Ted's mom turned 90 this year so we thought it would be a great adventure to take her to her birthplace, Portland, Oregon. At 90, Mom's doing pretty well, albeit a little wobbly on her feet and her memory is blurring around the edges. Would she be able to find her old stomping grounds? Would we be able to keep her "steady as she goes"? To be safe, we rented a portable wheelchair for the latter, and her memory actually served us surprisingly well. After a smooth flight and just a little rain, we settled into our BnB, had a nice dinner and went to bed. Lots to explore the next day.
Woke up to a rainy morning, but that's Portland for ya. (Little did we know that the next few days would be the highest rainfall in recorded Portland history for the month of September.) Didn't stop us though as we set out to explore. First stop the Sellwood district in SE Portland where Mom lived until she was 10 or 11. To find her old house, we snailed along, up and down the street where she had lived. Studying house after house she looked for something recognizable. "They all look the same," she said anxiously. "And it's been 80 years since I lived here. I'm just not sure if I can find it." Then she saw a corner building and got excited. "That was the store! It was on the corner where I lived!" We cruised past that landmark as she became more animated and began jabbing her finger at one of the houses. "STOP! STOP! That's IT! That's IT!" She beamed while describing the features of her family home. This one fit her description perfectly.
Mom lived in the Sellwood house with her parents, two older half-brothers Darrell and Harold, and full brother Jack. Her face softened as childhood memories began to surface. She told us about:
• The time she unwillingly got her first kiss from Jack's best friend when she was 10 years old. Jack's friend wrestled her to the floor and kissed her and she was "mad as heck!"
• The times they walked over to the Sellwood amusement park. Her older brother Harold was handsome but didn't know it. (We saw photos. He WAS handsome!) Mom said, "He was a beautiful skater and a professional company wanted him to skate with them, but mom wouldn't let him go."
• The hot summer nights when Mom used to sleep outside on the front porch. Harold and his high school friends would come home late and she would startle them as they came up the stairs. (She giggles a little when she tells this.)
• The night she and Jack sat on the upstairs landing and cried and cried because they were moving to Midland where her mother had a house and 14 acres from her first marriage. Leaving was sad for them because they dearly loved their Sellwood life.
Mom was born on a houseboat not far from the Sellwood house. It was near California Street where the road dead ends at the Willamette River. There are still houseboats a little further up the river, but hers was no longer there. The family moved to Sellwood when she was 2, so she really has no memory of her houseboat life.
Okay, all this driving around with Memory Lane Radar at full tilt, made us all huuungry! And because the next stop on our journey was driving up north to see Mom's neices, Sharon and Deanna, we thought we should bring them a treat and have a little bite ourselves. Portland's Pearl Bakery is "treat city" and we tanked UP. Baked goods in hand (and some in our tummies), we travelled north, past Scapoose (don't you just want a baseball cap with that name on it?), up to Warren about a half an hour from Portland.
Left to right: Mom, Deanna, Sharon
(To be continued)
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