Crowds with their Blue Sticks

“Friendly, welcoming crowd needed for Extreme Home Makeover TV show scene! Downtown Jacksonville will be shot Saturday evening between 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. and we want to have a large crowd to wave at the show’s bus as it drives through downtown. Hope to see you all there…”

The other night our town turned blue. Responding to the clarion call of the above (on the Jacksonville, Oregon Facebook page, and also via several other venues), hundreds of people crowded California Street, eagerly awaiting the arrival of a bus. Which never came.

All the same, the crowd seemed to be into it. They cheered. They twirled their blue glow sticks on cue.

As for us… Well, we went. But after a while it began to remind us of our “battle-scarred” past lives in Hollywood, and we opted to share a burger instead of the spotlight and retreated to the Bella. You see, Hollywood production may seem very glamorous from the outside, but the truth of production, be it television or film, is that it’s 95% boring. (Example: “Be here at 7 p.m. Then stand around on a street corner for three hours while we set up, and eventually we may aim a camera at you”). There’s a lot of hurry up and wait. And wait. And wait.

Okay, a confession. We don’t watch reality TV shows. They make us crazy for a whole passel of reasons that we won’t get in to. But that said, C.J. and Lindsay McPhail are extremely deserving, and Sparrow Clubs is a wonderful organization. We hope that Extreme Makeover makes the lives of everyone involved brighter. And we hope J’ville gets a bit of a lift (economic variety) from its increased visibility—but not too much because we like this place the way it is!

In fact, we can’t help feeling that we live in a reality show 24/7, 365. This town—and indeed, the whole Rogue Valley—is filled with outstanding people who go out of their way to make life better for those around them—the children who have to do without, the seniors who have no one to share their lives with, the homeless pups and kits who deserve a bit of humanity in their all too short lives. So many causes, so little time!

We thought about that this past weekend. It was that busiest of busy times: the weekend of the Citywide Garage Sale. Like many of you, we spent the usual amount of time wandering around like kids at a carnival—wanting everything but allowing ourselves just a few small treasures. The rest of the weekend was devoted to the community. We worked at the Jacksonville Booster Club’s portion of the sale, in the parking lot behind Sterling Bank, selling castoff items for low, low prices. The proceeds go into the work that the Boosters do around town the rest of the year: cleaning, painting, raking, restoring; name a local fixer-up project, they’ve probably had a hand in it—but you probably haven’t noticed. Being high profile isn’t on the agenda.
Still, being in the Boosters is a little like being in a mini version of Extreme Makeover. Members aren’t standing out on California Street, twirling glow sticks, they’re just quietly doing their part. After that TV crew leaves Southern Oregon, you might think about participating in a local makeover project. It needn’t be with the Boosters. There are a lot of other associations that do good works. Your local church. The Lions Club, Rotary Club, Kiwanis Club…

Get involved. Join a group. You may find it’s the best reality show of all.

Paula and Terry Each have long impressive-sounding resumes implying that they are battle-scarred veterans of life within the Hollywood studios. They’re now happily relaxed into Jacksonville.