I Dream of Eugene: History Lesson on the Sidewalk

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

"Eugene City"

 Source: Rootsweb Ancestry.com

On the sidewalk outside the main entrance of the Fifth Street Market  (near the mural), there is a plaque inserted into the brick sidewalk.  The plaque gives us a quick history lesson of how the City of Eugene began.  I took some pictures of it in December, and am finally getting a blog post written about it by adding some old pictures and some links for you.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 "In April of 1852, Eugene Skinner and Judge Risdon established a meridian line from which to survey an plat a town site, which was located east of Skinner's Butte.

The orginal plat was bounded by Water Street (along the river) to the north, Pearl Street to the west, and Eight Avenue on the south.  The alley east of Ferry Street formed the eastern boundary.  Mary Skinner was given the honor of naming the town, calling it Eugene City, after her husband.

James Huddleston's general store was one of the first structures in the original plat of Eugene City, initially located in a lean-to next to Skinner's Cabin.  The store was moved to the northern end of the plat near Skinner's ferry landing in the early 1850's.  Shortly after the establishment of Lane County in 1851 a county commission and a county clerk were appointed, and only two years later, in 1853, Eugene City became the Lane County Seat."

Eugene Skinner, Source: Rootsweb Ancestry.com

Mary Skinner, Source: Rootsweb Ancestry.com

The photo below was taken years later, in 1912, but it is of the same area described in the plat map above:

Source: Lane County Historical Society

I have spent a lot of time trying to find photos of Judge D. M. Ridson, and of James Huddleston and his store, but didn't come up with anything.  I'll add them to this post if I do find any.  I found lots of other cool stuff, but they don't belong in this post!

See you soon,

~ Kathy M. 

Update:  I found an article in The Lane County Historian that tells about where the original Skinner Cabin was located.  Please "CLICK HERE" to check it out.

Links:

Wikipedia: Eugene Skinner

Rootsweb Ancestery.com

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.  

I Dream of Eugene: The Fifth Street Market Mural

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Last Christmas, Cary and I drove to Eugene to spend an early Christmas Eve celebration with my side of the family at Mom's house.  The next day, we went to the 5th Street Market for breakfast before heading back home.  I wrote a post about the market then (please click here if you want to see it), but wanted to also do a separate one of the beautiful mural that greets you when you walk in.  So, here it is!

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

This link is to the 5th Street Market website, and shows the  progression of painting of the mural.  I found this on the Downtown Eugene.com website:


"During a recent research project the market staff has come across several important pieces of Eugene's history and we are incorporating this history into the architecture of the market; through murals, etched granite, pictures and inspirational quotes that will be placed through out the market for your exploration and discovery. Adding to the new 5th Avenue entrance we are incorporating a mural all along the staircase that will begin in late June for the public to watch come alive."

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.  

School Shootings: The Thurston Shootings Revisited

Source:  The Prevention Researcher Blog

Yesterday, for some reason, I was thinking about The Thurston Shootings which occurred in Springfield, Oregon in 1998.  A boy named Kip Kinkel was the one who did the killing.  It was the first large scale school shooting, as far as I know, though the media seems to have forgotten about it now.  It is probably just as well.  Anyway, I was wondering if I should ever write about that incident on my blog.  Then this morning, I woke up to the news that there was a very similar school shooting in Ohio that had just happened, and at least three children have now died.  My heart goes out to the victims and their families.  As parents, we do not send our kids to school to be shot and it is so unexpected and shocking when something like this happens.

Believe it or not, this post is not about beating up on Kip Kinkel or even about gun control.  His brain scans showed a terrible case of schizophrenia, and in the end, he pleaded guilty and apologized for his behavior, not wanting to put his classmates through an awful and emotional trial.  He will never be out of prison, and I have no interest in causing his sister anymore pain than she has already had to go through.  It might be a good post about mental illness becoming dangerous, but frankly I have just never written about that day before now, and today I feel like it.  It is hard to not use names, but not everybody would appreciate being easily identified, so I am going to try my best to be careful.

