As a youth, I was fortunate to have some special friends more than twice my age. When I was 30, my friend Helen Cornelius, in her late 60s, la…

Jackie McManus, a Gorge author active in The Dalles Art Center, has released a new book of poems.

Just in time to mark the 39th anniversary Saturday, May 18, of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, the Chronicle received a big manila envelope from a Washington man. Inside was a poem Guillermo Castaneda wrote about that sunny Sunday morning in 1980, about experiencing the “total eclipse” of ash-induced darkness that sent him and his family scurrying inside in fear.

Every May, VFW Post 2471 members can be seen at local stores distributing red poppies to symbolize the blood of American troops lost to war. The poppies have been associated with fallen warriors since World War I, when they grew on graves in the area straddling the Belgian province of West Flanders and East Flanders.