The Yachats Gazette, Issue 83, August 1 2018

For a printable version of Issue 83, click here.

Interview with Laura Rains, LCSW 

Laura Rains is a new provider with the Yachats Health Care clinic on Beach Street.

TYG: So, how did you learn about Yachats Health Care?
Laura: Good question! You know... There's always a story within a story, and so I've walked by here. I remember when this used to be the store where Max the Dog was, back when the store used to be Raindogs. But then, when I moved here almost three years ago, I started thinking about wanting to start practice here [in Yachats]. It was just sort of one of those things that just happens. I won't say a light shone down from the sky [laughs] but it was almost like that. I'm walking by, and it's like, "Ohhh, Yachats Health Care! Hmm. What's that about?" And so then I contacted Jai [Tomlin], the chiropractor here [and owner]. Then we went out for dinner, and talked about what it would be like to practice here. It worked out—I almost couldn't believe it, because it's right here in town, across from the Post Office.

TYG: We've had a couple of those moments as well, just various things... So, what services do you intend to bring to the program?
Laura: I'm a psychotherapist. What I get to do, is that I get to be with people at a time when they're changing, or they have questions. You know how in life people will be going down a path, and you get stuck in a pattern. It's not so much that the pattern is bad, but that it limits your ability to see other ways of going down that path. So I provide therapy for elders—I love working with older people. I love finding out about how they got to these different transitions in their life. Whether it's in later life, or toward the end of their life... that transition isn't the sum of everything that's happened with them: it's just something that's happening right now. So I like working with elderly people, and couples. In my job—I work a couple of days a week in Eugene—and at home, I work with parents and families. So what I'm going to do is work here one day a week and see what happens—I'm just going to be available to work with people.

TYG: So you just found out about this program by walking by, right?
Laura: Yes, absolutely. Yachats Health Care has several different workers here: Jai does chiropractic work, then there are two other practitioners that do bodywork. There's a naturopath, and it just seemed like a great place to bring something else! I'm in private practice here, as are all the other practitioners. At the open house it was kind of fun, because someone said, "All you need is someone who does podiatry, because then you would have head-to-foot!" [laughs] 

TYG: We certainly need psychotherapists around here—everyone seems to be swamped. The whole system is swamped!
Laura: That's a perfect way of saying it, yes.

TYG: How did you come to Yachats?
Laura: Probably other people have this same experience, but I've been pointing in this direction for 25 years. I'm 56, and 25 years ago I started coming out to Yachats. Some years I would come every single weekend. I always had a dog with me, and I'd stay somewhere. And maybe 10 years ago I thought, "Wow, I'd love to live here!" Then three years ago I was working at home, and I thought, "Boy, if home could be anywhere, where would I want it to be?" And I just knew it would be Yachats. I was here for a Yoga retreat and was talking to somebody on the beach who said they'd just had a great experience with a certain realtor. So I met Paul Cohen, and the very first place he showed me, I went in and I said, "Well, I like this and I like that..." The very first place just took my breath away. I kind of laughed out loud, like "Ha ha ha, I can't really live here." And then I came back the next weekend, and spent the weekend in the place, and thought, "Why not?" And then it was a super-easy process to move here from Eugene. It's almost three years, and I still have the "pinch me" moments—there's something that feels so special and comfortable. It's sort of like "Hawai'i time" in a way.

TYG: "Hawai'i time," but more intellectual and a lot cooler.
Laura: A lot cooler, for sure! [laughter]

TYG-Graphic Design: So do you still have your home in Eugene since you are still working there, or do you now commute from Yachats to Eugene?
Laura: That's exactly right, I switched directions. I used to have a small house in Eugene, but a couple of months after moving here I sold it, and so I live here now, although I don't really feel like I've left Eugene because I go back every week for a day or two, and I spend the night. But [while in Eugene] I'm thinking about coming back while I am driving away from here [Yachats]. And when I drive home, I can feel myself driving a little bit faster, leaning towards getting back here.

TYG: It's an amazing community. We've lived here for ten years and we still have those pinch-me moments. 
Laura: Do you?
TYG: Yeah.
TYG-GD: Actually it's been eleven years now. 

TYG: So what brought you into psychotherapy?
Laura: Again, there is always a story within a story. So [at the time] I was working as a reporter, which is why I was so excited when I reached out to put an ad in the paper. I was like, "You are such a good reporter! I love your stories!" So I was a newspaper reporter and then an editor, which is why I moved up to Eugene to go to U of O. So I was in the graduate program for journalism, health education and sociology.

TYG-GD: That was one program? 
Laura: Yes, I did an interdisciplinary Master's program. As a reporter I always loved stories that had a human interest angle, but especially those that involved health and change, where people are helping others. So I was working on my degree, and I got a job at the Oregon Social Learning Center (OSLC), and I was also volunteering at what is now called HIV Alliance, but at the time it was known as Shanti [a Sanskrit word for peace]. Since this was the late 90s, Shanti was really more of a hospice organization, and so I was an emotional support volunteer; and it was life changing. I learned so much about how in normal society, compliments are just brushed off; oh no, it wasn't me, I didn't really do it...

