Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 8, 1992)
Page 2...The Eugene-Springfield Observer.. January 8,1992 Give Some Support Sexual Assault Support Services, a new Lane county non-profit agency, which provides crisis intervention, advocacy, and counseling for persons who have been sexually assaulted is seeking volunteers for the 24 hour crisis line. Those persons interested in volunteering are invited to attend a volunteer orientation W ednes day, January 15, from 7-8 PM at the S A S .S . office, 1659 Oak. The crisis intervention training runs, Friday evening, January 24, and Saturday and Sunday - January 25 and 26 from 9 am - 5 pm. For more informa tion call Erin at 484-9791. ADVANCED INVESTMENT CORP • We Buy Contracts Mortgages & Trust Deeds • We Make Loans on all types of Real Estate • Competitive Rates We can fund approved requests in 48 hours • We promise not to waste your time St. Mark C.M.E. Church 3995 W. 12th Avenue Eugene, Oregon Activities December: 15th Christmas program 29th M issionary Service 3:30 31st W atchnight Service Ja n u a ry : 12th Stewards and Stewardesses Annual Day 19 through 24th Revival F e b ru a ry : 9th Sr. Choir Annual Day M arch: 15th Oliver-Generations of Faith in Concert 29th Missionary Service 3:30 April: 12th Youth Choir Annual Day 26th Annual Chicken Dinner M ay: 17th Confirmation Service 31st Missionary Annual Day Ju n e: 14th Youth and Young Adult Sunday July: 12th Church Anniversary o f course all o f these activitites are in 1992 321 Goodpasture Island Road Eugene, Oregon 97401 Call Mike or Marty (503) 343-9714 A d v e r tise 1-800-824-4441 Four Oregon Representatives To Hold Health Care Town Meetings Across State The schedule of the January 14 m eet ings is as follows: 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.: Health Care Town Meeting with Representatives DeFazio, with guests AuCoin, Kopetski and W yden, at City Council Chambers, 777 Pearl, Eugene. YOUR. ALTERNATIVE GENERAL CONTRACTOR {Interior Specialties bari 7 war te, 6 S 7 -T 0 7 T • CarjxrtE-y ' fafcdais • Security * h ifo o m s S^ tems cue?«»» LIÇE.N5CP» &0NPEP • IN^UREP cugene- Springfield Ob server (USPS 959-680) The Eugene-Springfield Observer is a subsidiary of the Observer Publications Alfred L. Henderson Joyce Washington Publisher Operations Manager Gary Ann Garnett Business Manager The Eugene-Springfield Observer is published weekly by Exie Publishing Company, Inc. 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Portland, Oregon 97211 503-288-0033 • Fax 288-0015 Deadline for all submitted materials: Articles: Monday, 5:00 pm-Ads: Tuesday, noon p e r s p e c tiv e s I I by Professor McKinley Burt ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ Nostalgia: D01 Vt Leave Home Without It; Conclusion As we wrap up this trek along memory lane, it occurs to me (and others) that to a kid, living conditions described by soci ologists as traumatic are often only adventurous to youth. From the age of twelve, I remember a series o f moves, each deeper into the ghetto (whenever the rent became too far past due). But each time there was a new set o f interesting play mates and schoolm ates-each with its own distinctive approach to life, games and innovative economics. It may sound like a “ Theatre o f the A bsurd” as we recount these depression years, but, then you’re aware o f our capac ity to live it to the max. I was able to introduce my new and rougher playmates to some scenarios learned from that past (richer?) life; like going out to the huge “ Forest Park” in the center of the city with its free “ St. Louis Municipal O pera.” For 12 weeks each summer, this outdoor am phitheater featured productions that ranged from colorful operettas like “ The Student Prince and New M oon” to “ Show B oat” and other Broadway musicals. If one ar rived early before curtain time (sunset), enough golf balls could be retrieved in an adjoining area to pay for all the popcorn and soda pop. In turn I was introduced to startling plays from the ghetto “ Commedia del A rte.” One evening as we sat on the proj ect steps facing the second floor offices of a juke box distributor, we could hear the older boys trying to hammer open the safe. Failing in this, they pushed it out the w in dow onto the concrete driveway below. M iraculously it cam e open, spilling out w hat seemed like a million dollars in coins. For the next half hour an entire neighbor hood o f kids and housewives arm d them selves with pots and pans and began clean ing up the mess. Another time a front wheel cam e off the bus on Olive Street