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Time on the river is healing tim e Not
for those great wounds, the b itte r
fractures, but for those incessant small
abrasions, irrita tio n s and rashes that life
so abundantly provides
So, when the happy hour snacks at the
Local become only salt and oil and texture
on my tongue, when I begin to feel like a
hatchery trout, fins abraded by
confinement in narrow concrete canyons
and soul in enui from the constant company
of domesticated others. I head for the
rive r
I go, hoping cool currents w ill firm
flabby muscles and juicy river food wash
the taste of hatchery pellets from my
tongue
This is not the tim e for the big, famous
rive rs There l find, In different dress, the
same people I seek to escape It is time
for the litt le river
The lit t le river is near Newport Drive
up a road that soon turns to gravel, past
stands of second and third growth timber,
past abandoned homesteads w ith ancient
tw isted and bushy apple trees to a place
just inside a National Forest Here I turn
off the road down a narrow track to a fla t
spot beside the stream and park the
camper
Across the river is a cabin Its owner is
working in his garden He shades his eyes,
recognises the camper, waves and goes
back to his hoeing I’ve known him for
years He won't come vis itin g the firs t
night But the next day, when the sun is
high and he knows I'm loafing in the
camper, he comes
He comes bringing two of the strange,
crude looking flie s he ties from the
feathers o ff his own chickens The native
trout in the litt le river prefer them above
all others "Hey, the camp," he calls as he
wades the shallow r if f le and I turn the
heat on under the coffee
As we ve shared coffee and
conversations over the years, his iron grey
hair has changed to white, wispy scarcity
and my black to grey We both s t ill drink
it without cream or sugar and, "Yes, by
God," he II have a dollop of brandy in it Me
too
He talks enthusiastically of the birds
he's seen, a fascination of his "Who d ever
of expected an old logger like me to
become a bird watcher'?" He once said and
chuckled at the absurdity of it That was
the year I brought him Roger Tory
Petersen's Fleld Guide to Western Birds ’
By the next year he had their names in
Latin and mispronounced them without
embarassment Over all these years, we've
never exchanged names, or needed to
A fter an hour or a lit t le more he leaves
and that w ill be it for this v is it Later,
when the sun is o ff the water, I catch two
of the small, fe is ty trout from the stream
and have them for supper w ith a beer from
the cooler and two slices of good rye
bread
River food
BONDED
LICENSED
uns
Akvki»Ti .Likryi
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(ixln'l t a t '•! tiente.' did MZ”
DON PETRIE'S
ITALIAN FOOD COMPANY
613NW Third 265 FOOD
Nye Beach, Newport
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QUALITY TOOLS, INC.
2966 Hwy 101 N
Seaside. OR 97138
Cinnamon Ross,
Pizza by tha Sues
Muflms, Espresso
and Cookiat
230 N HEMLOCK
Ph. 4M-2S32
let I edge T J L Y
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Phone 4M 2 t<X)
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738-3074
I hate to be an alarm ist, but Portland's
chic and countercouture might want to
hide the children Yes
THF SQUARE
DANCERS ARE COMING!
Sure, go on and laugh What possible
harm could come from a few unnervingly
wholesome couples in gingham, straw
hats, arid off-the-rack clogs'? None, of
course It s when they gather in groups of
20,000 that things can get tw itchy, if not
entirely out of hand
C ritical mass, regardless how Norman
Rockwellian it might seem, Is s t ill
c ritic a l mass
To give you some inkling - - for the past
week, a caravan of motor homes from all
over the land has been streaming from
Independence, MO to the Washington County
Fairgrounds in Hillsboro Better there than
Waterfront Park, certainly But their final
destination is the Oregon Convention
Center where the 43rd Annual Square
Dance Convention w ill give horrible new
meaning to the verb to boogie'
Not laughing so hard now, are we?
The second largest army of
conventioneers ever to airdrop into the
latte capital of America (the record rests
w ith Rotary International, whose 1990 gig
brought 22,000 black belt networkers to a
town s t ill struggling w ith the principle of
the Rolodex), the gathering w ill bring
square (and round and clog and contra)
dancers from hotbeds as unlikely as
(s ittin g down, are we7) South Africa,
Japan, Taiwan and American Samoa
They are. apparently, everywhere
The convention is billed, small surprise,
as The World's Greatest Square Dance
Event" Eat your heart out, Woodstock II
There is no question," bubbled Gary
Grimmer, executive director of the
Portland Oregon V isitors' Association,
"that this is an amazing opportunity for
the city ‘
Interesting word, amazing
S till, it's good to look on the bright side
Which, in this case, pencils out to $ 15
m illio n for hotels, petticoats, Dr Pepper,
and chicken fried steak
On the very brightest side, the Satyricon
has no plans to book an alternative
accordion marching band for a three-day
pancake breakfast
Drop the seal ano back away slowly Hit
the beach, have we, campers'? Out from
the c ity for a lit t le melding w ith the
ecology and an excuse to wear s illy
clothes'? Captain Lindsay Ball, head of the
fish and game division of the Oregon State
Police (Jokes Aren't Us), has a teensy
suggestion
Keep your fushlugginer hands o ff the baby
seals
It seems that, having bought the t-s h irt
and the coffee mug, the legions of the
warm and fuzzily correct yearning to save
something are making their annual flu rry
of nasty mistakes
Listen carefully
Baby seals gazing w is tfu lly o ff to sea are
not hoping to be rescued by children w ith
sand buckets They re w aiting for mom to
come back w ith lunch Not only should you
not drag the litt le cuties, shrieking and
thrashing, to the nearest w ild life refugee
center, you should not so much as touch
them Contact w ith humans, whose scent
lingers long after they ve moved on to the
k ite shop, is the leading cause of seal
orphans
That's why there's a fine