TYG: Well I certainly fit into that category. [laughter]
Laura: If someone's dying, sometimes the only thing they have to give you is their gratitude; and so you don't want to brush that away. And so we had this exercise with another person, where all we would do, for about five minutes, the other person would give you a compliment [rotating after each exchange], and the only thing the other person could say was: "Thank you, that is very true of me." And so this created a process that went on and on; and it just touched me so deeply. Here I am, I have been a journalist, I want to be a better journalist, but I started thinking, "You know I think I want to do something else." But I still completed the program, and then started doing some work at OSLC, which was learning how to do group therapy. Then the whole thing just sort of fell in my lap, and I started learning, and then I said "Okay, this is what I want to do. That was really great, I got that degree, but I want to do something different." So then I went and got a Master's in social work. Then I started working with families, and then elderly, and people who have long-term disability. Then I started working where my job is in Eugene and at home, where we train therapists. So therapists have already been trained, but we train them in our model. We'll train cities, or states, or countries. Right now we're training across the five boroughs in New York City. We've done the state of Kansas, State of Michigan, and then Norway, Iceland, the Netherlands, and Denmark.

TYG-GD: And what kind of training is this?
Laura: It's training therapists. The model is called GenerationPMTO and it's an evidence-based parenting program designed to support parents, strengthen families, and promote healthy child development. It's based on 50 years of research in Oregon, the U.S., and abroad, and it promotes social skills and prevents, reduces and reverses the development of moderate to severe conduct problems in children and youth. Our workshops train and certify therapists to deliver the GenerationPMTO model to parents and families; we then train in roles such as coaching, training and fidelity monitoring so that systems of care in cities, states and countries have stand-alone implementation sites. The interesting thing is that it started happening mostly in European countries. It's hard to get in the US, because it's hard to get everybody on the same page and say that prevention for families makes sense. In the model it says that parents are their children's best teachers. They're the ones who are with them the most. I could sit with a kiddo only for an hour each week, but it's the family—that's the environment that really needs support and really believe in parents. So the European countries bought into this model. Norway did 20 years ago, and said, "We have this problem where kids are sort of languishing in foster care and we want to do something about it." So we went over there and trained some 30 therapists. 20 years later, they have now trained over 1,000 therapists and are serving over 20,000 families.

TYG: That's fantastic.
Laura: Yes! And it's really amazing to have it happen in mostly European countries: the Netherlands, Iceland, Norway, and Denmark. They have governments who said they wanted to put their money where there was going to be positive change. So that's what I do. I work from home because I'll coach therapists or do trainings—that's where these postcards are from [about a dozen postcards are being addressed on an adjacent table], because I was just in Brooklyn. We had this activity during this week-long workshop where each of the therapists had a card. They wrote their name and address on them, and then at different times during the workshop we passed the card around, and their colleagues would say something that they noticed about them. The cards have stamps on them that are Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Angie [Bagby, at the Post Office] helped me with that, because [the class] was in Brooklyn, and they're like, "Where's Oregon?" [laughter] So I told them, "Well, you know, like in the 60s, there were a lot of VW vans that were on their way north to Canada, and they kinda got stuck..." [laughter] So I went to Angie and I said, "What do we have that represents Oregon, like hippy..." and she said, "Oh! These would be great stamps." So, that was a long way around to your question. But can I also say this: Along the way, I started doing animal-assisted therapy. I had this big Newfie-Lab, whose name was Clifford. So we had to go through a training program where he got trained up as a therapy dog. The test was that people would brush him backwards, drop objects nearby, they'd walk with loud walkers. After they said, "Clifford did great, he's certified—but you, you need to slow down!" [She shows us a picture of a happy dog.] He was such a leaner, and he was so good! I have a small dog now—Clifford passed away, sadly—that my bonus daughter saw at the shelter. She said, "Oh, can we play with this little dog?" And I said, "Sure! Let's fluff him up, get him ready for his forever family." We were there for two hours, and then we left—the shelter said he was getting adopted. And I called the next day, and asked whether I could come by and say good-bye to him, because we'd spent so much time with him, and they said, "Oh, his adoption fell through." And I said, "Hold that dog!!!" [laughter] So now I have this little, small... he's called a party poodle, which cracks me up, because I've only had Clifford, the Newfie-Lab, and a German Shepherd, all big dogs. And still, five years later, I look down and say to him, "What are you doing all the way down there?" [laughter] But I'm thinking about getting a big dog so he'll have a big buddy.

TYG-GD: You mentioned a "bonus daughter." May I ask what a bonus daughter is? I presume she's a gift, but...
Laura: She is. That's a term that we came up with. I was doing respite foster care, and she was one of the first kiddos I met. She was five. Then I started doing respite care for just her. And at about thirteen or fourteen, I said, "You know, I don't like to tell your story about being in foster care every time. What can we come up with?" I had some friends in Denmark that I'd been working with, and they mentioned they had a bonus grand-daughter. So I said to her, "What do you think about "bonus daughter" and "bonus mom"?" And she said, "Yeah, that sounds good." Since then she was returned to her Mom, and her Mom loves her dearly, but she was really good about letting us [visit]. I became part of their family a little bit and I see her regularly. She just got a job in a fast food restaurant—I'm so proud of her!

TYG-GD: So, what are your plans for integration into the clinic? Are you just going to stay at one day? 
Laura: I still work full-time for my other job, so Monday afternoons are my time [here.] I'm just going to start there. There's so much that goes into private practice: there's getting on panels, and right now I'm going through the process with Medicare. Some of the people can't use their insurance to pay for coming in. I've always worked as part of a clinic, so they took care of everything [insurance-related]. There's a lot to do to get set up. So I'm going to start seeing people on Mondays, but if it needs to be another time, I'll work it out so it's most convenient. And we'll just see what happens! I'm just really excited to do it! I just think it's such a gift when people say, "Yeah, let's do some therapy together." I love seeing people make change and work things out. I learn so much from other people. And I love groups, too—I'd like to see what kind of interest there is in some kind of process group.

