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, […]
I was invited to speak at the fall Conference of the Cemetery Association of Oregon in Hood River on October 17 and 18, 2019. The organization is made up of cemetery owners and operators and representatives from all avenues of the funeral industry. The title of my talk “Our Historic Cemeteries, Much More Than Just […]
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 […]
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 […]
My sincerest congratulations to our cast of sixteen players who delivered an outstanding performance, twenty-two times, during this year’s Meet the Pioneers on October 4 and 5. Backing them up and making everything run smoothly was a staff of some forty-five volunteers who greeted guests in the Ticket and Boarding area, directed traffic, boarded the […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
How could I possibly imagine that when I sat down to my computer in 1991 to express my fears and dreams about adopting a child, that one day those words would be acted out at the Alice Griffin Jewel Theater on 42nd Street in New York City?
On July 31, I sat with the birthmother of […]
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 […]
While those of you who have followed our “Digging Jacksonville” column have had a behind-the-scenes glimpse at some of the significant findings from our work on Britt hill (see the Digging Jacksonville archives to catch-up), there is a lot we have not had the chance to tell you. Until now!
We first […]
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, […]
Ah…September. Summer begins to loosen its grip on our surrounding hills and we anticipate cooler nights, crisper mornings, and the trails stretching out before us. Fall will soon be here with its colorful palette. We yearn for the return of the gurgle of water […]
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 […]
Water is a critical part of our way of life. Our economy, environment and our day-to-day lifestyle need water in order to flourish. But it’s a limited resource, and especially this time of year we need to rethink the way we […]
Southern Oregon has had a great summer with beautiful weather, lots of sunshine, and only two days of thunder storms that produced lots of rain but no significant forest fires. This beautiful weather usually brings lots of “out-of-state” home buyers, but this summer, home sales are […]
Long, long ago there was a fellow named Charles Atlas. That wasn’t his real name, but it sounded good for a body-building guru which he certainly was. Everyone knew about him because his ads were everywhere… especially in comic books where they were […]
Break out your love beads, head bands and bell bottom jeans for our September 8 celebration of Woodstock’s 50th anniversary at Hanley Farm. From 2:00-5:00pm, this will be the “far out” event of the summer! In addition to breaking out your bell bottoms and beads, don’t […]
I would like to start by sincerely thanking our wonderful docents for the great talks and tours they gave this summer for our History Saturday in the Cemetery, and our Tuesday Evening Cemetery Stroll programs. The time they put into research, preparing and presenting their programs was very much appreciated by all who attended. My gratitude to […]
The past two Pioneer Profiles have partially explored the public persona of Peter Britt, the pioneer Swiss photographer famed for documenting Southern Oregon’s people, activities, and landscapes, and father of the region’s commercial orchard, wine, and ornamental horticulture industries. Britt also served two terms on the Town Council, was […]
“Art does not reproduce what we see, art makes us see.” ~ Paul Klee
Our new member show, “Colors of Autumn,“ opens Friday, September 6 and remains on display until Sunday, September 29. We are delighted to feature the talented Lane Hall, our guest artist for September, in a show of […]
My two young grandchildren joined me in July for the Britt Festival Orchestra’s presentations of “Peter and the Wolf” (retold with a delightful Southern Oregon twist) and the story of the “The Mountain that Loved a Bird” by composer Caroline Shaw. They were enthralled, including the […]
One of the (few) perks of getting older is having a longer view of life. Being a newly-minted mother of two teens, I’m remembering just how inwardly awkward and stressful adolescence is. Figuring out who you are and how to navigate life is rough on rats. And parents.
This month, I’m breaking away from speaking about a specific antique item to point out an obvious fact about one of our most common commodities—soap!
Soap is a household item that we often take for granted. There will always be soap of one […]
Some readers may remember a column years ago about my falling and then riding in an ambulance to the ER. It struck me as humorous how repeatedly I was asked my birthdate… 11-14-29. However, I annoyed a couple of readers who mistook my humor […]
In July, Pioneer Profiles highlighted Peter Britt’s renown as photographer, artist, and documenter of pioneer life in Southern Oregon. However, Britt was also an avid gardener and is considered to be the father of Southern Oregon’s commercial orchard, wine, and ornamental horticulture industries. Britt Park, now the Britt Festival […]
Summer Sundays at Hanley Farm—Have you been looking for ways to spend a Sunday afternoon? Look no further! Every Sunday, the farm is open from noon to 4:00pm for family fun, afternoon picnicking and children’s heritage games, docent-led house tours, and self-guided farm and garden tours enhanced […]
Thank you!—It’s been a very busy summer and much has been accomplished and projects taken off of our “to do” list. The metal bollards on either side of the Cemetery entrance gates have been painted black to match the gates and archway, and have had decorative tops added to them. The support posts […]
Jacksonville is proud to present its ArtWalk on the Second Saturday of each month through October. Art changes everything, improving creativity, critical thinking, communication and academic performance.
Participating venues will treat you to unique pieces that will amaze and delight you, and there will be wine and music. This is such a great way to […]
The subject of the August “Sensational Seniors” article, Carolyn Kingsnorth, has the most extensive and varied career resume of anyone I have ever met. I will only be able to touch on some aspects of her vita; hopefully, it will give the flavor of this statement. Carolyn was […]
Back in early July, I spent a Saturday afternoon enjoying a wonderful reception and book signing at Art Presence Art Center. As I stood in line to purchase three of Debbie Earley’s creative little glass mushrooms, I flipped through Ken Gregg’s beautiful new book, A […]