I've spent the last hour or so reading all the "school news" in the Chinook Observer -- way more than I really care about and even more that I don't fully understand. For one thing, back in the dark ages (from 1961 to 2001) I don't think either of...
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word "read" this way: look at and comprehend the meaning of written or printed matter by mentally interpreting the characters or symbols of which it is composed. My headline for this blog is directed to...
It seems to me that I get less done as the days go by, even though I have cut out a good number of activities as the years have passed. First and foremost, I'm retired from teaching. By my calculations that should give me at least ten hours per...
So... there was one important part of our wedding story that I left out of yesterday's blog. It happened the following day -- on Monday, September 14, 1987... But first, a little background. The Croquet Gala on the day we were married was the...
"I learned so much about oysters that I hadn't known before," my neighbor Paul told me. He was lending me a book by Rowan Jacobsen called The Living Shore -- a smallish book that I felt I might be able to handle, at least in bits and pieces. It...
...but I don't think I saw the words "kids" or "learning" or even "students" or "education" when I read that front page article in today's Observer, Citizen group endorses $90M+ school bond. The entire report seemed to be about public dollars and...
I've never been an advocate of the "bigger is better" point of view. After all, my maiden name was Little and until I was well into my thirties I was lucky to carry 105 pounds on my 5'2" frame. And I knew, unequivocally, that the lyrics to "Has...
The packet was full to bursting and was labeled "Student Work/Notes." The first one out of the envelope was a letter to me dated 10-1-76. It was signed "your friend José Flores" and had been mailed from Mexico City: Dear Mrs. LaRue, I'm José and...
Sad to say, 1991 is history, scrapbook-wise. That hot water heater disaster of 2002 was hardest on this particular volume -- perhaps because, atypically for my scrapbooks, it had lots of news clippings in it. That printers' ink and newsprint...
Spinster. Now, there's a word you don't hear much anymore. In fact, it's a term that's been out of fashion for my entire lifetime. Even so, it's the title of a book I first read in 1960 -- just a year after it was published by Simon and...
As of Monday, the Ocean Beach School District will return to remote-only learning due to the current (and worst yet) Pacific County surge in the coronavirus pandemic. As a retired teacher and long-time community member, I say "Bravo!" According to...
My great-grandmother, Julia Jefferson Espy, graduated from the University of Salem (now Willamette University) in 1869. Immediately, she was hired -- because she was the prettiest graduate goes the family story -- by Oysterville School Board...