1. I have solid reasons to believe that with Don K. and Michael Q's help, I moved from Spokane back to Eugene on June 1, 1984.
Almost immediately, upon arriving in Eugene, a brand new friend offered me a ticket to see Laurie Anderson (unknown to me) on June 3rd at the recently built Hult Center. I accepted the ticket. The show blew me away. So did the Hult.
Michael, Don, and I were obsessed with the Celtics-Lakers NBA championship series.
The Race II was held the first weekend I was back in Eugene and the route went right by my new residence. I was back in Track Town USA.
I joined the YMCA.
I returned to strolling around at Saturday Market and worshipping at St. Mary's Episcopal Church.
Over the twenty months I was away from Eugene and taught at Whitworth College in Spokane, a group of Eugenians launched a newly weekly (and free) publication called What's Happening -- later to become the Eugene Weekly.
Also during that time, a squat rectangular metal building that was kind of a food truck and trailer hybrid sprang up at 13th and High.
It was a burger joint.
In the explorations I've been doing since hearing from Scott Taylor, I got it in my head that I remembered one of his fellow Big Time Poetry Theater mates, named Gary, working at that place.
I also knew that the first time I saw copies of What's Happening was one day when I dropped into this joint for a burger.
Today I became determined (obsessed) to find the name of that establishment.
I began a search, first in archived copies of the Register Guard, Eugene's city newspaper.
I was looking for an ad from this burger joint.
I didn't find any ads in the issues of the Guard I inspected.
I turned my attention to the Univ of Oregon's student newspaper, the Oregon Daily Emerald.
Aha!
Success!
It was the Great Oregon Burger Company.
Today wasn't the first time I'd tried to remember the name of that business, just the first day I searched in earnest for the name.
Finding it, putting that missing piece of my life in Eugene in 1984 in place, gave me raising-my-arms-in- victory styled pleasure!
I don't remember the burgers.
I remember discovering What's Happening, a significant milestone in my Eugene life, and I remember this guy who worked there and I wonder if he was Gary.
2. Now I'm remembering, as if I could ever forget, what a dizzying year 1984 was: I had some of the best and some of the most painful times in my entire life.
I'll leave it at that for now.
Here at home, on June 2, 2025, I wasn't dizzy nor was I experiencing polarized swings of feelings like I was in 1984.
No, in my current well-balanced state, I quite placidly thawed a pound of chicken tenders, marinated them in an oil, lemon, and a spices/herbs mixture and sliced a few yellow potatoes, poured olive oil over the slices, and seasoned them with Everything but the Bagel seasoning mix.
I got out the air fryer.
I air fried the potatoes and then the chicken tenders and I steamed a mixture of corn kernels and green beans.
The food turned out pretty good, making for an enjoyable dinner.
3. My mind was too jam packed with countless memories of and questions about my life back in Eugene in 1984-87 to return today to reading Lonesome Dove.
But I did start reading it on Sunday.
I've kept myself in the dark about Lonesome Dove's storyline.
All I can say as Larry McMurtry gets this thick novel underway is that in short order early on he's established a handful of vivid characters and has beautifully set the physical scene of the book's early action in and near the fictional town of Lonesome Dove, TX.
I'm enjoying his unrelenting attention to detail, whether to the Texas landscape, the frontier town of Lonesome Dove, the peculiarities of the characters he's begun to develop, animals, or saloon life.
I've probably got a couple or three weeks of reading ahead of me to finish Lonesome Dove and already McMurtry has succeeded in giving me that great feeling of I can hardly wait to get back to reading more of this book!
No comments:
Post a Comment