**Oregon Country Fair**
 |
| Greenman Emerges |
It's the reason we live in Lane County.
By the summer of 1996, CAM and I had been an 'item' for almost a year.
It was about that time our co-worker extended a most intriguing invitation-
Seems she and her mother spearheaded a group down to the Oregon Coast annually and she thought it would be up our alley.
And man, was she ever right!
But the Oregon Country Fair was no corn-dog and Ferris wheel affair, it was, hands down a whole other ball of wax: a horse of a different color: something altogether one of a kind: Yes, hyperbole notwithstanding- we immediately fell head over heels for it.
Sabrina and Maureen would gather a number of like-minded folk to stay at one of the group campsites in Florence, OR at Jessie Honeyman State Park with the cost split between all attendants over the 3 days.
You'd never know who'd be there from one year to the next, so meeting new people and seeing old friends was especially fun.
The Fair itself was a glorious, inland drive on HWY 126 about 45 min. to Veneta, just west of Eugene.
CAM loved testing his skilz on that curvy, scenic trip, which would often give me the spins while I sat in the back furiously putting last minute touches on my costume.
Though Fair ran Friday thru' Sunday, we'd only go in the first day to avoid the crowds and save a little cheese, as the tix were cheaper.
We found out the hard way, attending all three days is exhausting and we've only attempted it a few times since.
Besides, it gave us the whole of Saturday to lounge around the fire, party on, play games, swim, climb the Wall of Sand and basically just chill without a care in the world.
Mother and daughter (and I think an uncle) had been hosting many years before we joined them and eventually life took them in convergent directions, leaving us to pick up the reigns.
I was on top of securing 'F' the minute reservations opened up because of its large size to accommodate our group, easy access to the lake below (skinnydipping!) excellent location to the cul de sac parking
Some previous years, we'd missed out on one and had to default to individual sites across the street which wasn't the same; creating the community was at the heart of the event.
By the summer of 1996, CAM and I had been an 'item' for almost a year.
It was about that time our co-worker extended a most intriguing invitation-
Seems she and her mother spearheaded a group down to the Oregon Coast annually and she thought it would be up our alley.
And man, was she ever right!
But the Oregon Country Fair was no corn-dog and Ferris wheel affair, it was, hands down a whole other ball of wax: a horse of a different color: something altogether one of a kind: Yes, hyperbole notwithstanding- we immediately fell head over heels for it.
Sabrina and Maureen would gather a number of like-minded folk to stay at one of the group campsites in Florence, OR at Jessie Honeyman State Park with the cost split between all attendants over the 3 days.
You'd never know who'd be there from one year to the next, so meeting new people and seeing old friends was especially fun.
The Fair itself was a glorious, inland drive on HWY 126 about 45 min. to Veneta, just west of Eugene.
CAM loved testing his skilz on that curvy, scenic trip, which would often give me the spins while I sat in the back furiously putting last minute touches on my costume.
Though Fair ran Friday thru' Sunday, we'd only go in the first day to avoid the crowds and save a little cheese, as the tix were cheaper.
We found out the hard way, attending all three days is exhausting and we've only attempted it a few times since.
Besides, it gave us the whole of Saturday to lounge around the fire, party on, play games, swim, climb the Wall of Sand and basically just chill without a care in the world.
Mother and daughter (and I think an uncle) had been hosting many years before we joined them and eventually life took them in convergent directions, leaving us to pick up the reigns.
I was on top of securing 'F' the minute reservations opened up because of its large size to accommodate our group, easy access to the lake below (skinnydipping!) excellent location to the cul de sac parking
Some previous years, we'd missed out on one and had to default to individual sites across the street which wasn't the same; creating the community was at the heart of the event.
CAM and I held our 'Big, Fat Hippy Wedding' one year. Another, The Reverend SuZen presided over a midnight Handfasting. Couples embraced each other as romance filled the air and needless to say, there was much carrying on.
We'd take a few extra days to leisurely drive up HWY 101 exploring everything it had to offer.
How we looked forward to that vacation!
There would always be a bit of a bummer coming into Seattle and we joked that when we won the lottery we'd move down there for good.
Problem was, we never played the lottery.
Another problem was our ability to invariably attract the attention of The Man.
Some say I've a reputation for cackling loudly around a campfire, though I wholeheartedly dispute those allegations.
Nevertheless, our neighbors would shush us and failing that, would call up either the State Park Rangers or camp hosts or employees or State Troopers or all.
Nevermind that frequently those groups of Boy Scouts, churchy types, family reunions etc. were making plenty of their own noise.
Granted, I'll concede this mostly took place during camp hours, whereas ours did not.
But really, one year it seemed someone was on that pogo stick for the entire 72 hours.
And yes, we might have been skirting the law when Tweedledee & Tweedledum found us atop the dunes shooting off some hardcore fireworks, threatening us as menacingly as they could between gulps of O2 with "double illegal" fines.
So a plan was hatched; why don't we just get a little piece of our own land to camp on every year?
Instead of dealing with the incessant and inevitable reprimands, we could do whatever the hell we wanted since it would be a privately owned plot out in the middle of nowhere.
During the course of that trip home, the conversation had turned from that idea to "let's just move there."
And so we did.
Of course, it wasn't quite that easy.
Terribly motivated after that first epiphany, we reduced our worldly belongings by a third upon returning; even the family piano that'd come out from OH not 5 years earlier, went to its new home in WI with a talented niece.
But then the reality of the situation set in and it was apparent that we'd been premature in our zeal to make this life change.
Lane County OR was more than just the Second Weekend in July (when the Oregon Country Fair is held yearly.)
That was just a representation area's tone: politics, lifestyle, hippie history.
This vibe suited us far better than what had been transpiring in Seattle- a city which grew too big for itself and lost its soul.
Here, we felt at home. That we connected to the environment and approach was appealing; comforting and affirming.
It simply felt more natural and gave us a renewed sense of peace and hope, something that seemed so impossible during THOSE 8 years in which we found ourselves.
Keeping our eye on the prize: (I don't think most of our friends even realized how seriously motivated we actually were) saving, plotting and wrapping up loose ends over the intervening years, we were finally set to jet.
I'll spare you the gritty details of what that involved for another time,
The end story is that we landed in Lane County after pining all those many years.
It's been an adjustment, to be sure; switching lifestyles drastically from city to country can have an affect.
But I am so glad and proud that we followed through.
Now we've got that little piece of our own real estate here.
For 3 days every year during the 2nd weekend July, we open up our backyard and host SHOW (StanMinn Homestead OCF Weekend)
And while we're not shooting off dangerous fireworks, we certainly are carrying on and but no one's around to tell us to shut up.
As it should be.
 |
| Departing Bfast at Morgan's back in the days before we needed Bloodies as part of the tradition |
**Note** No entries for the next 2 weeks due to fun and frivolity
www.oregoncountryfair.org
No comments:
Post a Comment
What say you?