TYG-GD: How does group therapy work?
Laura: There is something about when you have a group together, especially if it's a psycho-educational group—there's a focus.

TYG-GD: What does that mean?
Laura: Thanks, I appreciate those clarifying questions. You can have a support group: people are there, and maybe there's a general theme, so it could be a grief support group, or a new mom support group, or a cancer support group. What I really like is the psycho-educational component: people come together, and let's say... well, the groups that I do in my other job are parenting groups. Parents come together, and we have a curriculum. But it's not like we say, "Hey, here is this big curriculum, go learn it." It's like, "Hey, everybody gets together, we've got some tools, let's try these out." We do a lot of role play. So we'll get up and practice things, and do a "wrong way" example with an off the wall wrong way. People are laughing and saying "Oh my gosh, I've done that at home!" and then say, "What can we do to make that better?" And then we do a "right way" example and people practice it. They interact with each other. I feel like there's wisdom in the room, and my job as a facilitator is just to connect wisdom, and to help shore up people who need support and tools. The idea is then to go home and try it out, and come back and debrief, and say, "What happened? What worked? What didn't work?" with the group. It feels like magic can happen when people learn from each other. My job is really to facilitate—it's not like, "Hey, I'm an expert!" I'm not! [They] are all the experts.

TYG-GD: So it's kind of like a parenting class, but not quite.
Laura: Yes. It's definitely a parenting class, but it doesn't feel like one.

TYG-GD: I'm involved with the Yachats Youth organization in town, and we do offer parenting classes. The dynamic of the group is very much about incorporating our own stories and let's figure out [a solution]. But it's amazing how so many of the materials are dated, which is a shame. 
Laura: Our parenting group model is based on 50 years of research. I know that right now to say that you're scientifically-based is sort of out of favor, but we are evidence-based. That's where the psycho-educational piece comes in. There are tools that we know work with families like ours, so we say, "Here are tools that we know work; now, let's tailor it so that it works for your family."

TYG: So was there anything else you wanted to talk about?
Laura: I think that's all—but you know, as a former reporter it was fun to say, "Okay, I'm going to be on the other side of this, and see what this is like!" [laughs] 

TYG: I've done that a couple of times; it is really good fun. 
Laura: I'll tell you what I like about it, but first, tell me what you like. How's that been for you?

TYG: It opens me up to see the other side. And I feel like my interviews are always better afterwards. 
Laura: Yes, absolutely! You know what's similar for me? So when I coach a therapist, and even if it's in another language, so if I'm watching a Dutch therapy session and I have a transcript so I know what they're actually saying, afterwards, when I go into a therapy session, I feel like I'm better because of that. That makes perfect sense. Before I was going to meet you, I was thinking "What are the things that led me here?" So I pulled out my Master's thesis. This was in the early 90s, and I did a content analysis of four major newspapers, like the Washington Post, the New York Times, the LA Times, and a fourth paper. And I was looking at right when Magic Johnson, who was a basketball player with the Lakers, said he had HIV. So I looked at news coverage a week before he announced, and news coverage a week after he announced. What I was really curious about was, does news coverage change because it's event-based, or because it's an issue? And I looked at seven other celebrities and how they were treated by the media before and after. So thank you for asking me to do this interview, because I hadn't looked at that thesis for a lot of years. [laughter]

TYG: What did you discover?
Laura: Well, that coverage did change after he announced. One of the things that changed was, that rather than only getting information from the "official sources" about HIV, people who had HIV now had a voice. Part of it was also that he was a heterosexual man who came out and said he got HIV. That was very different from, say, Freddie Mercury, who was the lead singer of Queen. Everything was attributed to his flamboyant nature. Also, I was a big Queen fan, so this was a way to do some private research on him. [laughter] One of the other things I was interested in was, "Do news outlets provide mobilizing information?" Other than just saying, "Hey, here's what happened, this is a health crisis folks!" So I was looking at whether they included any type of resource so people could learn more. And that sort of varied. [To the Publisher] So, can you just tell me? I'm just curious—how did you start doing this?

TYG: So for me—I used to be a real idea factory. [Brief protest from the TYG-GD about the use of the past tense.] Well, I still have them—I just don't say them as much anymore. I used to just spew out stuff, constantly. And I was with Dad, coming home after a walk, and I said, "When I grow up, I'm going to start a newspaper in the town. It's going to be called The Yachats Gazette." And Dad goes, "Wait a minute." And within a few days, maybe a week, we had the first issue out. 
Laura: Wow. That's awesome.

TYG: We just went into the supermarket plaza, and we just talked to business owners there. They were our first advertisers, along with Toad Hall, and it just grew from there. So we're up to eleven years, and Issue 83. 
Laura: That's amazing. I love that you said you were an idea factory.

TYG: That's just how I roll. 
Laura: But then you also became an action figure, because you made it happen.

TYG: My parents were, honestly, the bigger part of that. It's amusing, because that brings us back to the compliment thing. 
Laura: [laughter] That's funny! Look what just happened! I give you a compliment, and you're like, deflect! [laughter]

TYG: Yep! That's me! [more laughter]
Laura: Let's try it again. Let's try it with me. So I'm going to say, "Wow, that's so cool! You're an idea factory, but you're also an action figure!"

TYG: Mm. Well, I am an idea factory. That much is very much true. I'm not sure about the action figure.
Laura: You did make things happen.

TYG: Sort of. [laughs]
Laura: Yeah. You just say, "That's true of me."

TYG: I guess. [laughter] That's true of me, fine! [more laughter]
Laura: That's really cool. I love that.

