4A • June 12, 2015 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com
Finding wonder in the commonplace
I
t’s refreshing to hear a speaker
who doesn’t use a PowerPoint
presentation and marks his
place in a book by sticking Post-
its on the page.
At the Seaside library in late
May, educator, naturalist and pho-
tographer Neal Maine delivered
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Public Library. Maine, a science
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utive director of the North Coast
Land Conservancy, guided the au-
dience to re-discovery, turning the
commonplace around us into an
illumination of nature.
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ed wisdom from Maine’s words
that night:
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be to arrive where we started and
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more to see how we can solve
problems and what their solutions
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suggesting that teaching high
school biology was a really bad
idea, that biology is something
that might work later, but people
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which is the integrative process
of living things in their environ-
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study hydrogen, but there would
be no clue that when you link
them they would make something
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gent property,’ in this case, doesn’t
make water. It’s the cake theory:
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baking soda, all their properties —
but you couldn’t ever make cake
from that. Those emergent prop-
erties are so fundamental to every-
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forest. And yet the forest has been
translated into trees. The forest is
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S EEN FROM S EASIDE
thing you don’t like. It’s a function
of the whole system itself —land,
water, air, the whole bit. Being a
community member means stay-
ing out of harm’s way, but also
celebrating the natural phenome-
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pages, it is my aim to stimulate,
not to satisfy curiosity. And it is
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readers the labor of observation
It’s refreshing to hear a
or of thought. Labor is life, and
death lives where power lives un-
speaker who doesn’t use a
used. The self is the schoolmaster
PowerPoint presentation and
whose lessons are best worth his
marks his place in a book by
wages. The power most important
to cultivate and hardest to acquire
sticking Post-its on the page.
is seeing what is before him: sight
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pens to have trees as one of its I’m sure that’s what Neal Maine
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would want you to do. As our
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low it for a year, and see what hap- more chaotic, as natural forces
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rule human decisions, his tutelage
‡³%HLQJDFRPPXQLW\PHPEHU may be lead us to a response that
goes beyond attending city coun- is both sane and secure. Listen to
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R.J. MARX PHOTO
Neal Maine and North Coast Land
Conservancy Executive Director
Katie Voelke at the Seaside Public
Library.
The event was presented by
the North Coast Land Conservan-
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Council in partnership with the
Seaside Public Library and sup-
ported by the Seaside Chamber of
Commerce. To them we are grate-
ful!
Scene and Heard  CLAIRE LOVELL
Meeting friends — old and new — in the community
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cle from the San Francisco
Chronicle about the battle-
ship USS Oregon. It was
reminding us that she was
instrumental in getting our
country to build the Panama
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Spain, the Oregon sailed
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to Florida, a distance of
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the Canal. I remember as a
teenager when brother Rudy
took me to see that ship on
the Portland waterfront. It
was impressive.
One Friday, I took a cab
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too cheap to ride both ways,
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plantar fasciitis is physically
challenging, and took a long
time. I found that when I’m
walking, old buildings are
easier to identify. Just touch-
ing their edges makes them
familiar, like the Seaside
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ater, for instance.
I met two ladies from
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the sea breeze and found
it invigorating while I was
cold! Cold! Cold! I met three
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too; one Lady who recog-
nized me and lives with her
husband, I think in the for-
mer Ballhorn house. They
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Jandrall house, which has
contractor working for her
who interested me. It was
an informative though tiring
walk. The recognizability of
the path came back to me as
I avoided familiar depres-
sions in the pavement and
spots where it grabs the soles
of my shoes and threatens to
throw me over.
Thursday night was fortu-
itous. My friend Emmy and
I went to Kentucky Fried
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CLAIRE LOVELL
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by where American Pharaoh
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tering things to say about ² QRW ³0\ 2OG .HQWXFN\
having read my column for )ULHG &KLFNHQ´ ,W ZDV D
25 years.
great day.
