t get to see the stars living in the city. Have you always been a family man? I kinda’ have to be. When my family names our kids, we always look at family names and want their names to have some connection with our past. I always go by “Sonny,” but my name is Glen. My father is Glen; I am the junior. My oldest child, Glen, is the third. I have three daughters too. My oldest daughter Cindy was named after my sister. Rachael is the middle child. Then there’s my daughter Aldon; named after my great-grandfather. What kinds of youth activities have you been involved with here? In September I’ll begin my third year at Lorna Byrne Middle School as a Title I teacher’s assistant. The first year I worked there, they were in the process of tearing down the old school and building the new one. In the past, they had always had the junior age Boys & Girls Club at the middle school and the younger ones at Evergreen, but they were both at Evergreen while the middle school was built. The following year, we wanted to start up the junior program again at the new middle school. I wanted to be a part of it and learn what it was about and how to organize the dif- ferent programs. I worked the whole summer as their team coordinator. This last school year, we developed the after-school program, “Homework Help House.” This summer, I decided not to work with the Boys & Girls Club because my tile work had picked up. However, my wife picked up the job and works with the club and helps at the front desk. I also coach Little League. What is your favorite flavor ice cream? Vanilla with fresh-picked blackberries. It’s just the best; to die for. We have a little blackberry patch on our property and we go down to Sucker Creek where there’s a ton of them. We usually make jam and pies, and what’s left over we pour on ice cream. - Interview and photo by Shane Welsh - Pickup and trailer block I-5 for 90 minutes A pickup truck towing a camp trailer overturned on Interstate 5 south, blocking both lanes of the freeway and the shoulders of the road about 8 miles north of Grants Pass for 90 minutes, said Oregon State Police. On July 16, at approxi- mately 10:43 a.m., a pickup truck driven by Phillip Shinar, 53, of Long B e a c h , C a l i f. , w a s southbound near milepost 67 near Hugo on the fast lane of I-5 when the trailer in tow began to fishtail as Shinar negotiated the downgrade, OSP said. His 2001 Toyota Ta- coma pickup truck flipped on to its left side, causing his 1985 25-foot Fleet- wood camp trailer to do the same. Both the pickup and the trailer came to rest across lanes of the free- way, said OSP. OSP, Oregon Dept. of Transportation, and Rural/ Metro Fire Dept. re- sponded. The crash re- quired two wreckers to upright the vehicles. Traf- fic was backed up 4 miles. Shinar extricated him- self from his vehicle and was transported by Ameri- can Medical Response to Three Rivers Hospital for medical evaluation. Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. - Benjamin Franklin - TUNEFUL - A small, but mighty crowd (top and left) attended a benefit for Illinois Valley Family Coalition at Taylor’s Sau- sage Country Store on Saturday, July 17. Prizes included those donated by Shop Smart, CJ Se- lect Market, and Oregon Caves Chevron. Michael Yanase, president of the coalition board, was master of ceremonies. ‘Sons of the Oregon Trail’ (bottom) played for the I.V. Chamber’s con- cert series on Thursday, July 15. ‘Tequila Mon- sters’ will play July 22. Police arrest caveman icon fire suspect David Gerette Wilson, 18, of Grants Pass, was arrested following an arson investigation involving the Caveman Statue, said Grants Pass Dept. of Pub- lic Safety (GPDPS). The fiberglass cave- man has stood on the cor- ner of Sixth and Morgan streets in Grants Pass for 33 years. It incurred fire damage July 4. On that evening, re- sponding GPDPS firefight- ers found the statue en- gulfed in flames. Although the fire was quickly extin- guished, the Caveman sus- tained heavy damage. Investigation revealed that the fire was caused by a road flare. Acting on information from citizens, GPDPS de- tectives “initiated Wilson’s arrest.” He was charged with second-degree arson and first-degree criminal mischief. is open Saturdays: 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Hours: Mondays - Saturdays 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. For more information phone (800) 922-1025