Call it a clan. Call it a network. Call it a tribe. Call it a family.
Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.
(Jane Howard 1935-1996)

The June 19, 2016 Herald & News noted, ”…the first-ever Father’s Day was in 1910, and celebrated in Spokane, WA”, ironically my father’s hometown. He would have been six years old. I never knew his age when his father abandoned wife, son and daughter.

For all birth-fathers, and fathers-of-the-heart, in our clan, network, tribe, family…
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY

On June 18, 2016, during an annual Klamath County Historical Society bus tour, I chatted with Sally Wenz-Etheson. I mentioned the UUFKC’s Pine Grove, “Goodbye Gathering” held June 12th, as the property was in the process of being sold.

Sally, a retired Klamath County teacher, shared the following (all new to me): The county transferred the 1910 two-room school house and property to non-school status when Pine Grove and Henley merged, but used Pine Grove as a community center.

In 1996, our fellowship (then building owner) hosted two reunions for former Pine Grove students and families. Some offspring remembered their parents voting in the “community center”.

Then a family, the Kenslers, lived in the former school house. (Their “ownership” was unknown.) Gordon Kensler, his wife, Barbara, and (maybe) two children lived in and remodeled it. The Kenslers were artists; Gordon was Art Supervisor for the city schools district.

When new to the fellowship, I heard artists had resided in the old school, but little more. That was 1994. The building’s kitchen cabinets took us aback with their very colorful paint combo—cocoa-brown, with orange trim. And they were very tall.

Eventually, UU’s Lynne & Dave LeBlanc replaced the cabinets with wood, at reasonable access; also new kitchen linoleum. Lynne, a county teacher (maybe mid-40’s), claimed she had housemaid hands and knees from scrubbing the WOOD floors of the two former classrooms. In 1994 Lynne, Dave, Phil Studenberg were the youngest UU members; Lou and I were up a rung at 55.
Look at our transition in 2018!!!

“LOVING COMMUNITY”

On May 20th while learning about, “Beloved Community” with Rev. Sarah Schurr, imagine my surprise when I learned she, too, attended Marylhurst University. I had graduated in 1961, when Marylhurst was a women’s liberal arts Catholic college.

Later, (still a Catholic institution), it transformed to a life-long-learning university. More recently Sarah’s taken theology courses at MU, and was working with the theology department on more ecumenical courses. WOW! Both Sarah and I bemoan the recent announcement of closing Marylhurst, by year’s end.

LET’S ‘PIQUE-NIQUE’

Once fashionable social entertainment, picnics were a pleasure party, where all partook of a repast out of doors. Participants may bring with them individually the viands and means of entertainment, or the whole may be provided by someone who ‘gives the picnic’.
(Oxford-English Dictionary)
Echoing the French, let’s PIQUE-NIQUE!! See you JUNE 24th.
Then we’ll regather in September. Enjoy your summer.