As we head into a new year as well as a new decade, one of the big questions many people have is about the stability of the real estate market. Lucky for me, the company I work for has their own economist that provides quarterly projections as well […]
A number of you know that a Hollywood motion picture, The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, was filmed right here in Jacksonville in 1972. You may not know of another film released in 1948… also filmed right here in Jacksonville.
In 1947, a successful independent producer, Robert L. Lippert, […]
Forecasting the future can be hard…so starting with a good knowledge base of the past can give a clearer vision of the future. The real estate market in Jackson County has been very stable for years, so it’s logical to assume the trend will continue in 2020. Based on […]
Since February heralds Valentine’s Day, we thought we would take a closer look at the Victorian idea of love and marriage (although we’re not sure why romance is celebrated in the middle of winter unless “bundling” was a great way to keep warm). Valentines became extremely popular during the Victorian era, […]
As we enter the season when winter shows little pity for our doldrums, and just when we can’t stomach another day of gray, February creeps in with hints of spring. That’s when the Southern Oregon Chinese Cultural Association, or SOCCA, comes to our rescue with the perfect anecdote—a colorful festival to celebrate the Chinese New […]
I am writing this column on January 1, 2020. It’s the first day of a new year, a new decade, and for me, a new adventure.
Well, not exactly new.
A long time ago, just out of graduate school and some 2,500 hours into a five-year process of becoming a counselor, I sat […]
My main purpose in writing “Sensational Seniors” articles is to honor the richness of the lives of people of Jacksonville who have been active and productive citizens of our fair town. However, for this, my 33rd article, it was I who was honored with the rare opportunity to spend part of […]
The Britt Festival Orchestra (BFO) announces its 2020 summer season, anchoring Oregon’s Britt Music and Arts Festival with three weeks of exciting open-air programming in the scenic Rogue Valley. Under the inventive […]
MEDFORD, OR – Britt Music & Arts Festival announces the redesign and significant upgrade of their website that will improve the ability of Britt patrons and fans to purchase tickets and learn about various operations of the non-profit organization. Constructed by web design firm Project A, the new design is constructed on a modern WordPress […]
“And it was always said of him (Ebenezer Scrooge), that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us!” ~Charles Dickens, from A Christmas Carol 1843
A prime opportunity to “keep Christmas well” is by immersing yourself in a traditional […]
“When I was a kid, I just wanted to play baseball, but I kept getting blamed for Pearl Harbor… and this was the climate I grew up in.” This quote from Jacksonville resident, Dave Doi, struck me as particularly poignant given the racial divide that our country still struggles with […]
On Real Estate & More – December 2019/January 2020
Oregon is making a significant change in what type of housing is allowed to be built in the state. House Bill (HB) 2001 was adopted by the Oregon Legislative Assembly in June 2019 and gained national attention as Oregon is the first state in the nation to […]
Gift giving season is upon us. Many people buy items for the people on their list all year-long, but many wait for the holiday seasonal rush. Be it Christmas or Hanukkah, shopping begins the day after Thanksgiving in many households.
We’ve all seen the transition from running around from store […]
Most of Jacksonville’s original wooden buildings were destroyed in multiple fires, but a few remain. At least two of these landmarks were the work of master builder David Linn. One, the 1854 St. Andrews Methodist-Episcopal Church, was a product of his early Jacksonville career. The other, the 1881 Presbyterian Church, […]
It’s two weeks before Thanksgiving as I write this. Walking in town yesterday, I was met by store windows chock full of Christmas. Displays of faux snow and baubles, decorations and gifts sat in strange juxtaposition with the unusual, t-shirt-warm weather. It was unsettling.
I’m not in sync with this Christmas […]
Deck the halls with boughs of holly
Fa la la la la, la la la la
‘Tis the season to be jolly
Fa la la la la, la la la la
Familiar words at this time of year, yes, but what if we cannot muster up any “jolly-ness?” What […]
Our kids and their families are all coming home for Christmas. Mary cannot stop smiling. The newlyweds are wheels down on Christmas Eve. If asked, our beautiful girl would say there is no place on earth she’d rather be for the holidays. Even our Bay Area, Forty-Niner football […]
‘Tis time again for animated Christmas specials to pop-up on the tube, many of them rebroadcasts of beloved classics from decades ago. We won’t waste precious space to list them all (honestly, do you really care to hear about Grandma got Run Over By a Reindeer?). Instead, we’ll touch […]
Throughout this tumultuous year, friends and families have visited Hanley Farm, participating in its many events, or picnicking in the shade of the Hanley trees and playing heritage games with their children. It is all of you who have visited and enjoyed Hanley Farm, that enable the Southern […]
Are you curious about the local wine buzz, but a lack of wine know-how prevents you from diving in? Or maybe you’re well acquainted with the bounty our area has to offer in wines but want to check out a few new labels. Either way, Uncorked is the answer.