TYG: Well, it was great fun meeting you!
Laura: It was a great way to spend the early part of the afternoon. Thank you!

STORIES OF WEST AFRICA

Art Quilt Show, Yachats Commons, August 25-26

Photo "Mother and Child"  

Art Quilt by Hollis Chatelain

“Stories of West Africa” is a collection of art quilts created by internationally renowned award-winning artist Hollis Chatelain. This show will be on display in the Yachats Commons, August 25, & 26, 10 AM – 4 PM. Admission is a suggested $7.00 donation.

Hollis Chatelain employs a dynamic and characteristic style, marked by dreamlike imagery, elaborate use of color, and intricate thread detail. Hollis creates unique compositions that address challenging social, environmental, and political themes. Her work is found in public and private collections around the world. Her website is hollisart.com. Check it out and discover the process she uses to create her fabric.

The Yachats Commons is located at 441 N. Hwy 101. For more information please visit
www.pollyplumb.org

DRIVE  ELECTRIC  YACHATS   

September 9, 2018

Drive Electric Yachats  is a one-day  free event,  Sunday  Sept. 9,  starting  10 AM  at the Yachats Commons Picnic Shelter.  This year’s event includes a  free showing of the movie “Revenge of the Electric Car."

Drive Electric Yachats is part of National Drive Electric Week,   September 8–16, 2018, a nationwide celebration to heighten awareness of today's widespread availability of plug-in vehicles and highlight the benefits of all-electric and plug-in hybrid-electric cars, trucks, motorcycles, and more. "National Drive Electric Week is presented by Plug In America, Sierra Club, and Electric Auto Association".  Drive Electric Yachats is produced by Polly Plumb Productions, and  sponsored by the Drift Inn Hotel and Restaurant,   the Yachats Chamber of Commerce, and Central Lincoln PUD.

From 10 AM to 3 PM you can  visit and speak with local electric vehicle owners.  Look under the hood. You will be surprised. Try a test drive and learn more about this new  rapidly changing  technology.  Electric  vehicles  are fun to drive, are less expensive and more convenient to fuel than gasoline vehicles,. EV’s are better for the environment, promote  jobs, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Are you considering going electric? Come talk to owners who have successfully done so.

FREE MOVIE and POPCORN at the Commons   

2:30 PM   “REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR”

As part of their 75th  anniversary  celebrations,  Central Lincoln PUD is sponsoring a free showing of the highly praised,  88 minute film “Revenge of the Electric Car”.  Revenge follows four entrepreneurs from 2007 through the end of 2010 as they fight to bring the electric car back to the world market in the midst of the 2008 global recession. The documentary premiered at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival on Earth Day, April 22, 2011.

ABC news  wrote  "As much as you expect it to be a story about technology, it's really a tale about people. ... [The four entrepreneurs'] stories are skillfully woven together, each presented in their own voice."   USA Today wrote, "Revenge is a must-see movie for anyone interested in cars." The Guardian noted that the film "is more than just a snapshot of the gamesmanship behind the creation of mass-market vehicles. Revenge offers a look inside the minds of business leaders struggling through one of the most troubled periods of recent economic history. ... [It] captures rich natural tension as it unfolds."  Free admission, popcorn and surprises are planned.

We are still looking for EV owners who are willing to let a novice explore  their car. It is your decision what you allow guests do with your electric vehicle: look at it, sit in it, ride in it, or drive it.

If you are an EV owner and wish to sign up and show off and share  your EV,  please sign up at:
https://driveelectricweek.org/event.php?eventid=1281

For more information  call 541-968-6089, or  contact  perfect@peak.org

Find us on Facebook:  Drive Electric Yachats

The Yachats Gazette, Issue 71, August 2, 2017

For a downloadable, printable version of issue 71, click here.

 Interview with Patty Hodgins

Patty is a former editor, social worker, and a traveler who has recently embraced Yachats as her home.
 
TYG: So I hear you used to be a social worker?
Patty: That is true!
 
TYG: What was that like?
Patty: It was really good. There were a couple of really bad experiences, but it was a big career change for me, because I used to be a book editor. So when I went back and got a social work degree, it was totally different. Ultimately it was a really, really good change, and the last job I had especially, I just loved. It was with older people—of which I am now one myself—it was just really neat.
 
TYG: How did you get into book editing?
Patty: Well, I started out as a proofreader at the Geological Society of America, and they published books and journals. But then I became an editor there at the Geological Society, and then I just kind of morphed into regular, more general books. But mostly I did scholarly publishing kinds of stuff.
 
TYG: Just something I’ve always been curious about: How do you tell—especially in geology, you’re going to get a lot of abbreviations and stuff—how do you tell what’s a misspelling, and what’s an abbreviation and stuff?
Patty: Well, when you’re actually doing the work as an editor, you know what’s an abbreviation.
 
TYG: Okay, so there’s a list you have, a cross-check.
Patty: There’s a style, a whole style.
 
TYG-Graphic Design: Isn’t that like the MLA (Modern Language Association)?
TYG: Yes, true.
Patty: Yes. But it was a really good place to learn editing, actually, because there was a very clear-cut style, and I learned how to hew to that. Then when I got into more general books, I knew what it meant to be a rigorous copy-editor.
 
TYG: Often, in the fiction I read, you have crazy names!
Patty: I didn’t do fiction so much.
 
TYG: I imagine fiction is a lot harder than non-fiction.
Patty: I think it is [from] the few that I’ve done. Especially because—believe it or not—authors sometimes don’t even remember what the name of their main character is, from the first of the book to the last of the book. [laughs] Maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit, but not a whole lot! Like the heroine has blue eyes on page 43, and brown eyes on page 112. If you’re a good editor, you’re picking that up.
 
