Fall 2011

It seems like it’s time for an update on the progress of my writing project, the stories of Highway 99. I am making contacts and collecting stories, several each week.

I’m also learning a lot since many of the stories introduce subjects I knew little about. This week led me into research on electric trains and the early chest type pop machines that featured Orange Nesbitt or Delaware Punch.

I’m also looking for anyone who can remember Burma Shave signs found in Oregon. Between normal life events, that’s what I’m doing.

The changing season has me scrambling to finish projects I’ve started at home: cleaning up the yard, trimming back overgrown plants and removing the spent plants. There are also more than a few things to do inside before cold weather really sets in, and I want to make at least one more trip to the southern part of the state for research.
Stories from Medford, Central Point and Gold Hill have been a little slow in coming so I’ll try to stir the pot and see what I can come up with. I understand there is a display of Central Point history at the Medford airport this month. That will be a good place to start and I’m hoping to make other contacts and good progress.

During the winter I am planning to work closer to home since I’m not fond of driving long distances in poor weather and I do still have a lot of stories to gather nearby. Eugene, Creswell, Cottage Grove, Junction City and Monroe all have potential.

I always believe the cooler weather will give me more time to write. Not exactly true. I seem to stay almost as busy with fewer outdoor activities. Still my project is growing, page by page and story by story. Those stories don’t come to me in the south to north order I expected but they weave together like the people who share them weave connections to make a many level picture of life along Highway 99.

The 1934 Richfield Gasoline Pump in the painting will be the cover of the book when it comes out. I often kidded that I’d spent my life living up and down Highway 99 but never thought of the highway as a source of stories. A friendship with a woman who raised her family in a home, first built as a Richfield Gas Station, then used as a speakeasy before it became her home struck a chord in my thoughts that stuck with me for years. When I decided to write about the Highway and the memories I heard from friends, the story of the gas station surfaced again. I began the research. In a coffee shop in Talent, slipping in a quick cup before going to the local museum, I saw the painting displayed. Done by Pam Sessions, a Southern Oregon artist, it was perfect, even better, she had a Highway 99 story to share. If you have one, I’d like to hear it.

Jo@Jo-Brew.com
www.Jo-Brew.com
jobrew.wordpress.com