On Saturday, November 23rd, from 11:00am-4:00pm, the […]
Britt Education and Engagement is Joining the Global GivingTuesday Movement to raise $5,000 for education programs that benefit children and schools throughout Jackson & Josephine Counties
Medford, Oregon – This GivingTuesday, Britt Education & Engagement will celebrate giving by raising $5,000 for our free music education programs.
GivingTuesday, taking place December 3rd, is a global day of […]
“Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.”~Doris Day
I’m grateful for the freedoms our great nation has provided but afraid Doris’s generation may have been freedom’s last. Privilege of freedom came at great cost born by those before me. I’m so grateful for their sacrifice but fear blood spilled and treasure […]
Ten days ago, I was planning on writing the expected piece on “gratitude” for this November edition. And then, the unexpected randomness of Life happened and my companion, Baci (whom you may recall from his recent celebrity appearance in this column) had a disc rupture, leaving his back legs paralyzed.
I spent […]
There is no good time of year to get sick. Working in hospitals since I was a teenager, I used to fall ill all the time. Even though I only worked with cardiac and surgical patients, where germs were neutralized at every turn, I was vulnerable to every kind of […]
One of the things many people enjoy about living in Jackson County is the rural feel of the area and its open farmland. But as evidenced over the last year, a lot of that farmland is being planted to hemp, which is unmistakable at harvest season, when the […]
The holidays are absolutely here at Hanley Farm! Make your own holiday wreath on Saturday, November 30, from 11:00am-3:00pm, using all-natural materials clipped from the trees and bushes that grace the farm. Wreath-making kits that include all you need will be available for only $15 for non-SOHS Members, and […]
People of a certain age will understand the love for and fascination with a paper map. The road map…folded in a specific way that only patience and agility can repeat. Kept in the glove box of the family car… as the key to destination precision.
In the 1860’s, Rand McNally published […]
When I first asked long-time Jacksonville resident, Barbara Oakes, to consent to being interviewed for “Sensational Seniors,” she replied, “Oh gosh, I have never done anything that was sensational.” Hopefully, this article will prove how wrong her initial assessment was.
Born on May 21, 1944 in Santa Ana, California, her father was […]
I recently took a Continuing Education class on “Going Green,” something I didn’t know much about. I was surprised by what I learned and how much each of us can impact our environment. It was a great class and information worth sharing.
It’s surprising that the focus on our environment […]
Growing old isn’t easy. There are no classes for it, and it’s not as if one has much choice. It just happens faster than we expect. We go along from day-to-day, then one morning a look in the mirror, and suddenly, it’s a different face staring back. […]
This year’s Meet the Pioneers tours of Jacksonville’s historic cemetery included several vignettes portraying 19th Century crime and punishment. In one, a man named Matt Shannon had been killed in an 1881 fist fight when his opponent shot him in the head with a concealed gun. A jury declared the murderer […]
The Oxford English Dictionary defines “Gratitude” as: “A warm sense of appreciation of kindness received, involving a feeling of goodwill towards the benefactor, and a desire to do something in return.”
Not bad, eh? We couldn’t have said it better ourselves, and in gratitude to the OED editors we’ll return the […]
Many moons ago, I was interviewed for the Executive Director position by a panel of nine Britt Music and Arts Festival Board members. The interview lasted 1.5 hours and covered many different areas of the professional expertise needed for the job. Given my extensive background in non-profit management, I […]
MEDFORD, OR — The Britt Music & Arts Festival has finished an outstanding season filled with wonderful weather and lots of big artists, and is thanking its patrons, members, business partners, media partners, artists and fans for a successful season. Ticket sales started slightly slow before the season began, but caught up and surpassed 2018 […]
Annual Scarecrow Festival—On October 5 & 6 at the Annual Scarecrow Festival from 11:00am-4:00pm, you can make a scarecrow and enter it in the Scarecrow Contest or take it home to protect your gardens and fields. Be sure to take a hayride, paint a pumpkin, bob for apples, and […]
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” ~ Ian MacLaren
It is truly remarkable to me the number of people I know who are in pain. I’m not just talking about my counseling practice, where I expect to hear about difficulties and struggles; I’m talking about friends and […]
Yellowware is one of those items that branches off from the original and creates other categories to collect.