Early in the morning on May 21, 1998, Kip Kinkel walked down the breezeway past my youngest daughter, heavily armed with weapons hidden under his long coat.  He was heading toward the cafeteria.  She had known him for years, ever since elementary school, and Kip was in one of her classes that term.  They were both in 10th grade.  She did not even recognize him that morning; she said that she just looked at him and thought who is that weird guy in the trenchcoat?  Somebody later commented that you must look different after you kill your parents and have a big plan in mind to shoot many more. 

Kip Kinkel ended up killing two students and shooting 22 that morning, before he was tackled to the ground by two brothers; Eagle Scouts.  The one boy said, "You son of a bitch, you just shot me!" and they reacted promptly.  Thank God that they did.  Thank God that the teacher this morning tackled today's shooter in Ohio. (I never did appreciate the horrible way that Columbine was handled.  It was as if the people inside didn't get much help from anybody.  Columbine always seemed more like a terrorist attack to me.)

My oldest daughter was in the gym when the shooting began.  She and her best friend were going to go to the cafeteria, but they hadn't left for it yet.  Another reason to thank God.  Instead, they were locked inside the gym with others as they heard the gunshots and pandemonium nearby.  One girl had a cell phone, but the teacher wouldn't let her use it or share it.  That was back before everybody had cell phones and before text messaging was widely used. 

After her near-miss, my youngest daughter was waiting for her best friend to arrive at school and park in the parking lot.  She heard the shots begin, and a teacher told her to come inside a nearby classroom.  She said forget that, I'm out of here, and ran to her friend's pick-up, hopped in and they drove back to her friend's house.  She called me and said "Mom!  Have you heard from K.?"  I said, no, why, and she said that somebody was shooting people at school.  And that was the beginning of one of the most horrific days of our lives.  I turned on the radio for news, and the phone calls started pouring into our home from concerned family and friends. 

We lived on Deerhorn Road, in an old farm house at Camp Christian at the time.  The Kinkels lived in a sub-division several miles up the road.  I operated a home daycare, and am certain that Kip drove right past my son and my daycare kids that morning as they were waiting for the bus at the bottom of our driveway.  Another scary thought.  My stepson was still in middle school, and though he usually was on the same bus as Kip, Kip didn't take the bus that day because he was driving his Mom's car to school.

My friend Glenda called me right away from Eugene.  Our friend Marlene was good friends with the McKenzie River fire chief's wife, and had gotten word that this was a really big, bad deal.  Marlene knew that my girls went to Thurston and she called Glenda, who called me minutes after Kristin did. Glenda came over to help me with my daycare kids and to free me up.  During that period of time, Glenda and I had been through several disasters together, and were a good team.  I will always appreciate her friendship.

After my kids and their friends were accounted for, the details just kept pouring in.  Kip had killed his parents the night before.  There was something about bombs in their house and yard.  When he was in his jail cell, he pulled a knife on our friend's husband (a cop).  Not quite sure how he got the knife past everybody, but he did.  He was like the Everready Battery kid; he just kept on going and going and going.  Apparently, as it all came out later, some kids knew that he was harming animals and going down a deep dark hole, but they didn't want to tell on him.  There was a warning floating around that kids who went to Walterville School with Kip were supposed to avoid the pep assembly that day.

I could go into more details, but I won't.  A couple of days later it was Memorial Day Weekend, and we went to La Pine to the cabin as we had already planned to do.  I am so glad that we got a break from it all. Some families no longer had that choice to take a break, and are forever haunted about what happened that day.  It was heartbreaking to drive by the front of the school and see the memorial that had sprung up ... flowers, stuffed animals, letters.  I found the picture above of the memorial on a blog called The Prevention Researcher Blog and it has the story of a young woman who was there. 

The community came together; there were heroes all over the place, big and small, young and old.  Kids helping their wounded friends in the cafeteria, being brave under pressure.

