The Yachats Gazette, Issue 55, April 2 2016

For a printable copy of Issue 55, click here

Interview with Marie Pink of Marie’s Paw Spa

Marie’s pet grooming shop is located at 1029 Wakonda Beach Road, between Waldport and Yachats.

TYG: So how did you get involved in this?
Marie: Well, I’ve worked with animals my entire life, and I always thought that grooming dogs would be a fun business to have.

TYG: I can imagine it is!
Marie: It is pretty great! It’s a pretty fun job. It’s hard work, but you get lots of sweet puppy kisses and people really appreciate it when you take good care of their animals.

TYG: Tycho [our Golden Retriever, who recently visited Marie’s Paw Spa] hadn’t been groomed in so long—he just looks so much better!
Marie: He feels better, too! It makes a big difference in their overall health, it really does.

TYG: Yes, he’s acting more active! He’s seven, now.
Marie: That’s middle age for a dog!

TYG: So how did you get started here?
Marie: Well, when I moved down to the coast, I had three Shelties—Shetland sheep dogs. I was a care-giver, and I worked a lot of hours taking care of elderly people and I didn’t have time to groom my own dogs, so I took them to different groomers. I had a lot of very unhappy experiences with those other groomers. [...] That really upset me, and I knew I could do a better job because I already had experience grooming animals, because I grew up grooming show horses. We had race horses and show horses when I was a little girl. So I already knew how to groom. And if you can groom a 1,200 pound horse, you can certainly groom an eight pound poodle, right?

TYG-Graphic Design: The fur trimming might be a little different...
Marie: Yes, it’s a little different. But I wasn’t real happy, and I knew I could do a better job, and that I could provide a happier, more nurturing environment for them. And I was ready for a new career—I was getting burned out.

TYG: What were you doing before, again?
Marie: I was a caregiver. I took care of elderly people, and people with mental illnesses, and I did that for a very long time. But you get really tired of doing that kind of work; it just makes you mentally tired. So I was ready for a change.

TYG: How did you get to this area?
Marie: Well, that’s a great story! You might remember 9/11, when we had the bombing of the Twin Towers.

TYG: I wasn’t alive then, but I know about it.
Marie: Well, I was at a care facility, taking care of mentally ill patients, and I watched it happen on TV. I was of course absolutely horrified, and I realized that a lot of those people were dying, and their life was ending. And I wondered if they were happy with the life that they had had up to that point. And I realized that there were some goals I had that I hadn’t achieved yet. One of those goals was that I had always wanted to move back to the ocean, because I grew up in Los Angeles. I really wanted to live at the coast, and I’d always loved this part of the coast. So I said, “My goodness, I’m going to go and do something about that!” That weekend, that very weekend, I drove down here from Portland, I found a job, and a place to live, all in one weekend.

TYG: That’s awesome!
Marie: I know! So I kind of felt like—you can say God, or the spirits, or fate, whatever you want to call it—was at work and it all kind of lined up, and I was able to move down here.

TYG: We kind of had the same experience! So where did you live before Yachats?
Marie: Well, I grew up in Los Angeles.

TYG-GD: How did you take care of a bunch of horses in Los Angeles?
Marie: Actually, on the outskirts of Los Angeles, there’s a whole lot of horse ranches. And actually in Los Angeles, there are little pockets of horse ranches. [...] Where I was born, Encino, there are still a couple of ranches—John Wayne’s ranch is still up there. They’re kind of hidden up there. We had a big horse ranch.

TYG-GD: So what kind of ranch did you take care of horses on?
Marie: Well, we had quarter horses. We started out with racing quarter horses.

TYG: Quarter horses?
Marie: Quarter horses. They’re one of the original breeds that was developed only here in America.

TYG-GD: Why were they called “quarter” horses?
Marie: Because they are the fastest horse in a quarter mile. No other horse can beat them in a quarter mile.

TYG-GD: Why would you only want to go a quarter of a mile?
Marie: Because back in the days when they were developed, they didn’t have big, long, round racetracks. They just had short, dirt tracks, so they did a quarter of a mile.

TYG: I think it’s similar to the concept of drag racing.
Marie: There you go! [laughter]

TYG: It’s basically a horse drag race.
Marie: Quarter horse racing is like the NASCAR of horse racing. So anyway... I grew up with horses and I could ride a horse before I could walk.

TYG-GD: Wow, that’s amazing! We tried to put Allen on the back of a llama, but the llama didn’t like it... [laughter]
Marie: We had race horses, but we didn’t like how the horse race industry was run—it really made us very sad. So we got rid of our race horses, and bought pleasure horses for showing and breeding. We did the show circuit down in California. It was a big thing—a lot of actors were into it. James Brolin was one of the people that we saw regularly—Marcus Welby, Barbra Streisand’s husband.

TYG-GD: I didn’t grow up here... [laughter]
TYG: Mom’s from Switzerland!
Marie: Yes, okay... [laughter]

TYG-GD: And we don’t have TV, so I’m totally clueless [laughing]
Marie: There you go. Anyway, very well-known TV actor. A lot of celebrities did [the horse showing]. So, I’ve always had animals, all my life—a deep love of critters.

TYG: Me too. The dogs that I grew up with, Mom and Dad got them about a year before I was born, so they weren’t really puppies when I grew up. But they were two labs, and they were just the cutest things. 
TYG-GD: Very forgiving with young children.
Marie: Labs are wonderful! Goldens and labs are both really wonderful with kids. They’re a great family pet.

TYG-GD: So how are things going here?
Marie: Well, I’ve been grooming for almost nine years.

TYG-GD: In this location?
Marie: No, I originally had a shop outside of my house in Yachats, but I didn’t own that property, and they wouldn’t sell it to me. So I was able to buy this property [in Waldport] and converted the garage into my shop, and then the house is a long-term project that I’m slowly working on, and then I’ll get it restored and I’ll be living in it.

TYG-GD: So, you’re not living in this house?
Marie: No—it’s a hundred year old house that they were going to tear down, and I saved it. It’s older than the [Alsea] bridge. Back when the bridge was being built, this was a boarding house, and some of the bridge workers lived here. Isn’t that cool? So it’s got a little bit of history to it, and it’s really a very old house.

TYG-GD: Does it have a lot of rooms in it then?
Marie: It doesn’t, and it actually was smaller, originally. They just had small rooms, but when they tore down the chimney, it had a bunch of small openings in the chimney, so they had different stove pipes going to different rooms.

TYG: Oh, that’s cool!
Marie: Yeah—the house was built in 1920, and brought in on skids. It’s probably from somewhere around here, then brought in. It’s been here longer than any of these other houses in the neighborhood. So, I started out small, and worked two part-time jobs as I started doing my grooming and got my skills up to snuff. I took some courses, and finally, after about a year and a half, I got enough clientele to where I was able to quit both my jobs and start grooming full time. Then I was able to purchase this property—and I just got it paid off, yay me!—and I have a really great clientele! The majority of my clients have been with me since I first started grooming little tiny dogs in my kitchen sink. [laughter] Now I have two huge human tubs and a small sink! It’s a big difference. You start small, and then build up. It’s been good to me—I don’t make a lot of money, but I make a living. I work hard for what I have, and I hope that I add some value to the community.