Yellowware did not limit its purposes to the functioning of a kitchen with bowls, pitchers, cups and tankards, cannisters, saltshakers and salt boxes, storage jars, molds, teapots and coffee pots, tableware and bakeware. […]
Purchasing a home is typically one of the biggest investments in your lifetime and few people have the cash to purchase a home outright. One option that comes up occasionally, and can work well for everyone, is to get a private loan from a friend or family member. […]
Jacksonville is one of the best locations in the Rogue Valley to enjoy the beauty of autumn.
If you have witnessed this stunning time of year in Jacksonville and taken in all the vivid colors of the season, you may have located a favorite tree or two. Maybe a tree in […]
Reverend Thomas Fletcher Royal, known as “Fletcher” to his family and “T.F.” to his friends, arrived with his family by wagon train in the Rogue Valley on October 27, 1853. Gold had been discovered on the banks of Rich Gulch the previous year, and hundreds of fortune seekers and riff raff […]
A prominent citizen visited my office recently to complain about a statement I made in one of my columns. The statement read, “It is the Constitution that holds our political parties in check. It stopped the Republicans from destroying President Truman. Today it is stopping the Democrats […]
We’re back.
And so are they.
“We” being your Unfettered Critics. “They” being. . . well, we’ll get to them in a moment.
Some of you may have noticed (and we thank those of you who’ve stopped us on the street to say you had) that our column mysteriously went missing from recent […]
I am dedicating this entire column to one man.
Dear Bow, this letter is one way of letting you know how much the Board, staff and most importantly, Britt Society Volunteers appreciate you.
Your tireless commitment as Britt’s House Manager over the past twelve years has been nothing short of extraordinary. […]
This “Sensational Seniors” article features much-loved dentist, Bill Brodie, who retired in 2011 after 37 years of operating a dental clinic in Jacksonville. A native Oregonian, Bill was born on May 15, 1945 in the Belle Knife Hospital in Coquille, Oregon—a small hospital that his grandmother, a nurse, had started. While […]
In the last few months, we have seen an explosion of hemp fields being planted along every road you drive as hemp quickly becomes the largest agricultural crop, surpassing pears and vineyards, in Southern Oregon. Based upon statistics from the Oregon Department of Agriculture, Jackson County has 8,578 acres […]
UPDATE: This event for 2019 is now SOLD OUT!
History buffs will be in their element when The Friends of Jacksonville’s Historic Cemetery once again present their annual fundraiser, Meet the Pioneers.
Beginning every fifteen minutes between 4-6:30pm, Friday and Saturday, October 4th and 5th, Jacksonville will be visited by representatives […]
Frau Kemmling is ready to roll out the barrel(s) at Schoolhaus Brewhaus for their twelfth-annual Oktoberfest. She, along with her hardworking crew, will pack two weeks-worth of traditional German frivolity into one uber family-friendly afternoon. So, pull your dirndl out of hiding, and mark the calendar for Saturday, September 28, from noon-10:00pm, when the seven-acre campus comes alive with […]
Mary and I spent a week in San Diego to participate in a “paddle out” celebrating her late brother Billy’s life. These things are always bittersweet. Bitter because loss is final, sweet because love left behind never expires.
Another brother-in-law, whom I treasure, […]
I am an incredible parent. I know this because there are moments in my parenting life where I stop and think, “Man, these kids are darned lucky.”
One of these moments happened this week. During a meeting at my children’s school my son was reminded […]
In the blue glass, front-locked cabinet are some very tiny objects. Made of glass, wrought iron, pewter, and clay, these items are for play and show. The glass figurines are handmade, perhaps in Murano, Italy, perhaps not. I see no maker’s marks on them, but they are […]