COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL February 3, 2016
11A
B RASWELL
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with your Sweetie at the Village Green!
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Enjo ncing in
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F nge
Lou
Featuring:
Beef
Bourguignon,
Mahi Mahi
Veracruz &
Slow R
- oasted
Prime Rib
much different store that’s
long since become the site of
the Cottage Grove Community
Center.
Back then, Braswell, who was
born and raised here, was attend-
ing classes at Lane Community
College when he began bagging
groceries at Safeway,
and in the years since, he
said the people and expe-
riences that made the job
enjoyable back then have
kept bringing him back
for decades.
“Every time I thought
about doing something
else, I was offered a dif-
ferent job at the store or a little
more money, and here I am 50
years later,” Braswell said. He’s
quick to point out that a lot of
the little things about the way
business is done at Safeway
have evolved, though his inter-
actions with employees and cus-
tomers haven’t changed all that
much.
Of course, Braswell didn’t
spend his entire 50-year career
in Cottage Grove. For a 20-year
period between 1975 and 1995,
he worked at two Safeway stores
in Eugene, fi ve different stores
in the Portland area and a store
in Vancouver, Wash.
“When you’re an assistant
ing around the corner. This
week, Braswell said the store
is busy preparing for the Super
Bowl, and holiday gatherings
are the focus in November and
December. Summer brings a
packed event schedule to Cot-
tage Grove, and Braswell said
Safeway works to stock the
community’s needs for each of
them.
“We keep notes
on the past history
of such things,” he
said. “That’s the
— Safeway Manager nice thing about
Roger Braswell being here so long;
you can have ex-
pectations
about
didn’t want to leave,” he said, what’s coming next.”
adding that his father worked
Now, Braswell will concen-
at the Post Offi ce in Cottage trate on a new adventure, though
Grove for a comparable amount he said he has no big plan for his
of time. “I enjoyed my work retirement.
and the people I work with, and
“I’d considered going before,
that’s what makes it fun. And 50 but I thought, ‘We’ve got a lot of
years goes by a lot faster than work to do still, so I better stick
you might think.”
around,’” he said. “I haven’t re-
Like many effective manag- ally thought about what I’m go-
ers, Braswell gives much credit ing to do next.”
to his employees.
Braswell said his assistant,
“You try to help as a resource, Tim Glenn, will take over in
and a lot of times they’re the an interim capacity, though he
ones that come up with the solu- added that the company hasn’t
tion,” he said. “You give the best offered a long-term plan.
you can in the way of encour-
“I’m excited for him to get to
agement.”
do some of the things he hasn’t
At a major grocery store, had time for,” Glenn said.
there’s always something com-
"Fifty years goes by a lot
faster than you might think."
W ATERFALL
Continued from page 3A
Reservations recommended: 541-942-2491
manager, you get moved around
quite a lot,” he said.
Still, Braswell always wanted
to return to his hometown, and
when he was offered the oppor-
tunity to come back, he jumped
at the chance. And so a 50-year
career was born.
“I didn’t have a plan to work
here for 50 years, but I also
other commitments had a way
of cropping up to stall his prog-
ress.
“I started out writing it by
hand,” Bachelder said. “I’d fall
away from it for awhile, and it
got to the point that I’d basically
rewritten it a couple times. Then
not long ago my wife bought me
a laptop and said, “Ok, now why
don’t you get this thing done?”
Like any good husband, Bach-
elder obliged, and his fi rst book,
“The Wish and the Waterfall,”
was released Jan. 1. And as if
that’s not ambitious enough,
Bachelder said the second in
what could be a three or even a
multi-part series should be com-
plete by Christmas.
“The Wish and the Waterfall”
tells the story of a 14-year old
boy who’s fi nding himself in
trouble before relocating to a
small Oregon logging commu-
nity very much like Bachelder’s
hometown. There’s plenty of In-
dian lore and more to bring the
protagonist around and trans-
port him to another world where
anything could happen, and
there are plenty of “character
models” from Bachelder’s ex-
periences here that have helped
tell the tale.
“It’s a coming-of-age story,
and it’s not necessarily unique
as far as the concept goes,” Ba-
helder said. “But the book has a
life of its own, and it may grow
beyond where I had envisioned
it.”
Reviews for the novel have
been kind so far, and Bachelder
said another aspect of his own
adventure has been fi nding a
ine’s Day Spec
ia l
Valent
way to publish the book himself
through a Eugene publishing
company.
“You tell people you’re writ-
ing a book, and they say, ‘Oh,
that’s kinda nice,’” he said.
“Nobody ever really believes
you, but the day a lady handed
me a book with my name on the
cover, there was quite a feeling
of accomplishment.”
Along the way, Bachelder
said he’s become a better writer
with the passage of time, and
he’s expecting to be able to de-
vote even more time to writing
when he retires in July.
“The Wish and the Waterfall”
is available on Amazon and
Kindle and at local bookstores
the Bookmine and Books on
Main.
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Local Delivery Available
1 mile N of Delight V. School
80432 Delight Valley School Rd.
541-942-7672
J EWELRY
K NIVES
730 E. Main St. • 541-942-4249
Join us for
Fajitas for TWO
including Chocolate Lava Cake & 2 Drinks
$45.
00
EL TAPATIO
725 E. Gibbs Ave. • Cottage Grove
541-767-0467