TYG: I’m sure you do! So can we have a tour?
Marie: Well, there’s not that much to look at—right now it’s pretty rough. Matter of fact, this year I’m going to be getting it redone. [She leads us into the shop.]

TYG-GD: What are you going to get redone?
Marie: Well, I’m going to paint, put in new flooring, redo the plumbing... So this originally was one big garage, so I put in a bunch of walls. Most of the materials that I used are recycled materials. Like the bead board here: it was at a friend’s house, and they were going to throw it away, so I saved it and brought all that bead board in. This [motions to the front desk] was at the toy store in Yachats. This was my grandmother’s mirror. This... [pats on a chest-level wall]

TYG: ...is a holding pen?
Marie: Yes, it’s a playpen, or the corral, we call it, but this [wall] was on the side of the road at the Yachats give-away that we have every summer. Remember? That counter is from Cheese & Crackers [another defunct store in Yachats]—so it’s really about re-using and recycling. All the corrugated metal that you see, that was being dumped, and I recycled that. I put an extra wall there, so I still have a “garage” with my washer and dryer in there. And then two human-sized tubs: one came from out of my house originally, and that one I got for free, brand new. [The previous owners] bought it and didn’t like it, so they just gave it to us. Here’s my utilisink, which works really great. We don’t put dogs in cages here, because I think it makes dogs really upset, so we have playpens for tiny dogs. The only cage we have is for my shop bunny. That’s Crimson; she came from the shelter, because we really promote people adopting versus buying critters. As you can see, [the shop] is a work in progress, but it fits my needs. It’s not fancy, but it’s a nice, warm, happy place, and the dogs are pretty happy here.

TYG: How’s business been going?
Marie: Well, it’s been a little slow this year, but I think it’ll pick back up. It’s just like the economy, if people don’t have a lot of money to spend, then they tend to let their dogs go a little bit, and then when they have more money they’ll get it taken care of. Dog grooming has been good to me, and the community has really been good to me. People are very nice here, and of course, everybody has a dog! And if you move down here, you know you have to get a dog—it’s required! [laughter] And you know that we work with a lot of charities too, right?

TYG: No!
Marie: We work with Focus, the Lincoln County animal shelter, and quite often we also make food donations to the feral cat people. Also, because many of my clients are quite elderly, if something happens to them, we’ll take their dog and find it a new home, usually in our clientele base, so we know where it’s going and we see it on a regular basis. That’s just one of the things I like to provide for my clients so they have peace of mind.

TYG-GD: Are you aware that Holly Anne Gibbons Law in Waldport works with animal trust funds and that sort of thing?
Marie: You know, I’ve sent people to her, actually. A few years back, unfortunately, I had a couple of elderly clients that died very suddenly, and they hadn’t made any provisions for their pets. Unfortunately, families quite often can’t, or don’t wish to take the animals. These animals ended up going to the shelter, which wasn’t bad because we have a no kill shelter, which is fine, but perhaps they didn’t go to the best possible home that they could have.

TYG: That is the best, though, that we have a no kill shelter.
Marie: I know. So anyway, now I recommend that my older clients get a living will for their pet and have things lined up for that. And those who can’t, I’m the contact number if something happens and I’ll go and get their pet and find them the best possible home. And I urge our clients to adopt whenever they can, instead of going and buying puppies. All my pets have been from rescue [organizations]... including my parrots!

TYG: You have parrots?
Marie: I did, I had three parrots, and they all came from elderly clients who couldn’t keep them any longer. Unfortunately with parrots it’s pretty hard to tell how old they are, and they must have been pretty old when I got them, so they’ve all passed on with the exception of one, who went to one of my clients [when] she fell in love with it.

TYG-GD: Parrots are a big handful!
Marie: They are, but they’re fun! They sure add a lot of life to your household. Something else that I do is offer apprenticeships to young people, to come and try out grooming. If they like it, I can give them a good recommendation to go further on. Also for young people who are looking to be a vet tech, or at college—they usually want some experience in animal handling; they can come and volunteer for a little bit and then I’ll write them up a recommendation and they can take that in. That’s a nice little extra thing to be able to do.

TYG-GD: Where do you think you’ll be in five years or so?
Marie: I’ll still be grooming, I’ll be living in my house, and I’m hoping to have a bigger program to help young people. I’ve been a foster mom in the past—not through the foster system, but just taking in homeless kids. Once I get my house fixed, I definitely want to do that again. There are a lot of kids and teenagers—through no fault of their own—who don’t have homes.

TYG: Job Corps is great for that as well.
Marie: It is. I love Job Corps. One of my neighbors is an instructor there. Anyway, this is a great location and I really enjoy it here. You know, that’s the airstrip right there. This is the oldest air strip on the Oregon Coast that’s still in operation.

TYG-GD: I had no idea! How many planes come in?
Marie: You know, on a sunny day ... the other day we had three of them: two Cessna’s and an experimental ultra-light flying in and out. And every once in a while the Coast Guard chopper will land and do a quick check on all their systems before flying on. That’s always really exciting because it’s a neat sound. I like aeronautics, so it’s a cool location! And we have lots of wildlife down here of course. Elk, deer, the occasional bear... and of course all the raptors. It’s nice living out in the county because of that.

TYG-GD: Was there anything else that you wanted to add or talk about?
Marie: Oh! Well, yes—you should probably know that we groom dogs from tiny up to about 120 pound farm dogs, and that we also groom cats. We have a nail clinic Monday through Thursday from 10 am to 12 noon, and you just drop in on those mornings and we do their nails and clean their ears—and we do that for pocket pets, too!

TYG: Pocket pets?
Marie: Yes, like bunnies, ferrets—if you can carry them, they’re called pocket pets. [laughter]

TYG-GD: Do you have a favorite grooming anecdote you’d like to share?
Marie: I do, I do, actually... I had a lady call, and she’s like “I’ve got this dog and I need it groomed.” And I asked her, “Well, what breed is it?” Quite often, people don’t know what kind of dog they have, because they’ve adopted it, and what [the people adopting out] tell them it is, and what it really is, is two different things.
And she goes, “Well, it’s kind of small to medium size.”
And I ask, “Does it have a lot of hair?”
“Oh, no it’s kind of short.”
“Does it have a good temperament?”
“Oh, he’s nice!”
“OK, any fleas or mats?”
“Oh, I don’t know, I can’t really tell.”
So I said, “Well, I can’t tell you how much it’s going to be until you bring your animal in.”

