Dorothy: My mother didn’t own a bathing suit in the hot August Days of 1928. Actually, at the age of twelve, she didn’t own much. What clothes she had were hand me downs or made by her mother out of printed flour sacks. A lot of people were in the same situation and like them she was pretty stoic, but on this day it was hot as only the Umpqua Valley of Oregon can be. She watched the throng of kids swimming in the river and she had to – she just HAD to – join them.
To Know
Wilma Rosenow is 107 years old
After a speaking engagement in Lakewood recently, I met Marlene Bostic and her Mother, Wilma Rosenow, a real American Treasure. Probably I should mention that Wilma Rosenow is 106 years old! That’s not a typo. She’s looking forward to her 107th birthday on July 25.
Answers to questions you didn’t know you had
Join Dee and Dorothy for “From Hudson’s Bay to Downton Abbey and Beyond” – Dupont August 16. Register below. Why Am I Filling Out These Forms?
Letter: Ticketing Tillicum Traffic
Question: At what speed are you dead if hit by a car?
Answer: “A pedestrian has an 85 percent chance of death when involved in a motor/vehicle collision at 40 mph, a 45 percent chance of death at 30 mph, and a 5 percent chance of death at 20 mph.”
Letter: The Coin Toss
I bet, from the title, you thought this was about football. It’s not. But because you thought it was, we’ll begin there.
Letter: The Power of Inattention
Solving problems by common sense and courtesy.
“An old recipe for a rabbit dish starts out, ‘First, catch the rabbit.’
“That puts first things first,” writes Charles Swindol in his book “Man to Man.”
Letter: I Thought He Was Your Friend?
Loyalty or honesty – which quality best describes a friend? “I thought he was your friend?”
The question was asked of me by a reporter. I’d just retaken my seat following the allowed three minutes at the microphone in which I had chastised one of the city council for his attempt to override our community effort to honor one of our locals.
Letter: So Who Are You Anyway?
Anonymity, most typically, suggests epic buffoonery sans backbone.
A while back a local newspaper, in an article headlined “No More Taking Potshots from Behind Anonymity,” decided that if you can’t stand behind it, they were not going to print it.
Letter: Poo-poo on Pot in DuPot, er DuPont
“If the council prohibits marijuana businesses, it would be no different than the city’s existing bans on casinos and strip clubs, he said.”
Marijuana, casinos and strip clubs in the same sentence? It wouldn’t be the first time.