Background: Originally published October 4, 2006. This is one of my hybrid columns. Instead of publishing a column on one topic, I would write a synopsis of three to six events that occurred in recent weeks. These columns were not intended to be examples of excellent prose, but instead to offer a "neighbor's back fence" column of events taking place.
NEW CELL TOWER
Returning to Oakland this past weekend, I was surprised to see a new addition on the Oakland landscape. Ever since I was born, tree-covered hills have been the only sight to see along Oakland's south ridge. But now there is a cell phone tower (100+ feet high?) that dominates the Oakland skyline.
When a new cell phone tower went up years ago near the Oakland garbage transfer site, it blended in somewhat better with the skyline. Perhaps that tower is shorter, or perhaps it's because that tower stands on one pole and not three? But whatever the reason, the new tripod tower along the south ridge is much more noticeable.
Cell phone towers are distinctive because of their three-sided "candelabra" on top. Knowing how much Oakland prides itself on its historic image, I'm somewhat surprised there wasn't more of a public discussion before this new tower was erected.
Cell phone towers have created controversies in other communities, but often times there is a way to erect a tower that isn't as obtrusive. On one Jackson County farm, a cell phone tower was built that looks like a windmill. Along I-5 at historic Wolf Creek, a solid green cell phone tower blends into the tree-filled landscape. My favorite of all is a cell phone tower inside the Rogue Valley Country Club at Medford. That tower looks like a Ponderosa Pine tree, complete with places for birds to nest.
It's a shame that Oakland couldn't have found a unique cell phone tower design that would compliment the town's historic past, instead of the ghastly steel tower that now overlooks Oakland.
OAKLAND GRILL, DELI, AND WINES
Oakland residents Steve and Jill Marek have applied for a liquor license to operate a grill, deli, and wine shop on Locust street. That building once housed taverns, but my memory can only recall restaurants at the site.
During the 1970s, The Spaghetti Place operated in town. Then The Little Acorn restaurant was in the same location. The owner of that restaurant had my father do some lettering and painting on his storefront. I remember the owner gave my father a magnet of a squirrel carrying an acorn as a reference for what he wanted painted on the storefront. That magnet still sits on my family's refrigerator.
After The Little Acorn went out of business, I delivered a News-Review newspaper each day on my route to Ye Olde Steakhouse. Mexican food lovers will remember La Hacienda, which opened their first Douglas County restaurant in Oakland. After La Hacienda, Stephanie Hare, one of my KPIC co-workers who ran a catering business, opened a soup and sandwich deli inside the building. More recent, Paul Tollefson operated a coffee house and pizza business at that site, before he resumed operations at Tolly's across the street.
The building has had a colorful history of restaurant operators over the years. I can't wait to see what Steve and Jill Marek offer on their menu! May I suggest Chinese, one of the only venues that hasn't been sold yet inside the building?
CHICKEN DEAD AT SCENE
Perhaps this is one of those stories that only a person in the news writing business would appreciate. After all, reporters can get complacent routinely writing the lines "the victim died at the scene" or "the robber escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash." But the following short excerpt about a Lane County shooting deviates somewhat from the predictable format of writing a script.
"A Cheshire woman is accused of shooting her husband after he shot the woman's pet chicken. Police arrested 58-year-old Mary Kay Gray for assault. Forty-three year-old Stanley Gray is recovering from a gunshot wound to the shoulder. The chicken died at the scene."
Even when I wrote a story two years ago about Speckles the chicken that was eventually killed in front of Ray's Food Place at Murphy, I never wrote the sentence "the chicken died at the scene." I doubt that I'll ever see that sentence in print again.
POT COOKIE SENTENCING
A forty-three second sound bite is another thing that you don't see too often in the news. But despite its lengthiness, the content of this sound bite was anything but boring. Forty-six year-old Rycke Brown was sentenced to ten days in jail, a five hundred dollar fine, and eighteen months of probation. A twelve-person jury found her guilty of one count of possessing a controlled substance.
The charge stemmed from Brown handing out cookies laced with marijuana to passers-by in Grants Pass. Brown, who believes agreeing to probation would be an admission of guilt, had this to say about the sentencing:
MM: "What's your feeling about the sentencing today?"
Brown: "Well, it was disappointing, but not unexpected. I will have to violate probation immediately because I don't do probation. And we'll see where the court goes from there. I'm also not going to pay the five hundred dollar fine."
MM: "What about the ten days in jail? Are you going to eat anything?"
Brown: "Oh no, I don't eat in captivity."
MM: "Can you last ten days without eating?"
Brown: "Oh, ten days is easy. I've done nine before the last time I was convicted, but that time I stopped because I was afraid I would mess up my appeal. And I needed to do my appeal. Now I know better than to try to do it from prison."
BANDON FIRE REMEMBERED
More than 150 people crowded into the Bandon Museum September 24th to remember the Bandon Fire of 1936. The fire destroyed ninety percent of the town and left 1,800 of the town's 2,000 residents homeless.
One story that drew laughter from the crowd told of a little boy and his pet goat. Citizens were evacuating the town and getting on board a boat in order to safely wait out the fire in the harbor. People kept telling the boy to get on board the boat but he simply sat there crying. When they figured out he didn't want to leave his pet goat behind, the captain of the boat told the boy to get on board and bring his goat with him. After they floated out into the harbor, the boy was still distraught and crying. When adults asked him what was the matter, the boy told them "I grabbed the wrong goat."
But the most impressive story for me came two days later when I back at the station, KOBI-TV in Medford. Eighty-four year-old Anella Hunt from nearby Talent called me to let me know the Bandon fire story had made her cry when she watched it. Margaret Lange, one of the Bandon fire survivors whom I had interviewed two days earlier had been her teacher! (Yes, I had interviewed the 84-year-old woman's teacher. Back in those days, teachers started out young, and this one had lived to the century mark.)
Lange was a high school English teacher who arrived in Bandon just three weeks before the fire. Lange told me she and four other teachers had to move to Coquille and drive back and forth each day to Bandon, because all of their Bandon homes had been destroyed. Bandon's elementary school re-located to makeshift classrooms inside the high school gymnasium after the fire. Lange said school was up and running ten days after the fire.
PIE AT TUBBY'S
Driving back from the Bandon Museum open house, my mother and I stopped at Tubby's restaurant along Highway 42 in Myrtle Point. We learned years go that my late aunt who lived in Coquille would frequent the restaurant with her friends after church to get a piece of strawberry-rhubarb pie.
I personally don't consider it a favorite pie....it's one notch above mince meat on my ratings scale. But both my mother and I had a piece in memory of Betty Hatcher. For those who enjoy strawberry-rhubarb pie, Tubby's is apparently one of the places you can always find it in stock, along with all of their other fresh baked pies.
Just don't ask me where a person can find mince meat pie.
[2014 note: Tubby's has since changed its name and I don't know if strawberry-rhubarb pie is still on the menu.]
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