A Rainy but Merry Walk through Old Sherwood Town

A rainy day cannot prevent these merry folk from their agreed upon, self- appointed rounds. Like working for the Post Office.

Clyde List Editorial: The Stimulus

NOTE: This Comment is not Endorsed by the Sherwood Oregon Historical Society
A group of Governors from the poorest States in the Union is "thinking of refusing" the Federal Government's stimulus money. It may be because they are smarter than average. They are very intelligent, well educated people indeed. But then again, as an amateur historian, I keep thinking about a book that was published in 1996. Honor and Slavery by Kenneth Greenberg (Princeton University Press). In this book, Greenberg explains why the nation's black folk burned down their cities during the years of President Johnson's Great Society. It turns out that the President inadvertently pushed their Mad Button every time he tried to give them things!

In the Old South, gift giving can dredge up some ugly memories. In slave times, the Master would pick a special day to distribute gifts to his slaves. It seemed like a nice thing to do. However: "Between master and slave, gifts could only flow in one direction. A slave could own nothing and therefore could give nothing back." Nothing back... except of course, their very lives. They might see their gramma worked to death on some irrigation project or their children marched off to the auction house with chains around their necks. But a slave was always careful to say "Thankyou" for a new ball to play with or some cheese or a new string of beeds. They may have surrendered every facet of their earthly existence to this Man, and yet the Slave Master does not say "Thank You!" to a Slave.

Now it is the 21st Century. It is the Slave Master's great, great grand childrens' turn to line up and get gifts from the Man. It's their turn to say "Thank you Sir!" These governors are behaving as strangely as those folks in the Watts District of Los Angeles and in Newark, New Jersey during the Johnson years.

Let's hope it turns out okay and they don't burn their cities down.

FOR EXTRA CREDIT: Which U.S. President bought a Plantation and named it "Sherwood Forest?"
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Books about Oregon's 150 Year History

Here's the "Best Ever" Book List on Oregon History.

Celebrating Oregon's 150th Birthday!

At right, in Salem February 14: Horace Greeley and Lilly Morgan bump into each other at the Oregon Convention Center. At left, in Portland February 15: The banjo-in-hand Sherwood Trail Guide is sketched by a little girl at the Oregon Historical Society.Everything went well during this very significant weekend in Oregon, except that a Native American lady from Grande Rond told Mr. Horace Greeley that she did not think very highly of him. We failed to get a snapshot of her, but Mr. Greeley and the Trail Guide did manage to capture a moment with Miss Teenage Oregon. The poor girl is, of course, standing a few fractions of an inch closer to the banj0 picker than the newspaper man. Wouldn't you say so, Mr. Greeley?

Now Showing at Morback House Museum

Some very peculiar Tualatin ladies (at Right) peruse the Picturing America exhibit now taking place at the Sherwood Heritage Center museum at Morback House. Peculiar? How peculiar can they be? Come to our March show (See our next post) to see the Hats, Purses, Gloves, and Parasols show that these very distinguished Tualatin ladies have helped the Sherwood Historical Society to put on.

Press Release

Portland, Oregon – PreservationDirectory.com, the leading online historic preservation resource, has announced the launch of their new partner-website HistoricForSale.com. The new website provides a vast directory of vintage homes and historic commercial properties for sale, real estate agents who specialize in historic houses for sale, and provides comprehensive historic preservation resources.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – February 11, 2009

Portland, Oregon – As part of the ongoing commitment to the preservation community, PreservationDirectory.com has once again teamed up with This Old House magazine to promote their search for "The Best Places to Buy an Old House". An upcoming issue of This Old House will feature the 2nd annual "The Best Places to Buy an Old House" article, which strives to identify affordable homes in historic neighborhoods and districts across the United States.

According to This Old House Associate Editor, Keith Pandolfi, "We want to spread the word about neighborhoods where the astonishing old houses are rivaled only by the community spirit."

Introducing:

A Song from
A Ferry Tale: Wilsonville; Oregon’s Transportation Town
A Play for the 150th Anniversary of Oregon Statehood by June Reynolds
with Original Music by Clyde ListHear Clyde Sing the Song!

The Eagles Have Landed!

Today we saw another Eagle Scout Project completed at what's starting to look like The Smock House Shrine. This time, it's a tool shed in the back yard of Smock House (The photo was taken from the porch of Morback House. Click on the photo to make it larger). The interesting part is that none of the busy buggers you see in this photo are from Sherwood. Tyler Johnson, the Eagle Scout in charge of everyone (he's the one pointing, far right) is from Newberg. Most everybody else is from Lake Oswego. The Sherwood Historical Society welcomes anyone and everyone to the Smock House Shrine, Oregon's (not just Sherwood's) tribute to the 1890s, when small town America was all there was, and you needn't bother running for President of these United States if you could not brag about your small American town roots.

June Reynolds praised by the D.A.R.

Sherwood Historical Society Past President and Author June Reynolds received several impressive awards from the Daughters of the American Revolution this morning at the Marjorie Stewart Senior/Community Center. June is publishing a series of very large books about Sherwood history. See "Sherwood: A Time and Place" below. She spoke at some length about her success at involving Sherwood youth in Sherwood Historical Society projects. The D.A.R. gave her every minute they could, but there is never enough time to describe everything June does.

SPECIAL NOTE: Sherwood Historical Society Secretary Clyde took this photo, but no one wanted to hear him sing a once popular but naughty 18th century song about the American Revolution. It made George Washington furious to hear the British piping it during the surrender ceremony at Yorktown. Problem was: Washington did not realize the Brits were actually calling off the whole War! He was thinking too hard about how much longer he himself could go on without giving up the fight!

100 Years Ago in Old Sherwood Town

F. Colfelt, L. W. Roellich, W. J. Edwards and J. C. Smock have been elected to the Town Council. A. W. Hall is Mayor. J. E. Morback is Town Recorder, L. S. McConnell is Treasurer. No one wants to be Town Marshal. "There not being anyone up on the ticket for marshal, the names of C. T. Hall and Geo. Saylor were written in, both receiving an equal number of votes, but not being present to have the tie decided, the matter was deferred until next meeting." 1909 Town Council Minutes for Sherwood Oregon USA

ACROSS AMERICA BY THIS TIME there are 8,000 cars and 10 miles of paved roads. There are more lynchings than auto deaths. A white male can expect to live 46.3 years, females: 47.3 years, black males: 33 years.