I just want to add that Mr. and Mrs. Kinkel were well-loved people, both were teachers and wonderful parents who had a very troubled kid.  They were doing all they could to get him help, and he was in counseling.  Nobody knew the depth of his troubles or dreamed that something like this could happen.  They ended up paying with their own lives.

Right away people who knew nothing were calling into the radio programs blaming them, saying that they had a horrible family, etc.  That is already happening this morning in Ohio.  Maybe this kid does have a bad family and maybe he doesn't, but are those kinds of comments accurate and are they helpful to the situation or harmful? 

I just hope that there will be no copycat incidences following today's tragedy.  There is a lot of information on this subject on the internet, but I wanted to throw in my memories into the hat too.

The ironic thing about The Thurston Shooting was that there was a huge soccer tournament already scheduled to be held at Thurston's field for the coming weekend and the t-shirts were already made, saying something like "The Thurston Shoot-Out 1998". 

~ Kathy Matthews 

Here is a link that contains a timeline of what led up to the school shootings:  Frontline: Kip Kinkle

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.  

This and That Sunday:

It has been a little while since I have written a "this and that" update and figured that it was about time.  Because I just KNOW that you are wondering about what is happening in Mayberry right now.

On Friday, our daughter Kristin flew to Guatemala for a medical mission trip with Cascade Medical Teams and HELPS International.  This is her third time going.  The first time, Kristin helped in the dental clinic.  Last year and this, Kristin is working with the construction team where she will be helping to install ONIL cook stoves and concrete flooring.  To read more about past trips, please check out my "Outreach Blog".  Love you, Kristin, stay safe!

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Yesterday, we had a mini-blizzard, and I am not talking something that you buy at Dairy Queen!  Like everywhere else, most of the time when we are promised a "big storm" it just doesn't happen.  This time, I heard nothing about one coming, but it did, and we got a foot of snow all at once! 

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Cary ran to the store during the worst part of the storm, and said that he almost had to pull off the highway and wait until visability improved.  He kept inching along, though, and at Wikiup Junction looked up to see a truck coming at him in his lane!  Luckily it went back into it's own lane in time to avoid a collision.  They always say to worry about the other guy. 

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

So, since it was snowing and my great idea of going into Bend with Cary for dinner and a movie was out (we received gift certificates for Christmas to The Olive Garden and Regal Theaters), I had to figure out a new plan.
 

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Instead of going into Bend, we spent the rest of the snowy day hanging out in our pajamas.  I made us chicken and dumplings for dinner.  Shhh!  Don't tell him that I posted this picture!

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Oh, and I colored my hair.  It is really gold.  (I had to play fair, so I'm posting this picture of me too.)

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 
Even though I was in comfy clothing, I did get a lot done yesterday.

This is what my Mom Cave looks like since we moved the craft desk into our room last weekend.  I didn't get it looking too much better than the photo below, but I did move all of the kids books into one area across the room.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

On Friday, I received an email from an author named Jo Brew , who is currently writing a book about HWY 99 in Oregon.  She asked if I had any info or memories of it, and it happens that I do.  I am going to write a story about my grandparents little store, and Jo will be meeting my mom for lunch next week for an interview.  

I had found the great book below in the cartons of Letsom Letters, and it had a lot of great historical information in it.  It was written in 1936.   I sent some copies of what I found about HWY 99 to Jo.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

On Friday and yesterday, I began working on a fun project that I will be using for April's A-Z Challenge.  In that challenge, you post daily and in alphabetical order.  There is a push to have at least 1000 participants signed up by the end of February; so if you want to participate, please "CLICK HERE".

This year, I have decided to turn some of my favorite photos into flashcards and feature them in the required daily posts.  So many flashcards are cartoon drawings, and I have always wondered why, when there is so much beauty in real life out there.  Dang, there are kids who never make it to an ocean just because they live in the middle of the country, so why not show them the real ocean? 

Also, I need to work on them now because the program that I use to frame these, Picnic, is closing down and I want them all to match.  Below are a couple of the ones that I have made so far, sorry that I don't have an "A" made yet.  You would be surprised about all the things that begin with "t", "b" and "s".