TYG: Wow!
Patty: Yes. So you have to be always vigilant for the details.
 
TYG: That’s amazing! I didn’t realize it would be quite that extreme.
Patty: Oh, there are all kinds of things that you have to be on the lookout for. There’s a really funny one that I’m remembering: Sometimes you can get a proofreader or an editor that doesn’t know exactly what they’re doing. One time I was working on a book—I was the project manager for it, I guess—and there was the term force de frappe, which means “striking force” in French. But the proofreader had thought that was a mistake, and she made it “force de frappé” (with an acute accent over the “e”). [laughs]
 
TYG: In other words, something else entirely—I’m not quite sure exactly what that would mean.
Patty: Precisely.
 
TYG: “Force de frappuccino” or something? [laughter] In a thing like that, how do you address the author, or the proofreader?
Patty: For the proofreader, they’re working with you, so you can tell them, “This was actually correct the way it was.” But with the author, when you’re editing, you write little [notes]. Back when I was doing it, we weren’t all computerized yet. We actually used little sticky notes, and we’d write questions on little sticky notes and attach them to the pages.
 
TYG: That’s basically the same way we do it today.
Patty: It is, except not so manual.
 
TYG: Sometimes I’ve used the “track changes” function in Word, and it can be really complex! I’m guessing all the stuff comes from the old, manual way of doing it.
Patty: I guess so, yes. I’ve never, ever edited anything digitally, but I’ve seen how that works. And the whole left margin is full of stuff! You know, with the little lines going to where it’s supposed to be referring to. It’s very hard to make out where everything goes and what it all is.
 
TYG: It’s especially really cool when it’s one or two, which I can manage. [...] What happens if you’re reading [the book] when you’re editing it, and suddenly you notice the plot just starts falling apart and doesn’t make any sense?
Patty: You mention it. Tactfully, to the author. You have to kind of say, “Sense, question mark. Not sure if...” something, something, something. You have to be very tactful.
 
TYG-GD: But wouldn’t that be the work of the person who buys the book for the publisher?
Patty: You mean, the person that’s brought the book into the publishing house? That’s the development editor.
 
TYG-GD: I’d be surprised that they wouldn’t catch something like the plot not making sense.
Patty: Well, if it’s a really glaring error, that’s true. Again though, I’m talking about scholarly publishing—fiction, I don’t know how that goes at all. But yes, the development editor in scholarly publishing does that, and the project manager takes the manuscript, looks it over, gets a sense of what’s there to be done, to say to the copy editor, “Look, here’s what I’ve seen that you really want to watch out for, and go light on this thing (or whatever it is)...” You just give the copy editor some general instructions. And then you look it over when the copy editor brings it back and see whether it was done okay or not. And then the proofreader, after it’s been set and typed. It used to be that they would set galleys from the manuscript, galley pages that weren’t numbered. Then, after the editing, the type-setter would then make it into pages, and the proofreader would proofread it.
 
TYG: Now it’s all condensed into one process.
Patty: Yes.
 
TYG: So that sounds like a really fun job.
Patty: It was. Well, it wasn’t always fun. You’d be pretty amazed at how many boring books there are out there, especially some of the scholarly ones. But there were some interesting ones too. Once, I got to edit a book on the ethnic groups of China, and that was fascinating. But you have to be very, very detail-oriented. And I am very, very detail-oriented, so that was fine, but I got to a point where I went, “Do I really want to be just becoming more and more detail-oriented for the rest of my career? Yes, I’m good at this, but.. so what.” It just wasn’t really feeding my soul anymore. So, there were some things that led up to my choosing social work as a change in career.
 
TYG: So how did you make the transition from book editing to becoming a social worker?
Patty: Uhm. You take a big, flying leap into the unknown. [laughs]
 
TYG: You just went straight for it, then?
Patty: No, actually it was a fairly lengthy process.
 
TYG-GD: You probably had to go back to school, didn’t you?
Patty: Oh I did, yes. But what led up to it was, first of all, being in a job... It wasn’t a book-editing job, it was a magazine job that a lot of people would have killed for, but it just wasn’t ringing my chimes. It didn’t feel like I was doing anything valuable. So I started thinking about, “Okay, what’s missing in this job? What’s missing in general?” And I went into this long, long process of reading career-change books, and then [going to] career-change workshops, deeply inquiring as to what I should do. But then a couple of things happened that made me see that in fact social work was going to be a really good thing, and the first thing was that my brother got ill with cancer. I was with him when he died, and I was able to be there, in that situation. Even though it was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done, I was also good at it in a sense—I could really sit with him while he was dying, and be present, and be okay. And then my mother was becoming demented, and shortly after my brother died I had to go down to Florida and clear my mother’s house out, and get her into assisted living. I eventually brought her out to Colorado. Both those things were extremely difficult, and I was good at both of them, so I decided that social work would be okay. And it was.
 
TYG-GD: So where did you go to school for that?
Patty: University of Denver.
 
TYG-GD: You grew up in Florida though, right?
Patty: [...] I just went out to Boulder one summer and fell in love with it, and moved out there and finished college. And that was that for 46 years, until I fell in love with Yachats!
 
