Carol writes: The above meme was taken from the writings of Ken Kesey, one of the late writers of the “Beat Generation.” In simple terms, the “Beat” movement consisted of a post-WW II group of writers and thinkers who challenged conformity. The “Beat Generation” felt beaten down by the routines of their day and desired to step out of traditional lifestyles. “Beat” author Ken Kesey chose the setting of an Oregon mental hospital to make his point in one of the seminal novels of the 1960s, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The movie version of Kesey’s novel won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and ever since, Jack Nicholson’s leading role performance has soared to classical brilliance in Hollywood movie lore.
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest was filmed over 3 months in 1975 at the Oregon State Hospital for the insane. Ninety actual patients participated in the film, but in a brilliantly crazy turnabout, the casting directors decided that in most scenes patients would play doctors and doctors would play patients!
Our visit to museum of the Oregon State Hospital was a sobering one.
Displays of equipment used in barbaric mental illness treatments, like lobotomy tables, along with personal stories of former patients that recounted heartbreaking practices,
demonstrated how far we have come in more modern treatment of mental illness.
One of the most dramatic historic displays was in an old hospital building from 1896. The empty metal urns of former patients that were discovered on the hospital grounds were thoughtfully displayed behind a glass window. The urns were preserved in their 2004 original state of recovery.
Unclaimed cremains of patients who died at the hospital between 1913 and 1971 were cemented into niches in the courtyard wall.
On a much more uplifting note, we decided to pay a visit to Silver Falls State Park when we read that the park has laid claim to being the crown jewel of the Oregon state park system. By this time, having been to a fair number of Oregon state parks, I can say that although Silver Falls wouldn’t be my #1 pick, the waterfalls were pretty neat…
Ancient Oregon history from a time of volcanoes, lava flows and falling ash were instrumental in creating the landscape of brilliant waterfalls that is now Silver Falls State Park.
Along a winding creek on the canyon floor, the 7.2-mile Trail of 10 Falls more than fulfilled our daily tracker goal. I must admit that the waterfalls were gorgeous and numerous…
Natural pathways behind some of the waterfalls made for interesting photographs.
The arrival of Oregon’s first European settlers led us to the story of Willamette Mission, which was established along the banks of the Willamette River in 1834 by Rev. Jason Lee. Rev. Lee had traveled to Oregon from the east to minister to the Native Americans. The original Willamette Mission has been rebuilt as a ghost structure at the original site on the Willamette River.
Flooding along the Willamette necessitated moving the mission to a locale known as the prairie of Chemeketa. Here missionaries constructed a sawmill, two residences and a school which would become the nucleus for the city of Salem. This story was beautifully illustrated at the Willamette Heritage Center, where an old textile mill,
with excellent displays featuring the turn-of-the-century textile industry, created an authentic walk back through time.
This old building housed displays on each step in the process of creating the Thomas Kay woolen fabrics that were so popular at the time.
A self-guided tour of a handful of historic structures that have been moved to the site nicely supplemented the tale of that era in Salem history.
We found the labor-intensive process of woolen fabric production to be a fascinating illustration of human ingenuity that just might have lit a fire in this quilter’s belly to get back to knitting again. Certainly, the possibilities for creative expression in the yarn shop were tempting to me….
Oregon was admitted to the Union in 1959 as our 33rd state. The architects of today’s Oregon State Capitol Building adopted a different architectural design than the typical classic dome style we are accustomed to seeing at other state capitols. Salem’s first two state capitols burned down. On the third attempt, an Art Deco design was chosen and was dedicated in 1938.
The typical state capitol tour took us through both legislative chambers
and into Gov. Kate Brown’s ceremonial office.
Impressive views of the Capitol grounds
and nearby historic Willamette University
made the 121-step climb to the outdoor observation deck at the top of the rotunda well worth the effort.
Down below, a short stroll along the ole mill creek running through the lovely Willamette University campus,
with the aim of getting an afternoon coffee fix at the Student Union, gave us plenty of amusement as we watched groups of students participating in orientation for the start of their freshman year.
As we aim our travels toward the East Coast for Al’s October 2019 50th reunion at the Naval Academy, we are reminded of a turn of events that “made all the difference,” as the saying goes. As a senior in high school, Al had received notice in the mail that he was selected for a naval ROTC scholarship at Oregon State University in Corvallis, so that was where he intended to pursue his college education. Later, when the letter of acceptance for the United States Naval Academy arrived in the mail, Al’s life story took a huge turn in another direction.
We have always wondered what difference a degree from Oregon State, as opposed to one from the Naval Academy, would have made in his life, but that’s a question that can only be settled with speculation. Meantime, we thought it would be interesting to visit that Corvallis Oregon campus Al had never even seen before.
Located in the heart of the Willamette Valley, lies Oregon State University, with a student population of around 25,000. In addition to being a major research university, OSU is also an athletic powerhouse. On our campus stroll, one hundred-year-old athletic venues contributed to the sports nostalgia that is an integral part of campus lore.
The classic dome style of Memorial Union,
the neoclassical Valley Library,
and eye-pleasing Weatherford Hall
created an ambience fitting for such a storied university.
Even though our campus visit was a somewhat superficial one, it was Al’s feeling that he would have probably been happy at OSU had “the dice rolled” a different way…
And finally, that brings us to present-day Salem. We took advantage of our only opportunity thus far to visit a state fair. During our stay in Salem, the 153rd Oregon State Fair was in full swing. Long past the age of enjoying carnie rides, the craft venues and barns of farm animals held the most interest for us. Cows, horses, goats, adorable pigs,
and chicken judging kept us quite amused. I still can’t understand why having a chicken walk a perfectly controlled straight line is part of chicken judging...
The subject of farming brings me to my last point of discussion. On an excursion out of town one day, we spotted vast fields of very long vines suspended on trellises as much as 20 ft. tall! We had never seen anything like this before…
Recalling that the Willamette Valley’s fertile soil, moderate climate and plentiful rainfall equals ideal conditions for growing hops, a closer look at one of those vines confirmed our suspicion—it was hops, those marvelous cone-shaped flowers that impart character to beer!
Vast impressive hop fields was further validation of a conclusion that we had already reached during our Oregon travels—that is, the state of Oregon sure has a lot of positives going for it. Now, adding significantly to the positives was the fact that Oregon is among the top 3 states in beer production...
No comments:
Post a Comment