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

When I was over at Arlee Bird's blog: Tossing It Out, the creator of the A-Z Challenge, he was highlighting some of his favorite bloggers.  One of those is Karen Gowen, who now sells the books of other bloggers online at her website, Celery Tree.com.  I don't know any of the details, but if you have books to sell and you are a blogger, you just might want to check it out.  Just spreading the word here!

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

So, that is about it for my news for now.   The snow has stopped, so maybe my date and I can change into real clothes and spend the day in Bend?  I hope so, but if not, I can always fold the laundry and finish cleaning up the Mom Cave. 

Or make more postcards! 

Have a wonderful week, 

Kathy M.

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.  

Book Blurb Friday: "Castle Mountain" and "Tough Choices"

Today marks the one year anniversary of  Lisa Richard Claro's Book Blurb Friday!  I have had so much fun participating in this fun meme, where you make up a 150 word story to go with the featured picture, in hopes that it will one day make it into a book.

 "Castle Mountain"

by Kathy Matthews

Politics are not for the faint of heart.  Nor for those who suffer from Narcolepsy under stressful situations.  Many residents of Castle Mountain believed all along that Clyde Rainey should not have run for City Council.  Clyde, however did not believe in being limited by his disabilities, and gave his campaign the old college try.

Still, it was kind of sad the night of the primary, when Rainey kept falling asleep as the results trickled in.  This photo was plastered all over the news and was in the next morning's paper. 

Clyde Rainey's opponent, Rachel Madlow, was ecstatic over the way things turned out ... except for the fact that she lost the election by 1000 votes.  Furious, she vows to destroy "sleepyhead's" life.  How low will she go?  Read this fun book about small town politics, and get caught up with the interesting characters that live there.  (148)

Thanks, Lynn from  Present Letters for this photo!  I'd love to hear the real story behind it.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Tough Choices

by Kathy Matthews

Wee Willy Laser was the new small-dog model for Companion Wear, and he loved his new job.  It offered on-site photo shoots in locations he had never before dreamed existed.  From summer lakes modeling life jackets in Georgia; to snowshoeing wearing special footwear in Bend, Oregon, this was the life. 

His mama, Cara Laser, was grateful for Willy's job too.  It paid well, and gave her opportunities for some extra-curricular fun.  Cara was currently in love with Companion Wear President, Jason Fry. 

The only issue was that Jason was extremely jealous of Willy.  Cara needed to choose.  Would she give up her dog-child and lose the income or give into the love of her life?  Jason was insisting that Wee Willy be gone.  He was offering her marriage and baby, but what if he became jealous of their child also? 

When Willy turns up missing, Cara is devastated.  

Help! (149)

Like Wiener Dogs?  You'll enjoy this story:

Thank you to Lynn Obermoeller for picture number on top and for Lisa Ricard Claro for photo number two.  If you would like to read my other Book Blurb Friday posts, scroll down the side-bar on the left hand-side until you get to this picture:

I am participating in Lisa's Book Blurb Friday, from over at Writing in the Buff.   It is fun, and you can play too!  Pretend that the picture on the top of this post is the cover of a book.  On the inside jacket, you have 150 words to entice the reader to buy your book.  Lisa gives us a week to think about next week's entry (she's gracious like that).  Please CLICK HERE on Friday to read what everybody else wrote!

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.  

Shoeshine: Sepia Saturday Post #114

This week's Sepia Saturday theme is shoes.  I already have submitted a post that had nothing to do with shoes, but then this picture landed into my lap. 

This afternoon, my friend Barb K. emailed me a bunch of awesome sepia photos.  Wouldn't you know it, one was featuring shoes.  Thanks, Barb!  I know nothing about the photo except for what was written underneath it ...

This is a photo of Peddlers Shoeshine,  taken on Sept. 13, 1911:

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

For my other Sepia Saturday Posts, go to the sidebar on the left and scroll down until you get to this photo of my Dad and me for the list.  Make sure to visit my friends and read their cool stories over at Sepia Saturday.

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.