Op Art Dresses and the Corrupt Mayor in Everyday Ramblings

So this is the mimosa tree I mentioned recently. I found another smaller one across the property two lots down to make four altogether. I am most curious about these trees. This is the house Earl Riley, the mayor of Portland from 1941 to 1949, grew up in. Apparently he was about as corrupt as a politician can get (collecting protection money from establishments that specialized in gambling and prostitution) according to the retired sociology professor who gave the lecture on local immigration at the big beautiful Jewish Community Center I went to last night.

I did get some small bits of information I didn’t already have and I very much enjoyed the audience of about 45 people, one of whom grew up in the rooms above our local Bistro. It used to be an old fashioned grocery, where you went to the counter and asked for things. The photos were also helpful but I could have used better labeling.

The lecturer leads walking tours around and he is a bit of a failed ham. Last night he had this whole silly gag of putting on different hats. I have lived here in Portland about as long as he has and he doesn’t live in the neighborhood. I was thinking while he was droning on in an unfocused way about how incredibly rich the stories in this neighborhood are and how I wished he would tell them instead of making lame jokes and indulging in attention seeking.

The fellow who voiced Bugs Bunny (Mel Blanc) grew up here.

And like, oh say the woman that was born in 1911 in Canada and then moved here and lived in the apartments across the street built in approximately 1890. She changed her name and became a mezzo-soprano for the Metropolitan Opera in New York. But he didn’t mention her. That story is in another book I don’t have yet by a lovely woman that collected stories of some amazing people who lived here before they passed on.

What I was most excited about last night was a photo of the original mansion that sat on the spot where the park is now and had the gorgeous huge copper beech that is still thriving on the property. That mansion built around 1870 was landscaped and completely surrounded by a decorative rod iron fence. The owner established a foundry that made much of the cast-iron that we still see around town today.

In 1909 he sold the land and the mansion to the county and the mansion became our first county hospital. Apparently after the hospital they built after they tore down the mansion was also torn down the park used to have a cool real rock grotto where the men of the neighborhood would gather to play chess.

But I didn’t find any of this out at the lecture.

What I did do was get the card of the fitness director of the club. There is an absolutely marvelous photo from the early fifties on the center’s wall of women in dresses (one of them almost op art) and stylish shoes doing a slimming class. Oh! Very Madmen indeed. I am going to call and ask if I can sub senior yoga classes there. It is a wonderful secure place and an easy bus ride away.

I will do this if we can ever get to the bottom of my mystery illness. Yesterday I had four more vials of blood drawn by a very excited phlebotomy student who got my tiny vein on the first try. And I am scheduled to have an MRI in two weeks.

The hip pain is getting worse and although I do have mild arthritis in both my SI joints that is not what is causing the pain. I have a pretty large cyst in one of my ovaries that could or could not be the culprit.

My doctor, (who I hadn’t actually seen since the melanoma was finally all removed) was lovely. There are a lot of truly awful things what is going on isn’t and that is good to know.

I am staying focused on what is working and pretty much everything is. I am extremely grateful to have been practicing yoga all this time because honestly I think if I hadn’t been the pain would be close to unbearable now. The nurse at the clinic was admiring how fit I am. That made me laugh because I don’t think of myself as fit at all, more, umm, healthy. Fit people…run. Sigh.

My student, who is 78 and invited me to the lecture last night was raving to her friend about my excellent ability to balance. Ha! Hopefully her perfectly appropriate friend will come to my class. I only need two more folks to come regularly to break even.

It is a challenge but I am going to try to imagine getting to the bottom of this all and getting it addressed and getting on with all I have in mind.

I can see a room full of funny Jewish seniors moving into my line of sight. I know I have as much to offer them as they have with their rich lives to share with me.

Former wearers of Op Art dresses a many of us were.

Last updated June 27, 2015