So the “small to medium dog” was a huge, huge sheepdog that probably hadn’t been groomed in about five years. Its coat was completely matted, so I had to shear it like a sheep. And the dog came in very depressed; as I started taking the coat off, it came off as a big blanket. It was all one piece, and as I got it about half-way off, all of a sudden the dog just perked up and got super, super happy. I cut all the hair back from the eyes, and it hadn’t even had a bath yet—by the time we got that dog done, it was a completely different animal. He was so happy. He just bounced all over the shop. Totally happy, gave everybody kisses; the owner came in and they didn’t even recognize the dog! I said, “Well, you have an Old English Sheepdog, just so you know, and that’s considered a large dog!” [laughter] But it was really fun to see the change in his behavior, from being depressed and dejected to being happy and feeling great. These people had just adopted him; it wasn’t their fault at all—somebody had dumped him, and they just found him. But that kind of thing really makes us super-happy, because we know we’ve made a difference in that animal’s life.

Well thanks, Allen, for your time, I really appreciate it!

TYG: Thanks so much!

Interview with John Booker of Angell Job Corps

John Booker is Center Director at the Angell Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center located north of Yachats. This is the conclusion of the interview from last month’s issue.

John: I try to err on the side of the students. And they get in trouble! I’ll be “that much” from sending them home. It’s difficult for me to send a student home. [...] If it’s not a ZT offence—zero tolerance, like assault, arson...

TYG: Have you ever had arson happen?
John: Yes. I’ve seen a couple of firebugs come through.

TYG: Fire-whats?
John: Bugs. People who like to set fires. That becomes a federal thing, because we’re a federal [facility]—we have a federal law firm that comes out and investigates that. But I had a student in Nebraska who got angry at the instructor, and set a government vehicle on fire. And I had another kid, I think in Wisconsin—the sad thing was that his Dad was a fireman, and this kid tried to set a building on fire. He just loved fire. Unfortunately there’s nothing I can do—it’s out of my hands in terms of law enforcement. That’s why we have anger management programs: if you have anger problems, you’d better get in anger management. I tell them that. Don’t react; think before you react. And we have some that cross that line, and they beg me to stay, but it’s out of my hands, I have no choice. Drugs: you’re automatically gone. Even though the states of Oregon and Washington legalized [cannabis], it’s not legal here [at Angell Job Corps.]

TYG-Editorial Assistant: The Federal Government doesn’t recognize it.
John: Nope. I just caught four a couple of weeks ago, and sent them home. And every once in a while I have the dogs pop up.

TYG-EA: Dogs? People bring dogs?
John: No, the Forest Service has drug dogs. So every so often I call them and say “I need you to pop up and hit the dorms.” And I’m going to have them again, to keep the kids off guard. Mainly, my problem is the locals. They’ll get so bold as to drive up and drop it off to the kids... so that’s why you see that sign out there [the “Park and Register” sign]. But I have students from Waldport, from Newport, from Lincoln City. I can’t turn them down, but I’d prefer them to go to another center, like Estacada.

TYG-Graphic Design: So they’re detached from bad influences?
John: Yes. Because they become mules for the other kids. But I’ve had some success. I can’t physically do anything to them, but I can ask them to take everything out of their pockets, or take their shoes off, but we can’t search them.

TYG-EA: That’s complicated.
John: Yes, but if [we have suspicions] then we can call law enforcement officers, and they can search them.

TYG-EA: So how did you end up in this remote corner of the continent?
John: I applied. I went on a detail to Curlew, Washington—it’s up on the border of Canada. My wife came up there when I was on the detail, and she said: “Oh, no.” [laughter] The town of Curlew’s population is only 300. And the closest job was [in] Republic, 45 minutes from there. They get a lot of snow. And my wife said: “No.” And I said: “Well, I’m not going to apply for this job...” So I didn’t. So then for this job... Well, the Center Director, Gina Luckritz, all of a sudden decided she wanted to retire. And Gina was my boss in Arkansas, the Deputy Director. So they called and asked me about Angell, and whether I wanted to come up here on detail. So I said yes, and came on up here.

TYG-GD: So what does “detail” mean? Normally I’d associate that with a fire, or something.
John: No, it’s a job opportunity. So for this job I got a promotion. I was a GS12, so it gave me a detail to another Center, to see if I was a fit for it. They want to look at me, I want to look at the job—it’s a two-way street. It was a challenge here, and I said “Wow.” I wrote down all the things I had to do to change it... I could have just stayed at Pine Ridge, Nebraska—it was a top-performance center. But my wife was getting tired of the cold and didn’t want to stay there. She was tired of the snow, the blizzards. I asked her if she wanted me to apply, and she said yes. She came out, and she liked the ocean—it was summertime when she came out. And the hospital was close—she’s been in the medical field ever since we were married. There were great opportunities for her and for us here. Even though I told her she didn’t have to work... it’s best that she work, because she’s hard to live with if she doesn’t. [chuckles] 

TYG-GD: It’s going to be a disaster when you guys retire!
John: She’s just going to keep on working. But I’m going to retire! [laughter]

TYG-GD: What do you look forward to doing?
John: Probably being a referee for football and basketball, working with youth in some type of way, playing golf—just really relaxing! Traveling every once in a while... I’ll probably do more volunteering than anything. Right now I volunteer with a youth basketball team, first and second grade; and then I have seventh and eighth grade that I coach—it’s a good thing! I love working with disadvantaged youth, I love working with sports; it’s a good way to keep young people’s minds open. And I always want to teach the basics. If they learn the basics, they can always expand on it. I always explain that if you can’t dribble, and you can’t pass... you can’t do anything! I enjoy trying to implement those things in their life. I did that with my kids; as they continue to get older, they’ll continue to improve. I want to go fishing, too! I took my son, when he was here, and his son Austin out on a boat and we caught our limit. We had a blast! All kinds of sea bass and cod; and we put a couple of baskets out and had 32 of the nicest size of crab.

TYG-GD: Wow! You ate well for a while!
John: Yes! Matter of fact we just used the last of it—we had it cleaned, fileted, and vacuum-sealed. I just fixed my wife the last of it for Valentine’s Day. She loves crab and shrimp, so I fixed her a big Valentine’s Day dinner.

TYG-EA: You need a bigger freezer!
John: We don’t buy as much food as we used to [when the kids were around], but we have a box freezer. I have staff members here who have brought me some elk, some deer... I’ve been blessed! But I’m also have two staff members [who have just had birthdays] and I’m going to smoke them a couple slabs of ribs for their birthday—they’re both rib lovers. What I do is put a good rub on them, let them marinate in the fridge for a couple of days, and I’ll smoke them.
 
TYG-EA: Nice birthday!
John: Yes. But I’ve been blessed to hire some staff members who have really helped me. I don’t take the credit for the Center moving forward; it’s the staff—I give all the credit to them.

TYG-EA: How many staff do you have?
John: I have sixty-some staff members now.

TYG: I had no idea you had so many people working here!
John: We have education, vocation, residential... so that’s a lot of people. You have the vocation instructors—the six trades; then I have the teachers...

TYG-GD: Do the kids clean the dorms?
John: Yes! They’re responsible for cleaning, and for washing their clothes. And they keep the grounds clean. And they have a KP day—kitchen duty—part of giving back to the program is doing KP. They have to wash the dishes, keep the kitchen clean, help to cook—and I have five staff members just for the kitchen! And you have the medical facility: I have a nurse, but I need another nurse—the one I’m hiring right now is through a contract agency. I’m looking and recruiting—the Lord will send me somebody. 

