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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (July 21, 2020)
B Tuesday, July 21, 2020 The Observer & Baker City Herald BOB’S THOUGHTS A Sampling Of Scrumptious Recipes BOB BAUM Olympic nuggets from an aging brain The Tokyo Olympics would just be getting under way this week had CO- VID-19 not struck. Now they’re delayed for a year. And it goes without saying that the Olympics are monstrous undertakings. The last ones to break even were the 1984 Los Angeles Games, coinciden- tally also the fi rst of the 10 Olympics I had the great pleasure to cover. What follows are a few behind-the- scenes nuggets from the seven Sum- mer Olympics I attended. I’m gonna remember them while I still can. Los Angeles, 1984 Los Angeles was a wonder for a small-town guy suddenly thrust into the heart of sport’s biggest stage. But before I moved on to the centerpiece event of track and fi eld, I covered weightlifting (yeah, really). I knew nothing about it but labored on. See Olympics/Page 3B BETWEEN THE ROWS WENDY SCHMIDT The value of a daily garden tour It’s amazing how much better things do when you water them! For years now I have suspected that the secret to having a green thumb is simply re- membering to water a little before the plant goes into stress from thirst. My persimmon tree was doing fi ne and looked healthy. Then I watered it and it looked more vibrant and grew a lot of new leaves. It is good to make daily garden rounds and critically examine your plants. It’s not easy to practice what I preach, but I’m getting better, gradually. Garden chores •Apply fi nal treatment for borers on hardwood trees. • Divide and reset oriental poppies after fl owering as the foliage dies • Blossom-end rot of tomatoes and peppers occurs when soil moisture is uneven. See Garden/Page 3B Huy Mach/St. Louis Post-Dispatch-TNS Halloween candy bark. C HOCOLATE : I T ’ S T HE U LTIMATE C OMFORT “It was the only time in my life that choco- late didn’t help,” she said. Many years ago, before we ever started And that was the moment I fell in love dating, the woman who became my wife told with her. me the tragic story of a horrible weekend “Comfort me with apples,” says the Song of conference. Solomon and Ruth Reichl. They have a point. She was a reporter at the time, and she Food has the power to comfort and console. It was sent to a journalism conference a couple wraps us in its warmth, it swathes us like an of hundred miles away. She went with an- old blanket. other reporter from the same paper, and that There is a reason they call it comfort food. was the problem. It brings us to a better and happier state of This man was odd. He was very odd. Even mind. among journalists, a profession that tends to The woman in the Song of Solomon is attract weirdos, deviants and social misfi ts, lovesick; she seeks consolation in pressed he was an oddball. We would get together in raisin cakes and apples. I appreciate the little groups (weirdos in one corner, deviants sentiment, but I’m not entirely on board with in another, social misfi ts in a third) and talk her choices. about how strange he was. When I was lovesick in my youth, my com- And it wasn’t an endearing sort of oddness, fort foods were ice cream and Doritos, though either. A lot of journalists have that. His was not at the same time. When I was lovesick as the sort of annoying oddness that you did not an adult, my comfort foods were ice cream want to be around for very long. and alcohol. Sometimes at the same time. Which brings us back to the long-ago Doughnuts too, of course. Doughnuts are a weekend my future wife spent with him at constant. That’s the problem with not being the conference. They were in each other’s lovesick: not enough excuses to eat dough- company for far longer than she liked. He nuts. was making her crazy. We all have foods that we turn to in times Then, a heavy mountaintop snowstorm on of sorrow and need. It’s why we bring food their drive back delayed their return for one to people who are mourning. It’s why we try more night. It was more than she could take. to cheer up friends by taking them out to The next day, before they set out for the fi nal dinner. leg of their trip, she decided to treat herself to When I am beset by sadness, doughnuts a badly needed hot fudge sundae. do not make me feel all better, but they By Daniel Neman St. Louis Post-Dispatch make me feel a little better. Or at least they don’t make me feel worse. Perhaps a second doughnut would help. Chocolate always works for my wife and a lot of other people I know. If I had known enough to give more chocolate to more wom- en, I might not have been lovesick as often. And then I would have needed less ice cream. But now, my wife admits, she is moving away from her beloved chocolate. Her new comfort food is salted caramel. STRAWBERRY CHOCOLATE TART Yield: 8 servings 2 tablespoons whole almonds 2 tablespoons confectioners sugar 1 pinch salt ½ stick plus 2 tablespoons (6 tablespoons total) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces, divided 3 eggs, divided ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose fl our 2 tablespoons cocoa powder 3 pounds fresh strawberries, washed and trimmed, divided ½ cup granulated sugar 7 ounces bittersweet chocolate ½ cup heavy cream See Chocolate/Page 2B A mystery of history: The building at 1501 Madison By Ginny Mammen The name of the person who con- structed the building at 1501 Madi- son is a mystery, but most likely it was built by Charles E. Harris, born in 1891. His parents were Franklin and Maria Harris, who had come to Illinois from Canada. When Charles was a very small child the family moved to La Grande where his father, known as Frank the Art Man, established the “Gift Shop” in downtown. In 1920 Charles was clerking in a local retail art store which was about the time Frank had sold his business to re- turning soldier Harley Richardson. Photo by Ashley O’Toole Shortly after his father sold the store, Charles turned cabinet maker, The ghost sign at 1501 Madison St. in La Grande. becoming the proprietor of his own shop called La Grande Construction windows as well as custom cabinets woman with two teenage children. & Supply Co. at 1501 Madison. The for La Grande homes. In less than 15 years Charles shop provided screens for doors and At age 34 he married Marie, a was divorced and living with his parents. Sometime in the 1940s he re- married and he and his new wife, Lucille, settled into the house at 1505 Madison. No records were found for children of Charles. Charles lived a quiet life in La Grande, unlike his father and other men about town we have learned about in previous articles. He was a carpenter and a hard worker who remodeled numerous houses and downtown buildings. In addition to his shop at 1501 Madi- son he owned the building at the corner of Greenwood and Jefferson. D.D. Miller purchased this building and moved his cabinet shop into it in 1942. An untimely end came for Charles, age 59, in September of 1950. He was visiting with a couple of neighbors in their backyard and enjoying a bit too much wine. Apparently another neighbor, named Avery Green, who lived across the back fence, came out to pick cucumbers in his garden and started using profane language. What started as a verbal fi ght with name-calling erupted into a full- blown fi st fi ght that moved to the front of the house where Charles was knocked down and his head hit the sidewalk. He was taken to the hospital, where he died as a result of a cerebral hemorrhage. We would probably never have learned of Charles E. Harris or his untimely end if not for the need to know about the ghost sign appearing above the door at 1501 Madison. The ghost sign on the Greenwood side of the building is still one of history’s mysteries. Keep looking up. Enjoy!
