1. I dropped the Deke off at Vero and zoomed on down to Creswell to see Rita Hennessy. Rita and I were team teachers for several years in a double class that combined philosophy and composition. I walked in Rita's house and immediately she handed me books, two by Ivan Doig and a slim volume entitled The Lost Gospel Q: The Original Sayings of Jesus. We took these books to the Creswell Bakery to look at over our coffee and breakfast. We talked about everything, it seems: churches in 2018, knee replacement surgery, the joys of teaching philosophy; we told stories about students we remembered and delighted in all the ideas and ways of seeing the world that we got to work with and open up to our students. I told Rita about the joys of living in Kellogg and why, at the same time that I love being there, I will always miss living in the beehive of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Before we knew it, nearly two hours had passed and I needed to go and we said our farewells and brought our most delightful and stimulating visit to an end.
2. I meandered back to Eugene via Harvey Road, Highway 99, and Dillard Road and then wound my way over to Willamette Street and headed to Sparky Roberts' house. Sparky and I began working on various theater projects back in 1992. We started what became the Shakespeare Showcase back then; we worked together on programs of skits and sketches given at both LCC and to community organizations; I was in four Shakespeare productions that Sparky directed at LCC. We worked together on a course called Dramatizing Literature. I took acting and improv classes from Sparky.
Walking into Sparky's house means walking into the home of many of my best memories of living in Eugene. In Sparky's upstairs studio, I rehearsed countless scenes and took part in several cast readings and cast parties. As we made our way to Sparky's kitchen and dining area, I could see and hear the ghosts of scores of fellow cast members standing in hallways, lounging on Sparky's furniture, playing the piano, doing spur of the moment improvs, laughing, drinking, eating, telling stories, filling Sparky's house with mirth and hearty comradery.
Sparky fixed us each a cup of tea and suddenly it was as if fresh spring air filled the room as we talked about Shakespeare, about the layers of King Lear, how Shakespeare brought to life on the stage everything we see in the world of government and politics today or at any point in our lives, and the great times we had working on shows. Sparky told me about the show she is currently playing in downtown and we talked a bit about mutual friends.
Alas, much too soon, it was time for me to leave. Don and Cliff had both texted me that they were at the 16 Tons near Market of Choice and, having figured out via Facebook that I was in town, could I join them for a beer. I did and suddenly we were reliving the days when I lived in Eugene before and met Cliff and Don and Dick and Jeff and others for beers at the downtown 16 Tons on Thursday afternoons.
3. Michael McDonald emailed me several weeks ago that he and Lynn Tullis had decided to retire. In collaboration with Pam Dane, they decided to have a party at Pam and Michael's house on June 15th and call it a reunion party for current and retired members of what I knew to be the LCC English Department (whatever it's called today). Upon receiving this news, I immediately started working out details with the Deke as to how we would travel to Eugene and attend this party.
The party happened tonight and it was epic, one of the most joyful occasions I've ever been to. I can't begin to list all the people who came to this party -- but I will say that I saw the whole span of my years teaching at LCC from 1989 to 2014 pass before my eyes. It was stunning and moving to see three people who were on the faculty when I started at LCC: Jerome Garger, Susan Glassow, and Ted Berg, all of whom were generous to me as a whippersnapper and took great interest in helping me feel welcome at LCC. Jerome and I became and have remained the best of friends and even lived together for a short period of time.
The Danes' back yard buzzed with vitality. I got to talk with so many of the people I taught with for so many years and reflect upon the years we taught, the things we did and about how it is to be growing older, losing our parents, experiencing the inevitable slowing down that comes with aging, how we are shaping our lives without our teaching jobs to shape much of it for us. I loved having conversations about Glenn Gould, poetry, movies, and photography. Merry Caston had read each of my daily posts last summer that I wrote about Mom's last weeks and days and told me how much she appreciated reading them and David Rothergery told me he'd just found a copy of one of my Copia lectures and that it had moved him.
I didn't want to leave.
I didn't want this party to end.
I didn't want this day to end.
In a span of about nine hours today I had been with the people I loved the most over a thirty-five year period of my life living in Eugene. My friendships with Margaret, Michael, Jeff, and Pam predate our work at LCC because we were at the University of Oregon together in the 1980s. Carol Watt was at this party. We were classmates in the first graduate school course I took at the U of O in 1979. As a one year interim department chair, I was commissioned with the privilege of hiring six new faculty into our department. Five of them were at this party: Michael, Pam, Lynn, Jennifer, and Anne. These five became the core of future hiring committees and the entire complexion of our department evolved into the best workplace populated by the very best instructors I could ever imagine working with.
The best years at LCC growing out of the 1998 hirings were joyful, stimulating, invigorating, innovative, and deeply gratifying and satisfying. I often think back in awe that I got to teach Working Class Literature with Margaret Bayless for several years, worked out teaching World Literature in conjunction with Lynn Tullis, talked about movies and books and teaching and all kinds of spiritual things with Dan Armstrong, dove into Shakespeare and much else with Michael McDonald, daily experienced having my awareness expanded because of the work going on in our department with women's studies, ethnic literatures, innovative ways of teaching writing, and challenging readings that we all were assigning our students.
These halcyon days for me at LCC must be seen in relation to the days that immediately preceded them. Much of what I learned about innovation in the classroom, about the beauty of interdisciplinary instruction, and the ways improvisational theater could enlarge my abilities as an instructor happened in my early years at LCC working with Rita Hennessy and Sparky Roberts. I thought a lot today about how much more elastic my mind and my perspectives became because I worked with Rita and Sparky. Each of them had humane and compassionate ways of drawing students out, tapping into students' strengths and helping build confidence in those they worked with, and each of them turned assumptions and ideas about teaching upside down and I was much the better for it.
I am so happy I showed up in Eugene today, that I spent such a spirited few hours with Rita and Sparky and that Don and Cliff reached out to invite me to join them for a beer and that I attended the LCC party. I know over the next few days I'm going to long to be back in the company of these dear friends and wish that I could count on doing what I used to do: take photo walks with Russell; eat dinner on Thursdays at Billy Mac's with Lynn, Anne, Russell, Pam, Michael, Kathleen, and the others; drink coffee with Michael, Jeff, Margaret, and Nate; work out Showcases with Sparky; talk about the Grateful Dead, Zero, Nine Days Wonder, and Bob Dylan with Jeff; and eat more excellent breakfasts with Rita in Creswell or Coburg or go together to see Jane King or visit her good friend in Salem.
Instead, I'll go back to Kellogg, happy that I saw all these people I love today and tonight and happy that I was able to share my enthusiasm for the life the Deke and I have carved out back in my hometown.
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