TYG-GD: I just had one follow-up question from something you mentioned earlier: you said that kids could come here when they were 16. How do they fulfill their educational requirements?
John: When they come here, they’re tested to see where they are, and then they’re placed based on their level—[the teachers] work with them.

TYG-GD: So it’s individual tutoring up to the GED?
John: It’s not individual—they have classrooms over there. If they want tutoring they have to come in early. We try to make it different. Most of the kids here don’t like school, so we let them work at their own pace. They don’t have homework—they just work at their own pace. [...] We work with the state requirements, too: they’re required to have so many hours of classroom [instruction], and they can get a high school diploma or a GED. We also have adult online programs. 

TYG-EA: How long do students typically stay?
John: We try to get them out of here within ten to eleven months. But they can stay at their own pace. Not everybody is able to comprehend things, or they didn’t retain a lot when they were in school, and some of them dropped out. So we try to get them comfortable and encourage them. Right now we’re going through more hands-on classroom—I’m getting smart boards so the teachers can teach on that. Still, we find that the students do better when you have somebody in the classroom, and the instructors can answer questions right then and there. I’m glad we went back to that. I had my best teachers when I was in algebra and geometry, when the teacher could get up there and demonstrate how to resolve a problem and how to use the different formulas, and why you’re using the formulas, because I could always get the answer, but if I couldn’t show the teacher how I got this answer, she’d mark it wrong. I loved my algebra teacher. [...]

TYG-GD: So, if somebody wanted to volunteer at the Angell Job Corps Center, who would they approach?
John: Well, you approach me, and I’ll set you up with Dave—we have a volunteer form you’d fill out. You just say, “Hey, I want to volunteer in education, in the dorms, I want to volunteer in vocation...” Wherever you want to volunteer, we’ll set it up.

TYG: Well, thank you so much for your time!
John: Thank you!

The Yachats Gazette, Issue 54, March 01 2016

  For a printable copy of the Yachats Gazette, Issue 54, please click on this link.

Interview with John Booker of Angell Job Corps

 John Booker is Center Director at the Angell Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center located north of Yachats.

John: Well, if you want me to, I’ll start out telling you something about our program here at the Angell Job Corps.

TYG: Sure!
John: I’ve been with this program—matter of fact, I just got an award for 25 years in with the federal government—for 26 years. I’ve been with several Job Corps Centers here in the nation. I started out at the Ouachita Job Corps in Arkansas. Job Corps is a training program that was started 50 years under Lyndon B. Johnson, and it came out of the CCC program—the Civilian Conservation Corps, that was started during the Depression to help disadvantaged youth all across the nation. There are now 128 centers. 28 of them are federal, although one of them was closed down last year. At Angell, here, we have 168 students. I have six trades: urban forestry, brick masonry, plumbing, basic auto, painting, and carpentry.

TYG: I saw a mural on the back of one of the buildings as we were driving in—it’s beautiful!
John: [smiles] Some of those murals were painted years ago by the students. We just had a meeting with the Department of Labor; we’re trying to bring our culinary arts back online. They did approve that program to come back into play—now the paperwork is in Washington. Just a matter of time! We have a Community Relations Council, and through the community, they helped us and wrote some letters to bring that back online.

TYG-Graphic Design: Do you identify more with Waldport, or Yachats?
John: We identify from Yachats all the way up to Lincoln City—we do work from there all the way down. If it’s a non-profit organization, we can do [work for] it. Also, the community can hire students to do some things, as long as it’s not violating safety standards: they can’t do roofing, go too high up on ladders, that sort of thing. We call this work-based learning, and a lot of the community come out and hire them on weekends. And then we have work-based learning sites in the community, where students go out during the week, and work.

TYG-GD: Like on the trails?
John: They do that; we have a student working in the Cape Perpetua office; we have students working in Les Schwab—all over. That’s part of their training here. The ones that qualify are the ones close to graduation. We have graduation once a month; we normally graduate ten to twelve students a month. We place them on jobs, help them with their résumés. Areas we seek are from Washington, Oregon, some California, Idaho—that’s where our kids come in from. We can hold up to 210 students here, but right now my on-board strength is 155. We try to stay up to 160 or 170. Once we bring the culinary arts back on-line, six of our slots will be ACT slots—those are college slots. Tina Terrell, the regional director, just came in for a meeting with Oregon State University—we’re trying to set up a program with OSU for our students to go into. They can get a two-year college program, or they can get a four-year with the aquatics program. So, we try to open up doors for our students. We have students go into the military at least once or twice a month—we have students enroll in the Navy, and they come out and talk to our students. Other centers have advanced training programs, like Clearfield, Utah. We just have the basics, but our students can put in applications and apply to other programs. I had a student transfer last month, going to Clearfield. They have to interview, be a student in good standing; they have to have a certain education score or level to qualify. It’s pretty much the same thing when they apply to get in here—they have to have a copy of their health records, make sure they’re drug-free, and have a copy of their behavior record. They don’t just take any student. You have to be performing at a high level to get into those programs.

TYG-GD: What’s the range of the student ages?
John: The range here is from 16 to 24. They can be here until they’re 26 or 27—if they come in before their 25th birthday, they have two years to complete the program. That also [applies] if they want to go to advanced training.

TYG-Editorial Assistant: How would a student typically end up in Job Corps?
John: We have a recruiting program called DESI [Dynamic Educational Systems, Inc.] that does all the recruiting for the Job Corps in this region—we’re in the San Francisco region. Students go in and put in an application, [and talk to] an Outreach Admissions Counselor—sometimes they have their offices in the unemployment offices. They do a background check on the student, and the student tells them if he has IEPs [individualized education programs], special needs, or [requires] some kind of accommodation. Here, in the program, we have a contract with a mental health professional, we have a contract with a TEAP [trainee employee assistance program]—a TEAP is a drug and alcohol person. If the student has issues, we set them up with counseling; if they have an issue with smoking—in the state of Oregon, minors aren’t allowed to smoke—we [set them up] with a doctor so they can get patches or gum to help them out. Some parents let them smoke, but here they’re not allowed to smoke. Sometimes we catch them and hold them accountable: they get written up, have to do extra hours, they get a fine, stuff like that.

TYG-GD: So are the parents typically very involved with the kids?
John: Yes, most of them. We have students here who are homeless and don’t have any support from their parents. We have students who come out of the military and don’t want to go to college, and they take advantage of the programs. [The Job Corps] is for disadvantaged youth. They base it on your income.

TYG-EA: So there’s a cost to students sometimes?
John: No cost at all. It costs the government anywhere from $30,000 to $32,000 to stay here a year. The only thing that’s required of a student is to go to work. The government invests in the student; they make $1.86 for every dollar that they invest in. If the student [doesn’t go to work], we end up paying for them because they’re a detriment to society, so we pay for them one way or another. But if they become tax payers...

