Small town grows on exchange student
Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, June 29, 1994 - FIVE
Puppet production July 6 & 7
The Oregon puppet Theatre
will bring its new production of
a classic Japanese folktale to
Heppner Wednesday July 6 at
2:30 p.m. and Boardman on Ju
ly 7 at 2 p.m. Both productions
will be held at the public libraries.
“ Urashima Taro and the Sea
Princess” is the story of a poor
young fisherman who travel on
the back of a huge tortoise to the
underwater Dragon Palace.
Welcomed by the Sea King with
a banquet, elegant clothing and
the most beautiful gardens in the
world, Urashima also finds love.
He and the Sea Princess (the tor
toise transformed) spend three en
chanted days together. But
Urashima returns home only to
discover that, in fact, 300 years
have passed. At his home village
Urashima opens a memento from
his beloved princess and ages
instantaneously.
The production is an interna
tional collaboration. Bruce
Chesse, Oregon Puppet Theatre
artistic director, created the carv
ed rod puppets using designs sug
gested by the classic Japanese
printmaker, Utamaro. Japanese
puppeteers Mieko Katagiri and
Mineko Arashi created the
St. Patrick’s
Senior Center
Bulletin Board
By Anne Morter
Puppet show to be in Heppner
authentic costumes. They and
other members of their Sapporo
based theater group also painted
the traditional scroll scenery
which unfolds across the stage
background. Authentic music,
props, full stage lighting and ad
ditional scenery in the form of
Shoji screens help to bring the
story to life.
Chesse first met his Japanese
colleagues while touring in Japan
in 1988. He says “ Working with
these exciting artists is something
I have wanted to do for a long
Ninety-six people, including four guests attended the senior din
ner at the St. Patrick Senior Center June 22. Eight meals were taken
out. Ed Hunt won the meal ticket, Julia Hill the door prize and Lin
da Heath received the guest prize. Members of the Episcopal Church
served. The meal site committee met following the dinner.
The menu for July 6 will be lasagna, carrots, tossed salad, whole
wheat rolls, peach cobbler with topping and juice. Members of the
First Christian Church will serve. The Meal Site Committee will meet
following the meal. The hearing aid representative will be at the center
along with the health nurse to take blood pressures and Home Health
for foot care.
Dot Halvorsen took seven ladies on a bus ride in the country Fri
day morning. Dot and Flossie Watkins made the trip interesting by
pointing out interesting spots and telling who lived on each ranch
the group passed by.
There were not enough card players among the eight people who
gathered in the rec room Friday afternoon so the afternoon was spent
visiting and working on the puzzle.
Eight people watched the movie “ Wilderness Family” Sunday
evening.
The bus will travel to Milton-Freewater Fri.. July 1. Anyone
wishing to go to lunch at the meal site there may sign up at the senior
center office or call 676-9030. Suggested donation tor the bus is $2.50
per person.
The bus will travel to Arlington July 12. Suggested donation is
$2.50 per person.
Beulah Ogletree was the guest of honor at a surprise party at the
senior center. She celebrated her 89th birthday Monday. June 27.
The party was given by her brother and sister-in-law Bud and Har
riet Batty. Floss Watkins made the cake. Approximately 40 friends
and relatives attended.
Dates to remember: Tues.. and Thurs.. exercise. 10a.m.; Wednes
day, dinner, noon; Friday cards, 2 p.m.; Sunday movie. 7 p.m.
Bridal Tables
Regina Mosen & Michael Mills
Wedding - July 9, 1994
Rachel Norton & Brian Roth
Wedding July 30, 1994
tv
217 North Main
(if-
Heppner
time. Their own shows are very
impressive, and this production
blends two classic puppet theater
traditions.”
Chesse and his partner Susan
Barthel founded the Oregon Pup
pet Theater in 1983. They have
performed throughout the United
States, Scandinavia, Micronesia
and Puerto Rico. Besides a reper
tory that includes “ The Ugly
Duckling” , “ The Elves and the
Shoemaker” and "The Lion and
the Mouse” , they produce giant
parade puppets and theme pup
pets used in video and commer
cials. They have carried out ma
jor projects for the Carnegie Art
Museum,
the
Oregon
Shakespeare Festival, the Army
Corps of Engineers and the Na
tional Park Service.
