WELL SAID: “Democracy is the most difficult of all forms of government since it requires the widest spread of intelligence.” — Historian Ariel Durant
Have you heard? Glenwood General Store offers truth in advertising.
Kirby Neumann-Rea photo
Demographics, as told inside Brenna’s Market, Mosier.
Kirby Neumann-Rea photo
WELL DONE: When a 70-foot pine tree fell in the wind across Plog Hill — the hairpin turn where Dee Highway and Odell Highway meet — the Feb. 26 morning traffic was backed up in both directions, and the serpentine nature of the roads meant something needed to happen quickly. Along came Juan Guzman of Guzman Towing, who pulled up and hooked the trunk that ODOT’s Guy Mooney had cut away, and Guzman dragged the tree from the road.
RECYCLING 101: “Please put containers in the holes.” The signboard at the Mt. Hood Town Hall recycling station puts recycling in the simplest of terms. Some people still need to be told.
SEEN AND HEARD: Remnants of the storm: In Hood River, a shattered truck tire and a pile of rusting truck chains along the fence at the ODOT yard on West Cascade ... Toddler on training wheels while Dad, barefoot, escorts him ... City of Hood River crew on both sides of State using leaf blowers to send cinders off the sidewalks, filling the street with a blinding pink cloud ... lost masks, everywhere ...
MINIMALLY CIVIL: In a restaurant in The Dalles, two men wear mini-masks of a kind we can only hope will not be a trend to stay: Strapped around their chins, with up-scooping plastic guards two inches from their mouths and barely covering their noses.
Dee Highway firewood sign, phrased to fit.
Photo by Kirby Neumann-Rea
Who knows where the “Eyrie” is behind this sign in downtown White Salmon?
Kirby Neumann-Rea photo
A TIME capsule of sorts hangs in White Salmon on the Estes Avenue exterior of the building that is now Umpqua Bank: Since 1981, the multi-panel map and business guide has become more and more weathered, some parts obliterated by sun, wind, and time. “Paper folding maps available inside” it reads, over ads for businesses such as Charburger, Shari’s of Hood River, Schwigert’s Old World Deli, Tveidt’s Sentry, Scandia Lodge, and Meredith Hotel, all closed, renamed or gone.
SCANNER TALK: All-time great 9-1-1 description (italics mine): “RP (reporting party) said they saw a small ground fire, west-bound side of the freeway, no structures involved, about the size of five basketballs.” (The fire was a permitted yard burn pile, attended by the owner.)
SCANNER TALK II: When an attended 9-1-1 call came into Hood River dispatch Monday afternoon, all that was heard was “some machinery in the background.” A little later, 9-1-1 got it cleared up: The caller “was operating a jackhammer and accidentally set it off.”
Eventual Gathering: Blaine Fontana’s mural encompassing The Hub Building, at Laughlin and E. First streets, The Dalles.
Pixan: Chrisoforo Devart of White Salmon painted this centerpiece art displayed in the White Salmon taqueria.
Kirby Neumann-Rea photo
SEE IT, EVENTUALLY: Blaine Fontana’s mural surrounding The Hub building facing the north end of Laughlin Street in downtown The Dalles is worth a new look. “An Eventual Gathering” is a brightly-colored, richly-detailed two-story panorama of flora and fauna of the region, with Indigenous ornamentation, as well as barbed wire, are incorporated as a way to remind us of the arc of human habitation and influence in the Gorge. The mural, painted in 2018, wraps fully around the building. It is easily visible from the freeway but not so much from any other vantage, yet it demands to be appreciated up close. Fontana had help from Toma Villa, Jeff Sheridan, and Jeremy Nichols.
SAVE THE DATE: Speaking of Toma Villa, he will be featured in a show featuring Native American artists at Hood River’s Columbia Center for the Arts in April along with Lillian Pitt, Sara Siestreem, and Joe Cantrell. You can see other murals done or coordinated by Villa in Mosier at the Century Link building and at Hood River Middle School, in the exterior alcove off the west courtyard of the campus. (Forgive my ignorance, as there are likely others.)
LAST HURRAH: The Porch ends its 20-year run with this edition. It’s been a joy over the years to celebrate the underseen or underappreciated and rewarding and, in recent months, to expand its view to other communities of the Gorge. Responses to this Porch welcome, however, at kirbyn@gorgenews.com.
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