TYG: Right.
John: And here, with our federal centers, our students have a lot of opportunity. We have camp crews for our fire teams. We’re also getting ready to hire a FMAO, which is what we call the head of our fire program—we’ve just been approved to start a student fire team. They have to be eighteen and older to get on the student fire team. So students have a lot of options. Even when they go out on the camp crews, they make a lot of money. I have students sometimes leave here with $5,000, $6,000 by going out. That’s good, because when they graduate, that helps them get a start, get a job. They can put a down deposit on an apartment. Because what we call re-adjustment... If they come here without a high school diploma, they get $250 for getting a high school diploma, they get $250 for completing the vocational training. So if a student lives here a year, and they take taxes out, they make about $1,000 for what we call re-adjustment. So after they graduate, they get a re-adjustment pay. That’s just to help them with a deposit and to get started. But a lot of times we try to help them have a job before they leave here.

TYG: Backing up a little, can I assume that FMAO means Fire Management and Operations?
John: There you go! You got it! [laughs] You’re pretty sharp! That’s a good program. Some students get interested in fire-fighting, and they can go to Boise, Idaho, to the fire school, and become a fire-fighter. Once they go to that school, they become “hot-shots.” Those are the first ones on the scene, they parachute out of the planes, they’re the ones that try to contain the fire once it gets started.

TYG-GD: Exciting but deadly!
John: Yes, it is. They automatically start out making $70,000 a year—it’s a great job.

TYG-GD: I bet that takes a special kind of personality!
John: Yes. You have to be in shape.

TYG-EA: And an adrenaline junkie!
John: I’m telling you, it’s a tough school! I’ve gone there and I’ve seen the things they go through. I think I could have done it when I was younger, but... When I got in Job Corps I used to go out fire-fighting. Basically what we did was fire support. We help put the fire lines around the fire to help contain it, do mop-ups after the fire’s gone through, try to make sure the fire’s out, work on the injury crew... There’s so much that goes on in a fire. California probably has the biggest budget for its fire-fighting from the government. You may not know, but every year it’s a challenge to stay above because of the budget cuts through all the federal programs. Job Corps has taken some cuts too. Every year there’s something different coming out. You know, we used to pay for our students to go home twice a year, at summer break and winter break. This year the Department of Labor decided they won’t have any more summer breaks. It doesn’t mean they can’t—they have to use their annual leave to go. And that’s a big thing: we fly them home, we charter buses; they normally leave here around June 27, and come back July the 8th or somewhere around there. But that’s no longer going to happen. 

TYG-GD: Do you use a lot of community volunteers here?
John: Yes! I used to have three volunteers, but now I only have two. The people who come in fill out a volunteer form. If somebody wants to volunteer in education, or volunteer to tutor, we’ve had a number of people do that. We also take our students to the numeracy and literacy program in Waldport. [...]

When I first got here, we were ranked 118 [out of 126] in the nation—we weren’t doing very well. Now, I’m ranked 86! I got hired here in June of 2014—I was short 15 staff members. I had to be creative.

TYG-EA: There are not a lot of people around here to be hired!
John: No. What I do, is I’m very creative. I use every resource—I use contracting. [...] Right now, I’m having a hard time finding a nurse—we’ve been without a nurse for three years. I’ve got a young lady just out of school contracted to hire. But the thing that hurts is when I have a veteran say they want the job, then turn around—they go through the background check, they take the tests, then all of a sudden they say “Well, I changed my mind.” That has happened to me three times. [...] It’s tough in this area—it’s a retirement community. I have a hard time recruiting young people; if they’re not married, it’s hard to keep them here. And if they’re young, and married, after they’ve been here a couple of years, there’s not much for them to do! They’ve got to take their kids to Portland if they want some kinds of recreation, and that kind of gets old!

TYG-EA: We have a similar problem retaining young professionals in medicine around here.
John: I even talked to the head of the nursing school here out there at the college—they also have a hard time. But, you know, I do a lot of praying. I don’t worry about it. I’ll just ask God. I don’t mean to be preaching to you—I pray, and I leave it in the hands of the Lord. And by His grace, that’s why we continue to be successful and move forward. We had some things here that weren’t working, and now they’re starting to work. We had some people here... they’re retired now. All I expect is for people to work. We wouldn’t have a job if it weren’t for the students. And if they’re not providing the students with the services that are expected from us, and treating them the way they need to be treated... Because [the students] come here broken, and we help pick them up, and give them the confidence that they can go on and be successful.

TYG-EA: Is that a fairly typical profile, some young person who’s had problems?
John: Yes. Basically, let me tell you the kind of student we get.
I was very popular at school, so I didn’t get bullied. But I didn’t like bullies, because when I was coming up in the first, second grade, I was bullied—a lot. Then I started growing up. I grew up in the projects [in Arkansas], and you either have to fight, or run. So finally, when I started growing up, I was popular. I was good at sports, so mainly I didn’t have many problems then, because people didn’t mess with me. I had this chip on my shoulder, so I learned how to protect myself pretty well. And I just developed this attitude, I didn’t like bullies, so I never allowed bullying in front of me. I stepped in. To this day, I don’t like bullies.

And basically, the kids we get [here] are the ones that are bullied—they don’t dress like everybody, [that kind of thing]. And I saw that. My mom was a single mom, raised four kids and her two brothers, worked two jobs, very strict mom. And by the grace of God, my two brothers went into the military, I got a football scholarship, my sister went into the medical [field] and works at a hospital in Memphis. And my uncles, they all went into the military. But my mom was pretty strict, and she was a strong woman, working two jobs. Matter of fact, I didn’t even know we were that poor. Every year we started out with five outfits. Everybody went to school, you had your five outfits, and then she would add on a little bit here and there as she could. And every Saturday, we ironed our stuff and made sure we were ready to go to school. Because she was never home by the time we got ready to go to school. So we had to make sure we were ready. That’s why, pretty much, I learned how to cook—she was going to night school, so she would write down all the directions and I was the oldest, so I had to prepare the meals. And I love to cook to this day! And it became a habit to learn how to do things—she would just write down the directions and I would do it. I was the head of the household while she was out. [...] But my mom always prepared us, and told us, “When you become a senior, you’d better have a plan, because you can’t stay here—you have to [leave].” She raised me, not somebody she had to take care of. She raised us to be leaders. And I just carried on with my kids. 

TYG-GD: So, did you leave the house when you were 18, or whenever?
John: Yes, as soon as I graduated from high school, I went straight into college on a football scholarship at the University of Kansas. I was there for five years. And I was blessed from there, you know. I was wanting to go pro, but I got hurt my senior year, and that wasn’t what God had planned for me.

