1. Back in the fall of 1971, a new energetic teacher joined the teaching staff at Kellogg High School, and, we all soon learned, he would be the varsity basketball team's assistant coach and the head coach for the junior varsity.
His name is Dale Bachman and for the last over 40 years, he's lived in the Williamette Valley. He coached girls basketball at Cottage Grove and held a handful of different positions at Thurston High School. No doubt he did more that I don't know about or have forgotten.
Not long ago, Dale took note of the fact that I was traveling to Eugene and told me it would be great to see each other.
On two previous visits, we've done just that and our company included KHS Class of 72 stalwarts Terry Turner and Roger Pearson.
Today Terry was on the road and couldn't join us, but Roger blasted down from Salem and he, Dale, and I grabbed a table at Elmer's near Valley River Center and had an unforgettably superb time yakkin', sharing memories, catching up on news, and enjoying each other and, I will add, our food!
Brief rundown on Dale: later this year, he'll turn 80. He's successfully recovered from prostate cancer and open heart surgery. He is in a Friday morning bowling league. He will once again play softball this summer in a league for players 70 and over. Being with Dale, feeling the strength of his spirit, tapping into his great energy, it almost felt like we were with him back in basketball practice and playing games once again in 1971-72!
Our attentive, friendly, efficient, and eager to be helpful server, Jazzy, took pictures of Dale, Roger, and me. I put them up at the bottom of this post.
2. After our invigorating breakfast, I gathered myself, vaulted into the Camry, and jetted to Corvallis and found Good Samaritan Episcopal Church.
My primary reason for making this trip to Oregon was to attend today's memorial for Harold Lammon.
I think Harold and I first became acquainted back in the mid-1990s when I served on the St. Mary's Episcopal Church vestry and Harold was our Senior Warden.
Over time, we became friends. I sang in small adult choir he directed for a time at St. Mary's. When I visited Eugene after moving to Maryland, Harold and I went to Billy Mac's together for dinners. The last time I saw Harold was three years ago. Debbie and I visited him in Corvallis and enjoyed a stimulating and delicious lunch together at Block 15.
I loved being a part of his memorial today, hearing his son Craig eulogize him with a sweeping summary of Harold's one hundred years of life, listening to Father David Marshall riff in his homily on a poem Harold wrote about seeing the divine in every person we encounter, and taking in the dynamic music Harold had requested be played at his memorial as well as the stirring scriptures he requested to be read.
As an added bonus to having been moved by how this service remembered Harold, afterward the Wilsons, Jackman and Heather, fellow St. Mary's parishioners from when we all lived in Eugene, approached me (I hadn't seen them in the church) and invited me to join them at the reception.
When Debbie used to teach music lessons in our home, the Wilson's children, Jack and Brookie, were students of hers and it was fun learning from Heather and Jackman what those two no longer youngsters are up to now and I loved Heather telling me what a great and lasting impact Debbie's work with her children had on them.
3. I drove back to Eugene. I sat silent for a while in the place I'm renting. I felt great satisfaction and fatigue.
I rallied a bit and decided to eat chicken fried noodles at a place I tried back in December, Jade Dumpling and Noodle House. My bowl of noodles satisfied me. I stopped at the Kiva Grocery and Deli for a quart of milk and bought two very delicious vegan cookies. I'm not sure how bakers create vegan cookies. Similarly, when I ate a vegan donut at Veera's in Missoula I was astonished. How'd the bakers do that? Those cookies I ate tonight were perfect. I rarely eat dessert, but I yearned for a good cookie this evening and I went the extra mile and ate two....