The two performances in Mor
row county are sponsored by
Oregon Trail Library as part of
its “ Catch the Wave-Read"
summer reading program.
Library director, Wendell Buck,
says, ” 1 am delighted that the
library can bring such an exciting
event to our communities. It pro
mises to be one of the highlights
of our summer program.” In
Heppner the summer reading pro
grams begin at 1:45 p.m. and the
puppet show will begin about
2:30.
WCCC Golf
Ladies 9 hole Invitational
Ju n e 28
Low gross of the field: Sharon
Gordon, Canyon Lakes and
Eileen Padberg, Willow Creek.
Flight A: low gross, a five way
tie at 39 between Marilyn
Willems, Canyon Lake, Merl
Hayes, Lower Valley, Lois Hunt,
Anita Boyer and Pat Edmundson,
all Willow Creek.
Low net: a tie between
Marvene Lovato, Sun Willows
and Jan Paustian, Willow Creek.
Flight B: low gross a five way
tie between Johnny Berst. West
Richland, Helen Mitchell, Ca
nyon Lakes, Janet Taylor,
Pendleton Country Club, Pearl
Koch, Lower Valley and Karen
Thompson, Willow Creek.
Low net: a tie between Mamie
London Canyon Lakes and
Laurie Duncan. Tri-Cities.
Flight C low gross: Pear
Hamilton, 46, Walla Walla; low
net-Judy Ackley, 17, LaGrande.
Flight D: low gross, Marla
Fox, 47, Canyon Lakes.
KP Flight A: Jan Paustian:
flight B-Helen Fenner, Walla
Walla,; flight C-Doris Graves,
Willow Creek.
Long drive Flight A-Meryl
Hayes,; flight B-Eldera Cross.
Canyon Lakes, flight C-Gwen
Hayes. Sun Willows.
Chip ins: #2, Freda Herron and
Helen Mitchell; #3 Anita Boyer;
#7 Lorena Jones and Bea
Wingent; 08 Marla Fox; 09
Johnny Berst.
"Y oil Make A Difference "
Morrow C ounty Medical Services wishes to thank the following PMH staff
fo r their com m itm ent in providing quality health care services
to the residents o f M orrow County:
In one of the first conversations
between exchange student Lars
Krecthing and his hosts for the
past year. Butch and Helen
Heideman, Lars inquired about
the population of this strange,
new place called lone. When
Helen replied “ 300” , Lars
waited several seconds for her to
finish, and much to his surprise
she already had. The population
was not 300,000 but just plain old
300. And he noted with a grin
that the official population is
stated as a mere 245 on the
“ Entering lone” signs, hinting
that Helen had fudged slightly on
her population statistics. “ I didn’t
know there were towns this size.
I’ve never seen one this small,”
says Lars. But with a couple of
months to prepare before leaving
for lone last August, he says he
was as ready as he could have
been for a year in rural America.
Now as he returns to his native
Germany this week, he allows
that maybe, just maybe he grew
to like it here. “ I don’t know if
I want to go home or not,” he
said.
Lars, age 17, spent the last 10
months as an ASSE exchange stu
dent. attending lone High School
and learning about farm life. He
comes from the town of Nottuln,
Germany, which would be con
sidered small by German stan
dards with a population of about
15,000 people. Nottuln is located
about 17 miles from Munster, the
city where lone student, Heidi
Orem, spent the 1992-93 school
year. Munster is a fairly major ci
ty with a population of a couple
hundred thousand.
Back in Germany, Lars has two
brothers, Jens, age 19 and Sven
age 11, and a sister, Nina, age
15. His parents Rita and Ludger
own a trucking company that
moves freight all over Europe.
With two years of schooling re
maining and a mandatory one-
year stint in the military waiting
for him, Lars doesn't know if he
will follow the family footsteps
into the transportation business,
but it seem it’s a definite
possibility. For the time being his
plan is “ to go to school as long
as possible.”