TYG-EA: How did you end up doing this?
John: When I got out of college, I ended up as a manager for Wendy’s, and I hated it. It wasn’t a challenge. And then I got a job at Kmart in Kansas City in Missouri, at a S. S. Kresge’s—that’s what Kmart originated from. And then I got promoted to another store, [but] then they started having cut-backs. Last hired, first to go. So me and my wife and family, we moved back to Arkansas. I didn’t work for a while, but then unemployment started running out. So I went to my principal, who was Secretary of State, and told him I needed a job, so he hired me as State Capitol police officer. And Clinton was governor at that time. I used to talk to Clinton like I’m sitting here talking to you. He was a workaholic and worked late—I worked the night shift from ten at night until six in the morning. And he was always around the building at that time, with his bodyguards—he would be there till two or three in the morning. Then he’d turn around and you’d see him jogging at six in the morning! And I thought, “Man, this guy—does he ever sleep?” [laughs]

TYG-EA: I hear he was big on a nap around four in the afternoon...
John: I don’t know what he did in the afternoons, but he was always there! He was a good governor, no matter what they want to say. He was very helpful to me. I left the State Capitol and went to the highway police because of him.

TYG-GD: Did you go through officer training?
John: Well, I flunked the first test, and I was going to go back [to retake it] in three months... but in the meantime, I ran into a gentleman who was hiring for federal jobs at a Job Corps. And I used to think Job Corps was a waste of money, because I grew up in a city where Job Corps was there, and I just didn’t think it was worth the money until I volunteered. He asked me to volunteer, so I came out and volunteered for a couple of months. And I started seeing what it was really about: those kids weren’t any different from me. They were needing a chance. I got hooked on it, and I started weighing the odds: in the long run, am I going to have more retirement and make more money working for the State, or [the federal government]? So I didn’t go back [to the police academy]. So I got hired with the federal government, and I’ve been with it ever since. It’s been a blessing. I’ve had to move several times—I started out in Arkansas, went to Kentucky, went to Tennessee, to Wisconsin, back to Arkansas, Nebraska, Washington, back to Nebraska, then I came up here. So my kids grew up in Job Corps. My oldest son works at a federal prison in Kentucky. Last year he got his doctorate. He had a minor in criminal justice, and his master’s in business, and I don’t remember what he told me his doctorate was in. [laughs] He just told me I have to call him Dr. Booker. My other son is over in the Air Force in England, in Lakenheath. He’s about to get his degree, and is about ready to get out of the military and come back to the States. And my daughter, she’s here. And my wife—we’ve been together since high school—she’s my high-school sweetheart. I was in the tenth grade, and she was in the eighth. The first time I ever saw her, I thought about marriage. I don’t even know why. [laughter] It just went and popped into my head. She was this little itty bitty petite thing, and she’d just moved in from Chicago, and all these guys were trying to talk to her. Well, I wasn’t going to jump in line because I was a cocky athlete, you know. We didn’t too much like each other at first, because I thought I was The Rock, I wasn’t going to chase her... and then when I started liking her, she wouldn’t give me the time of day, and then when she started liking me, I gave her the cold shoulder! [laughter] But then we ended up together. [...] She hung in there and waited till I graduated from college. We had my son before I graduated, and we started a family, and I worked in the summertime. I was blessed. I’ve had a very good wife—I couldn’t have asked the Lord for a better spouse, and she’s a great mother. And honestly, I prayed for that. You’d be surprised—everything I’ve asked the Lord for, I’ve gotten. I asked for a scholarship, I got that. I asked for a good mother and a good wife, I got that. I wouldn’t have this job if it weren’t for Him. I don’t mean to be preaching, but I’m just testifying how my life has gone. And I wasn’t a perfect person, you know. It took me God opening doors and showing me things. And I used to wonder: “I’m constantly blessed, and I don’t even know if I deserve these things.” But he’s always blessed me. And then you get to a point, and wow. I need to change my life, I need to live more like Jesus. When you get older, you start to realize some things. Sometimes He lets you go, and then He brings you back. My mom kept us in the church. She instilled that in us. She always told us: “You can’t get anywhere without having God in your life.” In her house, she didn’t force you to go to church. But if you didn’t go to church, you couldn’t go hang out and play—you had to clean. So you better go to church. [laughter] You know, it’d be nice and sunny, and you had to stay in the house, cleaning. She didn’t wake you up... you had a choice. And if you didn’t miss Sunday School, and you went to church, they would give you a scholarship after you graduated if you were going to go to college or not. They gave out those things. I’ve had a blessed life—I wouldn’t trade it for all the trials and tribulations I’ve gone through.

Job Corps has been good to me. I never had gone camping till I started working with Job Corps. The students taught me how to camp, taught me how to cross-country ski, how to ice fish. I was a recreation supervisor, and all these things I didn’t know how to do. I didn’t even know how to put a tent together until I started working with Job Corps. My wife is a volunteer, so she and my kids would follow behind us when I took kids out camping and hiking and stuff. So my kids pretty much grew up with Job Corps. I introduced those things to them: camping, and hiking and fishing, so they had the background that I didn’t have. I didn’t have a father figure—he wasn’t in my life. He’s more in my grandkids’ life than he was in my life. It took him a while to realize... now he’s preaching. A lot of my problems when I was growing up were anger, toward him. But I had a pastor tell me, “Why? You turned out to be a good person, so that’s just negative energy wasted!” So it took me becoming an adult, in my late thirties, to get over my anger and move forward. My grandparents were more in my life—my dad’s mom and dad. I spent my summers on the farm with my grandparents.

TYG-GD: In Arkansas?
John: Yes. They raised everything on the farm, and they taught us how to fish. My grandmother was Blackfoot—she would take me out to the woods and talk about things. I wish I’d paid more attention, because her dad was a medicine man, and she would tell me stuff.

TYG-GD: I bet that was fascinating!
John: It was, but I didn’t... She was eating this dirt, one time, for her blood pressure...

TYG-EA: Did you say, “eating this dirt”?
John: Some kind of dirt, she was eating. And I’m like, “Big Mama, why?” and she said, “This is for my blood pressure.” And I’m like, “Okay...” [laughter] I wish I had paid more attention to the things she was showing me. She told me they were real poor, coming up, and she told me she had to make meals out of certain things for my dad and them. They used to travel around Arkansas making money, and over the years, they ended up buying sixty-some acres. They got it fixed in the family to where it can’t be resold outside the family. They traveled around Arkansas picking soybeans, picking cotton, different things. And when I got older, I never had seen cotton before I walked out into a cotton field and felt that thing. I don’t know how they did that. Those are very sharp things that you pick cotton from. And I thought, “Wow, my grandparents and them went through all this. I don’t know if I could have done that.” But that’s how they bought all those acres around them, five acres, ten acres... My grandfather was 98 when he died, my grandmother was 72 when she died. And his mother was 101 when she died, so I got to see my great-great-grandmother. I was always scared of old people, for some reason, back in those days.

TYG: I know the feeling, seriously.
John: I don’t know why, as a young kid, I was.

TYG: I guess maybe it feels unnatural—in nature no human would live past 40, of course.
John: Right. But you know, that’s a little bit about myself. Job Corps has been good, I love what I do. I love being able to make a difference in these kids’ life. Because they’re no different than me when I was growing up.

John Booker’s interview will conclude in Issue 55.

