A photo, from Jimmy Carter's Visit to Mt. Hood Community College, 3 November, 1978

 The limousine, carrying President Jimmy Carter, at Mt. Hood Community College (Gresham, Oregon); 3 November, 1978 (the photo was either by me, or by mom). -JF

The Davidson Monument, Oregon Caves (postcard)

Vintage real photo postcard. The Davidson Monument, Oregon Caves, Oregon.

Portland in the Shortest Month, in 1993

Chinatown Gateway

Chinatown Gateway Lions

Cameron's Bookstore, and adjacent business of the day

At the Japanese American Historical Plaza

Photos by JF, taken in Portland, Oregon, February, 1993.

2017 Eclipse, Madras, Oregon

Images of totality I captured during the total solar eclipse, August 21, 2017, Madras, Oregon. The flash washed me out in the selfie shot, but I like the "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite" tone overall. The skies might be out of a John Martin painting. In spite of the doomsday forecasts of media and government, matters associated with the event mostly rolled smoothly. The night before the occultation, I missed my shuttle bus and walked at night up into the hills, where I had my camp (of sorts). Crickets shrilled in the sagebrush, beneath the vast rush of the Milky Way.

On my return, I did get stuck in nine hours' worth of traffic, on what would normally have been a two-hour drive. Someone driving past me the other way, going east, taunted me with "there's a hundred-mile traffic jam in front of you!" The slow drive did give me the opportunity to witness some samples of landscape one normally wouldn't have time in; but it was tedious as well.

On the way back, I also stopped for dinner in Warm Springs, Oregon. I hadn't been in that area in general in central Oregon, for a long spell.

Newport, Oregon

"Though we know her a lifetime, she must always hold an alien air, as if something too vast to have shape were lurking in the universe to which she is a door." -- from The Night Ocean, R.H. Barlow  & H.P. Lovecraft. The prose poem took place by a different ocean, but the same principle applies.

 

The revered Mo's Restaurant, in Newport. I entered their establishment today, for the first time in a long spell. No more photo of Robert F. Kennedy's visit on the wall.

 

Outside a bar

 Looks as if "Pops" Flea Market has lost some of its luster. Two raccoons, awake in the daytime on the side of the place, glared at me. I tried to get a photo, but they tore off into a trench by the building, then stopped, still standing as if they might charge me.

Photos by JF, 19 July, 2015.

Eugene, Oregon 2014

Norma Bassett Hall, 1889-1957

Last week a few days unfolded for me in Eugene, Oregon. Inexplicably I had kept away from the city for almost a quarter century. Put four of those units together and you're in the World War I era. 

The chief reason I traveled to Eugene was to attend a talk by Dr. Joby Patterson on my ancestor Norma Bassett Hall. The day also included a guided walk through the exhibition of Hall's work at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene, and coincided with the release of Dr. Patterson's book on the artist. That day signaled the culmination of a process which began (as far as my involvement went) nearly a decade earlier, when I saw an Antiques Roadshow segment involving the acquisition of a Hall print at a Goodwill store. (And no, Arthur W. Hall wasn't a "Scottish fellow.") In response to the episode, I sent the following email to The Oregonian newspaper, on April 27, 2005:

I would have enjoyed Inara Verzemnieks' "Road Show reappraisal," (April

24, 2005) for its clear depiction of what antiques and collectibles can

bring out in people; and for its description of a "Antiques Roadshow"

shoot.  But I was also interested in the article, since Norma Bassett

Hall is my great-great aunt.  Although I have been aware of Hall and her

prints for a long time, Verzemnieks' piece has led me to find out more

about my ancestor.

On May 10, 2005 I contacted the author of the newspaper article mentioned in the email. Through her I met Dr. Patterson. I have indeed, almost ten years later, "found out more about my ancestor" through her tremendous efforts.

Dr. Joby Patterson, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, August 23, 2014, with slide of the Cottage in Skye print.

It behooved me to locate the student housing-type building where I lived for two years while attending UO. It abides, like a Pequod of the dry docks.

I set out on a walk through the spokes of the sun's heat to view the memorial statue to Ken Kesey, The Storyteller. Ken had another visitor that day.

Fruit Trees in Bloom, Grants Pass, Oregon (1909)

 

 

 

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grants_Pass,_Oregon

 

Eagle Cap and Glacier Lake, Oregon

 

 

 

 

Arch Rock, Mackinac Island, Mich.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Postcard of Arch Rock on Mackinac Island, Michigan :  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_Rock_(Mackinac_Island) sent to Exel LeDuc 106 years ago in Prescott, Oregon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prescott,_Oregon (see post of 3 January 2013 for another card sent to her).

 

Text:

 

Dear friend I just got (back) from St - Paul the 3rd and got your kind letter and cards.  I am back working out of the (?).  I miss you very much come back soon

 

I think you are a lonesome girl

yours very truly

 

J. (?)