I’ve been thinking a lot this week about my dad, also named Graham. Today, he would have turned 100, and he got nearly three-quarters of the way to the century mark. Dad died of a heart attack in May 1984, a few months shy of his 75th birthday.
I wrote a lot of golf stories when I covered sports in the 1970s and ’80s. But other than miniature golf, I’ve played the game only five times in my life. That’s once every 11.2 years.
Most of the email releases we received from the Oregon State Health Division since 2008 were written by public information officer Patrick O’Neill, a former Democrat-Herald and Portland Oregonian reporter. Every time I saw one of those releases I thought about calling Patrick, but never did. I wish I had.
I saw two volunteers late this morning going through my neighborhood and Takena Park looking for litter. They were among the more than 300 people signed up for today’s Big Pickup in Albany.
Two weeks ago today, my wife Nancy checked out “Bye Bye Birdie” from the library. A week later we would be watching our daughter Anna and bunch of kids we know perform in the stage version of the musical at West Albany High School.
After Paul Newman’s death last fall, Time magazine turned to one of the legendary actor’s best friends to write a “Milestone” tribute.
Two weeks ago, I crossed Queen Avenue and walked across the West lawn to attend a meeting at the school. This morning that section of lawn was gone. And so were the birch trees and the reader board. Excavators were moving things out fast.
Last week, I did a video at a gun-rights rally on the Memorial Union steps and quad at Oregon State University. Speakers used a megaphone — and some had trouble holding the heavy thing — to talk to the crowd of about 100.
