Like the adventurers who came before us, Rick and I arrived in Oregon with few possessions and plenty of dreams. It was 1969 and we were ready for something new, something better than breathing smog, working in offices, traveling freeways, being uptight.

To the dismay of our parents, we quit our jobs, packed the car and headed to Ashland, drawn by the rain, the smell of pine and fir and green things growing, fresh salmon, corn and blueberry pie. We found work running the Pillars Coffeehouse on Water Street, below the bridge. Our business plan was based on a vague notion that college students, actors and play goers would like drinking latte and listening to music. And maybe, someday, Bob Dylan would wander in the door.

In those days, when the summer season ended Ashland became a sleepy little town and people went to Medford for their fun. By winter, only a few folks wandered in the door each night, some of them hitchhikers we treated to a hot meal. Dylan never did show up. The coffeehouse closed. About this time, we joined with others to start a food cooperative. We paid five dollars a week and took turns collecting donated produce, day-old bread, turkey eggs from a poultry farm, cheese ends and curds from the creamery. Food was distributed in big cardboard boxes at the abandoned Peerless Hotel. That was the beginning of the successful Ashland Food Coop.

By this time we had a child, Joshua. Pursuing a dream of back-to-the-land, we found cheap acreage in the Applegate Valley, with stunning views of Grayback Mountain and the Siskiyous. We bought some goats, a rooster and hens. We planted a garden and later, a vineyard. We studied a few books, asked lots of questions, got help from friends, and built the house we still live in today.

Our city friends think we're like Lewis and Clark, surviving in the wilds of rural Oregon. Not quite. But we have blazed some Oregon trails. We were part of Oregon's early community college movement and like to think we made positive contributions over our years of service. We learned the importance of community and how to work with other citizens to make things better, from planting the seeds for the food co-op and our Applegate Valley fire department to a successful campaign for a Southern Oregon toll-free calling area, land-use planning and more. Our son is a UO graduate and an avid Duck fan whose family wears green and yellow on game days. Recently, my husband Rick declared his candidacy for the Oregon House, District 4. And, with the publication of my contemporary fiction, I have a goal to be known as an Oregon writer.

Our original Oregon dream was romantic. The reality is so much better.

Filed under Southern Oregon
Comments