The Yachats Gazette, November 30 2012

Interview with Dr. Stacey Harper

The Yachats Gazette attended a lecture on Nanotechnology by Dr. Harper in October, and was invited to tour her lab at Oregon State University. This is the first part of two installments.

TYG: What is your personal background?
Dr. Harper: So my personal background: I actually was trained as a comparative physiologist. […] I looked at different organisms and studied their physiology, how their bodies work, and how they deal with different stressors in the environment. […] I studied things like: Some animals can live with very very little oxygen, and those same animals can live with lots of oxygen, and they do fine either way. So [what interested me was]: how do they do that? So I studied that for a long time. And then, I got a job with the Environmental Protection Agency, and in that job I did some computer modeling, to try and figure out how to group chemicals based on their structure, to try and predict what they’re going to do and where they’re going to go in their environment. So after two years at the EPA, I realized that I like toxicology a lot, because it’s kind of a mixture of a whole bunch of different fields.

TYG: Yeah, physiology and anatomy all wrapped up in one, because it affects how they work, and it travels through the structures.
Dr. Harper: Exactly. And it’s what happens when something goes wrong and that was really interesting to me. Before I left the EPA, I knew that nanomaterials were going to be something that the EPA were going to be tasked to deal with, but they didn’t have the science or the knowledge to address these newly emerging materials. So that’s why I focused on that when I got to [Oregon State University]. And then, I just stayed! [laughter]

TYG: I remember one time, I was watching, I think, a video by David Attenborough—he’s a very good British BBC reporter—and he was talking about a fish that could breathe air! I forget what it’s called […]. It goes into the reefs in the Caribbean Sea, and it can pursue the mangroves because, when the water starts to run out of oxygen, it can simply go up to the surface and breathe. […] It’s really weird to see fish doing that.
Dr. Harper: Yeah. The little shrimp that I studied looking at the effects of oxygen on them, and how…

TYG: Brine shrimp maybe?
Dr. Harper: No, these are called tadpole shrimp. They’re a cousin to the brine shrimp. But they’ve had the same body structure for the last 180 million years. They’re considered living fossils. […] But I thought their behavior would change, when the oxygen in the water changed, kind of like the fish that go up. But they didn’t do that. They actually have—you know how we have hemoglobin that transports the oxygen through us? We have four sub-units of hemoglobin—they have 29! And, they can mix and match them depending what type of environment they’re in, to make it either grab the oxygen more, or grab it less. So it was really cool, yeah. That was the last thing I looked at.

TYG: What experiments is your team currently running?
Dr. Harper: Let’s wait for that one until we walk through the lab, because I can give you a tour of the lab and I’ll show you all of the different studies we have going on.

TYG: What are the nanomaterials you’re currently testing for oxidation properties? […]
Dr. Harper: So, some of the materials that we’ve tested, and what we’re trying to do in that project, is develop an assay that could allow us to assess the materials for their oxidative potential. […] You can predict then, hopefully, when they go into living systems if they’re going to cause things like oxidative stress, which is a disruption of the oxidative balance in your cells, and your cells are not happy when that happens. […]

TYG: Why is cellulose related to nanoparticles? I mean, I thought it was like a biological material. 
Dr. Harper: It is, but, remember how we define nanomaterials? […] The nano-crystalline cellulose is the basic building block of cellulose, but it’s within that size range. Do you remember the size range [that defines what concerns nanotechnology]?

TYG: 100 to 1 nanometers. 
Dr. Harper: Right! And so if they’re within that range, they’re considered nanoparticles. […] There are a couple of different reasons that we look at nano-crystalline cellulose. One is because they’re going to be a really important nanomaterial for a variety of applications: for building new materials, for strengthening things, for additives to concrete to make it more pliable so it doesn’t break. […] So it’s an important materials class that just hasn’t been studied. That’s one reason why we liked it. But we also liked it because we didn’t think that it was going to be toxic, and so we have a lot of different nanomaterials that we look at it, we think that this surface chemistry, when you stick it on a particle makes it more toxic. So what we wanted to do is to use the nano-crystalline cellulose to test this hypothesis correctly. […]

TYG: Why are zebrafish so important to scientific research? 
Dr. Harper: Ahh. Many many reasons. So they have a lot of investigative tools associated with them, because they’ve long been long been used for developmental biology studies. […] They start with one cell, and within 24 hours they have almost all of their organs formed […] and by five days everything’s fully formed and developed.

TYG: That’s incredible. So you mean these things mature within five days?
Dr. Harper: Yep, and they look just like little, miniature fish.

TYG Ed. Asst.: Speeds up your experiment that way!
Dr. Harper: It does! So it’s rapid throughput, and we can do our exposures in cell culture plates—they’re called 96-well plates—and we can stick one embryo per well so we don’t have to use much nanomaterial, which is important, because you can’t buy big bags of nanomaterials [laughter]; you usually get very little quantities. So they’re very valuable that way. […] And we expose them very early in development because during that early life stage all of the signaling that your cells are going to do for your entire life, all of the genetic molecular signaling that’s going to happen, is both active and necessary for normal development to occur. So if you want to see if this nanoparticle impacts any of the signaling of those signaling pathways, that’s the time to do it.

TYG: I’m just wondering how long these fish live?
Dr. Harper: They sexually mature at 60 days, and they can live for up to 2-3 years. So you can do generational studies if you want to. […]

TYG: […] So that means in fish years, these fish live to about 200 years old! That’s incredible… So I bet they have a lot of babies.
Dr. Harper: They do. They have thousands of babies.

TYG: And they don’t have to do them very fast, because they have such long lifetimes, comparatively.
Dr. Harper: Yep, and they can have babies every single day. So they can lay thousands of eggs every day.

TYG Ed. Asst.: Can I ask a question? What are some of the advantages of dealing with zebrafish as opposed to another well-studied organism; say, Drosophila or E. coli? 
Dr. Harper: Zebrafish are vertebrates, so that gives us a huge advantage. […] And the molecular make-up, the physiology, the cellular anatomy are very similar between zebrafish and humans, mostly because they’re vertebrates. Fruit flies are not. So they have some genes in common, but the zebrafish have way more. I think like 80% of the genes are virtually the same, or have the same type of gene in humans. So when you hit one of those signaling pathways, and you see some kind of malformation comes from that, you can go back and see what signaling molecular pathway did that hit, and do the humans share that pathway, because then it would be a concern for humans. […]

TYG: What is a “Nanomaterial-Biological Interactions Knowledgebase”?
Dr. Harper: Ahh, OK. So, all of this data—so, we’re collecting data in these embryos, right? And we look at 23 to 30 different endpoints to evaluate; so we look at all their malformations, study their behavior, and their development. And, so with all of that information, and with the complexity of just trying to describe a nanomaterial, we had to move to some kind of database/informatics-type system, because my little brain wasn’t able to make the connections. We needed to be able to use some computational tools and some intense mathematics that I can’t do myself. […] But that knowledgebase, we have it as a public resource, so that people in the nanoscience community can look at that and looking at some of the materials that they’re planning on making something out of, and see how toxic they are compared to other materials. […] But with the academic teams that we partner with, and faculty around here that synthesize nanomaterials, we make that publicly available immediately.