TYG: How did you come to Yachats, and how did you find this place?
Patty: You know, it was one of those almost-random things, like so many people, so many stories... major serendipity. I had been curious about the Oregon coast for a pretty long time. I’d seen photographs of it, and I thought, “Oh! That looks so beautiful.” And so I finally decided it was time to come out and see it. I didn’t know anything about what was on the coast—I was just Googling around, and I happened to light on the website for Ocean Haven, which is eight miles south of here, is up on a one hundred foot cliff overlooking the ocean, and there was a photograph of the interior of one of the rooms with the ocean spread out before it, and I said to myself, “That’s where I want to be!” Very specifically. So I did get to be there, in that very room. [laughter] And that was sort of the beginning. And then there were several other times when I came out. Other people knew before I did that I was going to be moving here, but I didn’t really consciously know. So I came out one time on a little two-month road trip, and I stayed at Tillicum Beach, and it was wonderful. And then I came back in January/February, and stayed for three and a half weeks at Ocean Haven, to see if I could stand the winter, which everybody had said was so rainy and depressing, and I loved it and it was fine. [laughs]
 
TYG: The weather is one of the best parts about this place! You can get this kind of summer weather anywhere!
Patty: I know! And that’s part of what happened to me, in fact. I didn’t get any winter storms—I just got some warm, beachy weather. But that was really wonderful. And so then I ended up taking a year-long road trip and came back to Yachats, and camped at Tillicum beach again for six weeks. And that’s when I started realizing that I really, really wanted to move here. And then serendipity took hold even more, and I found the perfect house to rent, then I found the perfect house to buy, and yada, yada.
 
TYG: I guess you like to take road trips, then!
Patty: Well, the year-long one was only my second. But after I got done with the two-month one, I really didn’t want to go home, and I realized I wanted to go out a year, and so I did! And it was quite wonderful, absolutely lovely. And that feeling of, “I don’t know where I’m going to spend the night, and that’s okay because I have a roof over my head right now”—it’s wonderful! I had a little RV: a little bed, and a bathroom. [...] At the end of that road trip out here, I caravaned up to Alaska with a friend I had met on the road. That was really fun.
 
TYG: Woah! What was that like?
Patty: It was great! In large part because of this road buddy that I had unintentionally met back in Nevada at the beginning of the road trip. We just had a lot of fun traveling together. And then I got to see the bears, and the Dall sheep, and eagles of course. I got so used to seeing eagles; it was really cool. I realized finally that if you were looking at a tree, evergreen, and you saw some little white dot in it, that would be an eagle. So then you’d look for the rest of the body with binoculars. Sometimes you’d see a couple of white dots, and then you’d look through the binoculars and there would be like seven eagles. That’s one of my wonderful memories of Alaska: all those eagles.
 
TYG-GD: Did you do any fishing or anything?
Patty: No, fishing, heavens! [laughs] No, I went out on a couple of glacier-watching trips, but no fishing.
 
TYG-GD: I remember reading your book about that. [to the Publisher] She has a book about that.
Patty: Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Yes, why I’m glad you asked me about that Allen! I do indeed have a book about that! [laughter]
 
TYG-GD: Anyway, I remember reading in your book about the roads up there—in particular one long highway, or something.
Patty: There’s one highway, I think it’s called Top of the World Highway or something. That was exciting. But in general the roads in Alaska weren’t as bad as they’ve been [portrayed]. I just remember one that was a little hairy. But for the most part they were okay. But yes, while I was on the trip I started writing travelogues, and just e-mailing them to people.
 
TYG: And you condensed those down into a book?
Patty: That’s correct! It was very, very fun to do that, actually. I talked an awful lot about rocks, because I’m a rock hound. [laughter] It was really funny, because I realized that I wasn’t usually writing about people; I was just writing about rocks. I was gathering them up from everywhere. I was carrying I don’t know how many tons of rocks in my RV all around the country.
 
TYG-GD: Well that makes for good gas mileage...
Patty: [laughter] Yes. But I still have many, many of those rocks. And then, what’s really interesting is that the house I’m living in now used to belong to Leslie Carter and Nancy. Anyway, Leslie was a big rock hound, and so in the yard there are some of the coolest rocks. I’ve been noticing them even more and more—the big ones that border [the garden]. And then there are the littler ones too—there are terraces in there with gravel, and you’ll be looking around in the gravel and there’s this beautiful little agate right there.
 
TYG: So, what was social work like for you?
Patty: As I said, I had a couple of horrible experiences, but the last job I had, I had a couple of wonderful experiences, where I was really able to be creative, just had a lot of fun. It’s a bit of a long story to tell you.
 
TYG: Sure, terrific!
Patty: Okay... The first job I had gotten out of social work school was with an agency that served older people with vision loss, partial vision, and I learned a lot about that that I had not known before. So when I got to this very last job, which served frail, elderly people, and I worked in a center where people came in for the day sometimes, I was able to start a little vision support group. So I did that for pretty much the whole time I worked there. One day, after I’d been doing it for a couple of years, there were a couple of women in the group who were total live wires, even though they were very, very disabled by vision loss. So one day, we were talking about music, and they were talking about how much they had loved to dance. I had this sudden brainstorm, and I said, “We could dance in our chairs!” And they got all excited by that idea, and so did several of the other people in the vision group, so I knew I had a good thing starting there. 

I left the group and was going back to the office, and I ran into my colleague Patricia, who had a degree in dance therapy. So I dragged her into my office, and I said, “Hey listen, I’ve had this idea.” And she was into it as well. It’s somewhat of a long story, so I won’t go into it, but we did start the chair-dancing group. It was huge fun. Patricia and I applied to make a presentation at an annual meeting at the kind of agency that was where I was working, and our proposal was accepted. So we choreographed three numbers that the group could do—we did a waltz, and a country song, and we did Peggy Lee’s Fever; three different dances with those styles of music. We rehearsed and rehearsed. Then when the time came, they took us into downtown Denver. We did the presentation, and the group did their three dances, and we got a standing ovation! Everybody loved it and was so excited.
 