and the axle dug up a half block o f asphalt pavem ent-expos ing a sub strata o f creosote-soaked wooden paving blocks. The next morning the St. Louis Post Dispatch had a banner headline “ C ITY STREET STO LEN O V E R N IG H T!” Again, the neighborhood had gone to work and every baby carriage and kids wagon had been pressed into service to gather up this fu e l fro m heaven in the middle o f a bitter winter. In later years this area became the site for the “ W endell Pruit Project,” the first o f a series of disastrous experiments in building huge highrise apartments for the poor (W endell as a high school classmate o f mine who became famous in W orld W ar II was a flying ace with the 99th squardron from Tuskegee). Y ou’ve probably seen this project a number o f times on television as the entire six block complex was dem ol ished in 30 seconds with carefully placed explosives. The same Sumner High School, though a great learning place, was also the scene o f many a ludircous event. Like the time “ M cDunkin’s” father died and somehow the 16-year-old student received the $3000 cash from the insurance policy. Among other things he bought a new Ford and six suits which he kept in two adjacent lockers at school. He would change clothes before each class and before long “ Pretty M ac” had everybody s woman. This is the same high school where, as I’ve mentioned be fore, the father o f Bobby McFcrrin ’ ’ sang in our choir. We knew he was Metropolitan Opera material even before a girl jumped out of the balcony when he sang “ Goodnight My Love.” Evelyn survived and went on to have six kids. And at the same school in 1939, the Royal Canadian Air Force was soliciting those black youth (so good at math) for service overseas in the “ Battle o f Brit ain .” You got a huge salary for the times, 90 days o f training in Newfoundland and an opportunity to ferry your own plane over to England. You had to be 18 and my mother would not sign off for me, but Carl Cable, my best friend, went and when I met him again in Los Angeles 20 years later, he recounted his adventures. Sitting in the tavern he owned at W est Adams and Nor mandie, he said he still remembers coming to him self at 6000 feet over France in his Spitfire and atop all that high octane gaso line: “ Mama, what am I doing here? Pray for your child.” The kaleidoscope o f memory has too many images to record here. M other had a shirt-tail relative who lived across the river in East St. Louis in the 1920’s, “ Josephine Baker, ’ ’ who had gone to Paris and “ made good.” When the famous entertainer was here in Portland I went backstage to visit and she asked about “ G ladys” and my Aunt Marjorie. I can remember the early cumbersome braces thay had forchildren’s teeth. They had two tiny screws that held them in and because the kids at school called me brass m outh” I would tai»* them off when 1 left home and put them in my po ck et Predictably, I lost a screw one day and it took me to 11 p.m. to find it—so I got it anyway. Man, that woman was angry. From 1939 to 1943, I must have ac- cumalatcd a bale o f Postal Money Order receipts from money sent home while working on various railroad “ Extra Gangs” building and repairing tracks across the country: “ Decator, Illinois; Cheyenne, W yoming; Denver, Colorado, Pocatello, Idaho, Riparia, W ashington; Oakridge or Klamath Falls, Oregon; you name it, all interspersed with a myriad craft and labor jobs. A learning experience about people and folkways that cannot be duplicated. POSTMASTER: Send Address Changes to: Portland Observer, P.O. Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208. Second class postage paid at Portland Oregon. The Eugene-Springfield Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manuscripts and photographs should be clearly labled and will be returned if accompanied by a self addressed envelope. All created design display ads become the sole property of the newspaper and can not be used in other publications or personal usage, without the written consent of the general manager, unless the client has ßfuxut *7. Woàk Sb.M.îb. D E N T IS T R Y FOR ADULTS AND C H IL D R E N 5 0 3 /7 4 7 - 8 2 7 2 purchased the composition of such ad. © 1991 EUGENE-SPRINGFIELD A Commitment to Dental Excellence OBSERVER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN Good for one free Comprehensive Dental Exam PART WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. Expires 12-31-91 McKenzie Medical Center • Suite 2 0 3 e 9 6 0 N. 16th Street • Springfield. OR 9 7 4 7 7 T i- Subscriptions:$25.00 per year. M K i H M