TYG: Let’s go into the lab!

[To be continued]

Interview with Richard Sharpless

The Yachats Gazette spoke with Richard Sharpless.

TYG: Where are you from?
Richard: San Gabriel, California.

TYG: Another Californian!
Richard: Well, I haven’t lived in California since 1969. [chuckles]

TYG: When and how and why did you come to Yachats?
Richard: When I was in college, my friend’s aunt had a place on Salmon Street […] and we used to come here, so I knew about Yachats. My mom moved to Yachats, and then she had problems; she was getting old and she needed someone to take care of her, so… I was living in Nashville at the time, and I came out to take care of her.

TYG: I see. What is your background in music?
Richard: Well, let’s see—I used to play accordion. That’s why I know so many polkas.

TYG: So many what?!
Richard: Polkas. It’s oom-pah-pah music. And when I moved to Oregon, I picked up the guitar, and used to carry around a guitar with me wherever I went. And some people thought I was really obnoxious by doing that.

TYG: Obnoxious? Why?!
Richard: Because, when somebody doesn’t know how to play an instrument very well, and they start playing it, it sounds like static. [laughter]

TYG: How many guitars do you have, and what are some of your favorites?
Richard: Uh, five guitars, and each one has a different function…. I’ve got an electric guitar that’s kind of a jazz guitar […] The one I play [at The Drift Inn] is my Martin—and it’s the cheapest Martin they make, it’s a no-big-deal Martin….

TYG: What’s a Martin?
Richard: Martin is a company that’s been around since the early 1800s, and makes guitars. Oh, and then I’ve got an Alvarez-Yairi, which is another guitar similar to the Martin, and it’s a nice guitar in itself. And then I’ve got a resonator guitar, that metal one that I play… and I really like that one too. And two ukuleles.

TYG: [laughter] Do you ever play those out and about?
Richard: Sometimes when I’m with The Bad Weeds, I do…. They’re fun instruments, and they’re really portable. When I was going back and forth to Florence, for a friend of mine, I’d keep a ukulele in the car, and when I’d get stopped with traffic in the construction and stuff, I’d be sitting there playing my ukulele while everybody was getting mad. [laughter]

TYG: Do you play any other instruments, besides the guitar and the ukuleles? Do you still play the accordion?
Richard: Yeah, I play the accordion every once in a while, but I’ve got these long nails that make it really hard to work on the keyboard. I used to play synthesizer….

TYG: What’s a synthesizer?
Richard: It’s an electronic keyboard that has all these different sounds….

TYG: When and where do you usually play?
Richard: Wherever I can. I play at parties, I play at events, I play at the Drift Inn, I just recently played at Ona, I play at the Green Salmon…. And if somebody wants me to play in other places, then I’ll play there too.

TYG: I see. What songs do you usually play at each place, and how do you choose what songs to play?
Richard: I don’t. [laughter] I know a lot of songs… and when I play at the Green Salmon, I have to play songs that I’ve got memorized. When I play at the Drift Inn, I’ll have music in front of me, and I’ll play different things. I know hundreds of songs.…

TYG: Wow….
Richard: Well… that’s what I do. That’s my thang.

TYG: Why do you do what you do?
Richard: Because I can’t do anything else! I can’t repair cars, I can’t build a building, I can’t be a guard, I’m not real good with dogs…. I have a cat; it beats me up all the time.

TYG: Dogs don’t usually beat you up.
Richard: No, no… I mean, I’m good with other people’s dogs, but having a dog of my own—that’s too much responsibility for me.

Interview with Rod Smith

The Yachats Gazette spoke with Rod Smith.

TYG: Where are you from?
Rod: I grew up in California and Colorado. I moved to Yachats after I got out of the Coast Guard in 1981. The Friday the 13th storm was my moving day.

TYG: How and why did you come to Yachats?
Rod: I found Yachats on a motorcycle trip while I was still in the Coast Guard. I had two years left to serve. My folks were looking for a new place to live, so I sent them up here to look, and they liked Yachats, so they moved here, and they opened Captain Nemo’s crab and fish stand, which used to sit where the whale’s tail park is now. My brother, who moved them up, he decided that he wasn’t living there anymore, so he moved up… and he started working at a fish plant. Now he works for the PUD; he lives in Waldport. I finally got to come up here after two years, and that was 1981, … Why did I come to Yachats? Hm…. I’d traveled all over the country on foot, 48 states—and this is the best spot.

TYG: What time of year do you do most of your tree work?
Rod: Different kinds of tree work need to be done at different times of year. We do a lot of our storm-proofing of trees in the fall. We have a lot of damage usually during the wintertime, with weather events. But also, springtime is a big time for all of our orchard work. We go trim people’s orchards and apple trees.

TYG: What’s your best time for trimming trees at private houses?
Rod: Anytime. Anytime is a good time to get a tree away from your house.

TYG: What is your background in tree work?
Rod: I started out working on the power lines, for a private contractor that worked for the PUD [Public Utilities District]. And we trimmed trees over electric [lines]. I was mostly a chipper stuffer then. And then I worked as a private tree worker for many years, and then I became an instructor, and a certified arborist about ten years ago. And I taught at the Job Corps—I started the arboriculture program at Angell Job Corps… and we had four national championship teams there.

TYG [Ed. Asst.]: How does one judge a champion arborist?
Rod: We have jamborees. And the different aspects of tree trimming and tree climbing and safety are all involved. And there are certain events, just like in the Olympics. Like, speed climbing—how fast can you climb a forty-foot rope. And throw-bag, seeing how accurately can you hit with your string and your throw-pouch. There’s an aerial rescue drill, where they have a dummy that’s in a tree, and you have to climb up to the dummy, rescue him, and bring him to the ground safely….

TYG: Isn’t that more of a firefighter’s work?
Rod: Firefighters can’t go where tree climbers go. Their ladders won’t reach, and they don’t have the trucks and equipment. Usually a tree climber is who rescues a tree climber. An ambulance driver or fireman is not going to go a hundred feet up a tree.

TYG: What is your background in working with dogs?
Rod: Oh, I always had dogs when I was a kid. I worked at a dog academy in California, where they taught guard dogs. I was mostly not a trainer then; I was mostly the target.

TYG: Why do you like animals so much?
Rod: I just have a natural affinity for ‘em. They just naturally understand me. I don’t know—that’s a hard question to think about. Hm.

TYG: What other projects are you currently working on?
Rod: Well, I’m trying to set up a Yachats-based security service. It’s going to be called Yachats Executive Security. We’ll be doing homes and business in the area.

TYG: I’m glad that we’ll finally have a sort of […] mini-police department in Yachats.
Rod: Oh, we won’t be the police department; we’ll be a private security firm. […] It takes the sheriff and the security services that are already operating in Yachats a long time to get down here.

TYG: Why do you do what you do?
Rod: I always like new and interesting challenges, and I don’t like doing things that other people do.