TYG: Just because it’s increasing range of movement, and keeping people active?
Patty: That’s only part of it. The beauty of it was, beyond [the things you mentioned], it was something they could do to express themselves without it being about them being old, they got to just be themselves, and they could do it safely without having to stand up. They were expressing themselves and making stuff up; we laughed, we had the best times—it was just all about them as people, other than as old people singing You Are My Sunshine with the [waving the arms].
 
TYG-GD: Yeah, I can see there being a big wall in perception between being old—defined as all the things you can no longer do—versus being seen as a person, yeah, you’re old, but that’s part of you. So you’re doing things because you’re a person, and that’s what you can do—not that you are being restricted from what you used to be able to do. 
TYG: So it’s about viewing the present versus viewing the past.
Patty: Yes—and being the whole you. So that was incredibly rewarding.
 
TYG-GD: So were all of your clients elderly, in all of your jobs?
Patty: No, I also worked with developmentally disabled adults. So it was either with people who were disabled in some way, and/or elderly. I was more of a case manager social worker than a therapist. I never did therapy.
 
TYG: Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?
Patty: Why yes, there is! I’m so glad you asked. [laughs] The thing that I’m doing now that is the most fun is: I’m taking photographs of interesting clouds, and I’m sending them out to people who are interested in seeing them. The project is called Cloud du Jour, and I’m just really having a lot of fun with it.
 
TYG-GD: So it’s kind of like a travelogue, but it’s a travelogue about clouds.
TYG: About the various patterns that created them, and just their inherent beauty?
Patty: Yes, it’s more about the beauty than about the science. It’s not really a travelogue except the clouds are travelling—but I’m not. [laughs] But I’m not doing “in the shape of.” [...] There are some amazing clouds out there—when I first got to Oregon I didn’t think there were any great clouds. I started doing this in Colorado, because there are really, really wonderful thunderheads. But there have been a couple of days when I couldn’t get anything done because there have been such amazing clouds all day long. So—what can I tell you.
 
TYG: Sounds like a fun hobby!
Patty: One of the coolest things that’s grown out of that is that [I’ve found] an actual organization called the Cloud Appreciation Society, started by a gentleman in England. It has over 43,000 members now, and they have started organizing trips.
 
TYG: To see clouds?
Patty: Actually, the first ones are to see the aurora. So the first one was last year to Yellowknife, Canada, to see the aurora, and they’re doing it again this year. And I’m going, and Peggy Speer [another Yachatian] is coming with me! It’s actually out in the wilderness, a little plane ride away from Yellowknife. Maybe we see the aurora, and maybe we won’t, because you never know.
 
TYG-GD: Remind me again where Yellowknife is?
Patty: It’s in the Northwest Territories, on the shores of an enormous lake called the Great Slave Lake. And it’s right at the Arctic Circle. That’s going to be so interesting, because all these other cloud-lover people are going to be there.
 
TYG: Thank you so much for your time!
Patty: Thank you so much—it’s been a pleasure!

Interview with John W. Thornton

TYG: You were in the US Naval Reserve. What was that like?
John: I was on active duty for two years, from 1956 to 1958. I went to school first, in Pomona—guided missile school. My first duty station was at Crane, Indiana: Naval Ammunition Depot. I was in the Guided Missile Service Unit 217. I was there about a year. Nobody had any missiles at the time, so most of the year, they were just getting set up. And then I got orders to the Naval Ammunition Depot in Fall Brook, California, where I was assigned as the guided missile officer, and as the assistant ordinance officer. Since we just had a building, and not much going on in the building, I was mostly the assistant ordinance officer. A couple of things I did besides that job: I was the courier for any kind of classified material that came into the base or left the base—I was the courier for that.
 
TYG-Graphic Design: Where did you grow up? Why did you get interested in the Navy?
John: Let’s see. I was born in Boston and lived in the suburbs there. Graduated from high school, a place called Matick. Then I got an academic scholarship to Tufts College, which is in the suburbs of Boston. I majored in electronic engineering. Graduated in ‘56 there, then went to that guided missile school in Pomona.
 
TYG-GD:  So did you choose that, the missiles?
John: No! I knew nothing about it. I wanted to be on destroyers. I signed up for Destroyers—Atlantic; second choice Destroyers—Pacific; third choice was Destroyers—Mediterranean. Then I got the guided missile school instead.
 
TYG: Probably because you had that major in electronics...
John: Yes, I think so. Let’s see, what else can I tell you about Fall Brook... Oh—the other thing I did: I was assigned as a convoy commander for transporting special weapons up and down the coast of Southern California.
 
TYG-GD: “Special weapons”? What are those?
John: Nuclear weapons.
 
TYG: Wow! And you were the convoy commander?
John: Yes.
 
TYG-GD: So on the ocean, you guys would...
John: Not on the ocean—we mostly got them down Highway 101. Mostly down to Seal Beach, which was about 80 miles away.
 
TYG-GD: Why did you have to transport them?
John: Well, I don’t know. The Navy wanted them in a different place. [laughs] Who knows!
 
TYG: Something I’ve never quite understood: How big are nuclear weapons?
John: Well, the ones we had were about like this [gestures with his arms].
 
TYG-GD: Oh, so they’re small!
John: Not very big. The first ones... Well, the very first one they detonated down at White Sands was huge, about three feet around because of the type of detonation that they used. In those days, there were two different kinds of detonation. That one was called Fat Man. The full outside of Fat Man was like a sphere, and it had detonators all around. You had to fire them in the right sequence, and then the whole thing would go “Boom!”
 
