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| Salem then and now |
My Oregon story begins in 1976, when my parents made the
choice to move here, via Iowa, Arizona, and Colorado with their 6 children and
a station wagon. My father had just
retired from the Air Force, and my folks were trying to decide where to
settle. My uncle, my mother’s brother,
came here from Arizona, and we decided to join them.
My uncle lived in a tiny shack across from the state prison
on State St. We called the little huddle
of old cabins “Old Lady Rawlins” but I have no idea if that was actually
accurate. There were about 15 of us
crammed into a two room space.
Eventually, my father got work, and we got established. We lived in Salem until 1988, when my father
got a job Oregon Institute of Technology, so we moved to Klamath Falls.
I moved to California in 1991 and back to Klamath, and then in Illinois as an
adult in 2003, and began to realize why Oregon was such a great place to
live. I missed everything about it. I missed the weather, the sunshine, the green
grass, the beautiful trees, the robust recycling programs, the publicly
available beach. I missed Dutch Bros.
coffee and Tillamook Cheese and Burgerville and all the things that make Oregon
home.
I met my husband in 2006, and he visited Oregon with me from
Illinois. That was the point we decided
to move here. Not only was my ailing
mother here, but it was the one place we had ever been to that my somewhat
larger-than-life husband did not stick out like a sore thumb.
We arrived back in Oregon on June 29th, 2008 in a
big, white rumbling Chevy cargo van with bad brakes and everything we owned in
and on the back of it. We only made it
home
because in the process of getting some burgers with our change my husband
found $40 laying on the floor of the Wendy’s.
We rolled into town on the hottest day of the year. It felt like the hot weather had followed us
home from Illinois.
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| The big van that could |
Since that time, my life has continuously improved. I have also been gratified to be closer to my family. My mother passed in 2012, and I was able to
be there right away. After my husband passed
in 2015, I bought my first home in Salem.
I had a great job for years, and I even earned a college degree.
Salem is where my heart is. No matter where I have lived in this state, other states, I always come back to here. Here the grass is green, except in late summer, because people generally don’t waste water on grass. Here it doesn’t matter what you wear, really. Here it doesn’t matter who you were in high school; it matters who you are today. Here the beaches are public access, it’s rainy as often as it is sunny, and blackberry bushes are a noxious weed.
Salem is where my heart is. No matter where I have lived in this state, other states, I always come back to here. Here the grass is green, except in late summer, because people generally don’t waste water on grass. Here it doesn’t matter what you wear, really. Here it doesn’t matter who you were in high school; it matters who you are today. Here the beaches are public access, it’s rainy as often as it is sunny, and blackberry bushes are a noxious weed.
It was only after returning to Oregon and exploring my
ancestral roots that I realized those roots go back several generations. My mother, my grandmother, my uncle, my aunt,
and two sets of great-grandmothers and fathers are buried in this soil. My first ancestor on the west coast landed
before Oregon and California were even part of the union, and we have had a
presence here ever since. It’s no wonder I feel such a tie to my home
town.
In the past several years, it seems people are FLOODING into
Oregon. Oregon has always been a great
place to live, but it used to be a slightly well-kept secret. In the past many years, that secret is
getting out! Oregon has been in the top
three places to move for the past ten years, and nearly everyone I meet these
days came here from somewhere else.
I am grateful to be here among my family and friends, returned
to my own roots. My children were born
here, and my grandchildren were born here.
I can imagine living in other places for short term. I can’t imagine not returning home to Oregon.
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| Life in Oregon is sweet |
I love living in Oregon, and I understand why so many people
want to come enjoy this place.
I created this blog to make others feel welcome, to share my great passion for Oregon and all of it's charms, and to help those getting started here find their way. Please feel free to ask questions, seek answers, and enjoy Oregon.
Please! Share your Oregon story
in the comments below, or by visiting our Facebook Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/669872746690224/
We have a Google+ community: https://plus.google.com/communities/104465364039499340996
We are also on Minds.com. https://www.minds.com/groups/profile/831935920473526272
Welcome to Oregon!!
Vintage Salem Photo courtesy of: http://www.oregonlink.com/then_and_now/riverfront.html