Lars decided to become an ex
change student after reading
about the program in a magazine
that he found. “ I asked my
parents and they said it was OK.”
he says. He then remembered that
it was only OK with half of his
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parents. He says that the plan
sounded good to his dad but his
mom took some major convinc
ing. He applied to the ASSE Stu
dent Exchange program with a
couple of friends, one who went
to Texas and the other to Illinois.
Lars noted that being assigned to
different parts of the country was
good because they were more in
clined to get out and meet peo
ple in their host communities. He
also thought that if he was within
visiting range of his friends, he
might be inclined to speak Ger
man all the time and not work on
his English. As it turns out, at
least two people at lone High
School, Heidi Orem and another
exchange student, Thomas
Voegeding, could converse in
German. But Lars used his year
well and improved his already
fluent English even more.
Lars had a busy year at IHS,
playing football in the fall,
basketball in the winter and track
in the spring. With prior soccer
experience, he held down the
kick-off duties on the varsity team
and tried a few punts on JV. His
noteworthy 6’8” height came in
handy in basketball where he saw
both JV and varsity action. One
highlight of the season was a
dunk during a game. In track, he
fed the team in all of the meets,
winning the pole vault, javelin
and high jump at distict and ty
ing the state record in the high
jump at the state meet with a jump
of 6’6” . Due to more misses, he
finished second at state.
Besides sports, he discovered
a love for fishing. He and host.
Butch Heideman. enjoyed
Cleaning the mini park
* 7 $ v'N fc ¿
North Lex Livestock 4-H club members picked rocks and rak
ed the area of the new mini park recently. This was part of
a community service project. Their leader is Stacey Wainwright.
“We aim to please the ag-based customer\n
Complete Service &
Maintenance on:
We now do repair work on air
conditioners end reefer units
Housekeeping
Russ Hickerson
Housekeeping
M arie Van Etta
Housekeeping
numerous fishing outings. On
most occasions, he caught more
fish than Butch, a fact he liked to
rub in if given a chance. While
on the senior class trip to the
coast, he also got the chance to
go deep sea fishing, another ex
perience that he enjoyed. Lars
took part in other new adventures
during his stay in lone such as
snowmobiling, water skiing and
four-wheeler riding, but he
managed to avoid the almost
mandatory exercise of riding a
horse.
Despite his initial misgivings,
Lars enjoyed his year in lone.
After his experience, he thinks
that small towns might be even
better than big ones for exchange
students because of the oppor
tunities to become involved. “ He
thought it was very nice,” com
mented Helen. She said Lars was
amazed that everyone seemed to
know him and would say hello on
the street. She noted the hardest
parts for him were getting used
to the wide open spaces and adap
ting to driving everywhere. In
Germany, Lars was used to walk
ing a short distance to the grocery
store or bakery. Living with the
Heidemans 17 miles out of town
meant nothing was a short
distance away.
Living with the Heidemans
might have seemed a little out of
the ordinary at first due to their
age difference. Butch and Helen
have grandkids at lone High
School. But according to Helen.
Lars adapted very well to their
lifestyle and “ fit right into our
family.” She did admit that get
ting back in the swing of catching
the bus and fixing lunches was
different at first but it didn’t take
long to find a routine.
Lars returned to Germany this
week, leaving behind the
sagebrush for the breathtaking
landscapes of his homeland As
the senior class he graduated with
goes their separate ways, he
returns to his old friends and two
more years of school. But he
takes many memories of the peo
ple he met and the places he
visited. One can almost hear him
now, telling his friends about this
place that was almost too small
to believe.
Lars visited lone through the
ASSE Student Exchange pro
gram. ASSE originally provided
student exchanges between the
U.S. and Scandanavia but has
since expanded to 35 offices in 28
countries. They accommodate
over 50,000 students and host
families each year. Cathy
Halvorsen is the area represen
tative. She may be reached at
422-7107 or through the regional
office at 1-800-733-2773.
LIFE
Insurance
S.H.L. TRUCK REPAIRS, INC.
* Ford Diesel 6.9 & 7.3
Engines.
* Dodge Diesel Cummins
Engines
Judy Davis
.
Lars clears the high jump bar
567-1753
200 Oldfield St., Hermiston
(Behind Copeland Lumber on Hwy 395)
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