TYG: So that’s a less targeted one.
John: Oh no, it had nothing to do with targeting. It just means what kind of explosion you got. [Fat Man bombs] were made to explode 200 feet above the ground, something like that.
 
TYG-GD: So they were dropped from an airplane? How could they detonate in sequence when you drop them from an airplane?
John: Yes. Well, it’s all programmed in. The other kind, what they called a gun, they took two half spheres—you fired the gun, and it shoved the two half-spheres together. A simpler kind of thing.
 
TYG: So it’s a double detonation, in other words. One, conventional explosive; and the nuclear explosive.
John: I guess you could say that. It just pushed it down the tube. The two halves come together, and then you have a critical mass. So we tested both of those at White Sands. [...] At the end of the [Second World] War, the US managed to capture a lot of the scientists that were developing the V2 rocket, including Wernher von Braun. So they got them all to move to America. So we had a built-in group of scientists and engineers who helped us very quickly to develop ballistic missiles. That was taking place in Huntsville, Alabama.
 
TYG-GD: Why Alabama, of all places?
John: I have no idea. [...] In those days there was so much money being spent on ballistic missiles and all kinds of electronic stuff that there weren’t enough engineers, project engineers, or managers, or anything else. So there was a lot of recruiting going on. In fact, one time I got a call from a recruiter, and he wanted me to take an interview in Huntsville. My wife said, “I’m not moving my kids or me to Alabama.” That’s when all the racial stuff was going on, and she didn’t want any part of that. Anyway, so I didn’t even go for an interview. And there were other reasons—I didn’t really want to work for NASA. Yes, NASA was a madhouse. People were working 70, 80 hours a week. Later on, when I was in Oklahoma City, in the military communications department, that’s when we first started developing a military satellite communication system. I was the electrical system engineer and the project engineer on that job. At one point things weren’t going well, putting together the first system and getting it to work and whatnot, so myself and another guy were both working twelve hours a day, seven days a week. We did that for about seven or eight weeks, and my boss’s boss calls me one day, and said, “I understand you’re thinking about taking vacation.” And I said, “I have to take vacation if I want to keep my wife and family. I also have to have vacation to keep from going crazy.” He never said anything back to that, but about six months later we shut down that business. Most of the people I knew were invited back to work in Utica, New York again. I was not invited.
 
TYG-GD: Oh! That was your vacation?
John: I guess! I had to get a new place to work. By that time I had a piece of my pension, and I didn’t want to leave GE [General Electric Co.]. Of course, they treated me very well, and that’s when I got the job in Philadelphia with the missile and space vehicle division. My job there was what they call a subsystem engineer. My first project was for the flight test program for Minuteman-III.
 
TYG-GD: Huh. What is Minuteman-III?
John: Minuteman-III, for a long time, was our primary ICBM [inter-continental ballistic missile] program. What was different about it, from Atlas and some of the earlier programs, this one had three, independently-targeted ballistic missiles that separated during re-entry. You could direct where you wanted the missiles to go.
 
TYG-GD: Wow. I didn’t know you had worked on all this! So, what do you think about North Korea’s recent testing of ICBM’s?
John: I have no idea what’s going to happen. The Atlantic had a very good article last month about the options we have. And the conclusion was that we have no good options. 
 
TYG-GD: I understand that. I was just wondering, from a technical point, where you think they are right now.
John: I really don’t know. I don’t imagine they have multiply independently-targeted missiles, though. That’s a long stretch, and a lot of testing has to be done before you can get close to it. In fact, what I was involved with was what’s called a penetration aid system. This was designed to mask, or otherwise blank out, the radar that the Russians were anticipated to use to spot an RV [re-entry vehicle] coming in, and eventually, the ability to shoot it down.
 
TYG: So these are space-going missiles, then.
TYG-GD: They don’t go into orbit, do they?
John: No. They go up about one hundred miles, or something like that. That was some incredible stuff. In fact, we had a control room, where everybody in the whole group met every morning. It was interesting, because one wall was a simulator, showing all the different steps that had to take place, and it was so complicated that they had to have two technicians maintaining the simulator! [laughter] So, a lot of crazy stuff going on. 
 
TYG-GD: Who was president at the time?
John: Let’s see—that would have been Lyndon Johnson. Kennedy was shot in ‘63. And Johnson was re-elected for a full term in ‘64, so he would have been president at the time. So we had all this stuff going on, and my job was mostly involved with telemetry with flight test programs. They had system tests going on at Cape Canaveral for the different sub-systems, and they had a problem with my sub-system. There was a lot of noise on the channel—I’m talking about electronic noise, not audible noise—so they rushed me down to Cape Canaveral to solve the noise problem. At the same time, there was a hurricane supposed to come. [laughs] It was a little scary.
 
TYG: That’s the one thing I’m confused about: why they chose to put one of their greatest assets, their entire launch facility, right in the path of most hurricanes.
John: Well, they never got into much trouble with it. But I think it was because they wanted to not go over land very much. They wanted it to all be over the ocean in case something went wrong, in case something blew up. That’s my understanding of it. Anyway, I figured out what was the cause of the noise, and I got it fixed, and quickly rushed back to my motel, got ready to go, and headed for the airport as fast as I could—because of the hurricane. I got out of there, but the hurricane stayed out at sea, and we didn’t have a problem. I can’t believe what crazy stuff went on.

We will continue John Thornton’s interview in Issue 72.