Near my home, I met a
Can you imagine thou-
former British nurse Jen- sands of turkeys having
nifer, because she had a their temperatures taken and
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somewhere in the middle
west or wherever they hang
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way off, but we hope they
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up by then. If you’re talking
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May 7, I walked to
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fast. It was our usual enthu-
siastic program with heart-
felt singing, prayers from
almost every pastor in town
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to today’s living plus a solo
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ganizer, replacing Carroll
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Carroll was recognized for
her faithful role in previous
service for the prayer break-
fasts. I think it’s a wonderful
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have a great, stick-to-you-
ribs breakfast, though, for
me, there’s never enough
time to eat, but we need to
be through in two hours for
regular business. Thank you
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all appreciate it. I’m sure the
prayers were helpful to heal
our land as well. I met sev-
eral new people and a nice
tablemate, Renee, who gave
me a ride home.
Laugh line:
P.S., have you heard
about the cross-eyed teach-
er who couldn’t control her
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Obituaries
Courtney Ostlund
Scandinavian Court
Feb. 22, 1957 — June 1, 2015
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lund passed away peace-
fully at his home in As-
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the age of 58. Courtney
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Cynthia Qualey Ostlund
in Camp Pendleton, Calif.
As a young teenager,
he went overseas with
his dad to Japan twice. In
high school he restored a
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first developed his enthu-
siasm for cars. Courtney
then moved to Reno, Nev.,
where he learned to make
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pionship belt buckles he
car salesman, he was able
to make a lot of friends,
including his wife Brita.
Courtney and Brita got
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wife, Brita Ostlund, and
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was preceded in death by
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A celebration of life
service will be held on
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Courtney Ostlund
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som Mortuary in Astoria,
with a reception to follow.
made.
Please
visit
www.
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to
back to Astoria, Ore., hughes-ranson.com
where he got back into his leave memories and sign
love of cars; as an avid the guest book.
Steven Thompson
June 7, 1965 — July 18, 2014
R.J. MARX PHOTO
Senior Miss Sweden Kristina Kjellberg, Senior Miss Denmark Meisha Boettcher, Miss
Scandinavia Abbie Johnson, Senior Miss Norway Leah Talen and Bev Hoofnagle of the
2015 Scandinavian Court at the Twisted Fish Chamber of Commerce breakfast Friday,
May 29. They are participants in the Astorian Scandinavian Midsummer Festival, from
June 19 to June 21.
A year ago this July
we lost our beloved son,
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ven was a son, brother
and uncle to us.
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friends and family. A fit-
ting resting place. It was
the place where he was
the happiest, working
on boats and being close
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hind his mother, Mar-
ga Mueller; his father,
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Thompson his brother;
and his niece, Chelsea
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him until we are ulti-
mately reunited again in
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Steve, until we meet
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Steven Thompson
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and dismayed when I see
the Seaside Safeway su-
permarket now display-
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screen-printed shirts.
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owners of good quality
shirt stores who make their
living being in the souvenir
shirt business. These stores
offer quality merchandise
at very competitive pric-
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stores owned by locals
who live and work in our
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es, support our schools and
make generous contribu-
tions to our city.
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town of local business
owners who live here year-
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decide to be in competition
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market. I would suggest to
their local and corporate
management to rethink
their decision to sell sou-
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our community.
Marty Gill
Gearhart
Letters to the Editor
Seaside, pick
up your butts
To the Editor:
Oregon Revised Statutes
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A person commits the
crime of offensive litter-
ing if the person creates an
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grades the beauty or appear-
ance of property or detracts
from the natural cleanliness
or safety of property by in-
tentionally:
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iting any rubbish, trash, gar-
bage, debris or other refuse
upon the land of another
without permission of the
owner, or upon any public
way or in or upon any pub-
lic transportation facility.
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the ground is considered
offensive littering and is
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I picked up this morn-
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morning) had the possibili-
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erator! The City of Seaside
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per year for litter removal.
They will walk the streets
of Seaside this summer and
pick up thousands of butts.
Fines for the butts I picked
up this morning would
cover the cost of contract-
ed litter removal for over a
year!
Cigarette butts are not
only an obvious eyesore,
but they get washed into
the storm drains and out
into our waterways. Re-
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percent of cigarette butts
are disposed of property
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storm drains is tobacco
products.
I’m not advocating that
every cigarette tosser be
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smokers be more diligent
about disposing of their
butts. It’s our town, let’s
keep it clean!
Patrick Duhacek
Seaside
Support local
businesses
To the editor,
Let’s support locally
owned businesses. As the
former owner of a Sea-
side tee shirt and sweat-
shirt store for more than