I can’t believe I missed 2 days of this! I will skip a day here and there just because the social distancing life can be so mundane, but never 2! I had intended to write yesterday, but time just got away from me.
Anyway, life is still moving on here. I can’t remember if I mentioned it (and I’m apparently too lazy to go look), but the Governor has mandated masks in all public indoor spaces in 7 counties, including ours. I’m in complete support of this, but I still feel like things opened too soon. Or, at least, the steps of the opening process are too expansive.
I had to drop my car off for service today and Pat drove over to bring me home so I didn’t have to hang around in the waiting room. On the (very short) ride home, we realized that we have lived in this area longer than we have lived anywhere else in our lives. It was kind of a shock–I still think of myself as a Salem girl! It also made us both feel a bit old. I don’t know why I’m sharing this other than the fact that it sort of blew our minds.
Before I get to the pictures, I wanted to talk a little about today–Juneteenth. Strangely, I had not heard of Juneteenth until I started working downtown for PGE. It certainly wasn’t a thing in Salem when I was growing up, but strangely I never heard about it when I was in school in Virginia (of course, at the time, instead of celebrating MLK day, Virginia had “Lee Jackson King” day).
PGE has an African American Employees organization and they would host a Juneteenth celebration every year at Portland’s World Trade Center. It was a great event–lots of soul food, music, speeches. I made sure to attend every year that I was down there. Once I left that job, I really hadn’t heard much about Juneteenth until this year.
There is a bill in Congress to make it a Federal holiday and the Governor has said she will urge the Legislature to make it a state holiday. I think both of those are the right move (although I guess if it becomes a Federal holiday it doesn’t need to be a state holiday? I’m not sure about how that works). I’m hoping by next year it will be something that we all can celebrate and reflect upon. I’ve already been talking to the kids about what it is about and why we should celebrate it (although we aren’t really sure *how* to celebrate it. Well, other than soul food, of course).
Anyway, please have a thoughtful Juneteenth and here are my pictures from years past:
2009
My daughter loved this swing as a baby! This is how she would nap when she was 4 months old.
2011
Here is a pic of Chris when he was about 7 months old and my mom.
2016
Here we are on a family hiking trip at Silver Creek Fall…oh, how I miss hiking! We could go now, but the trails are pretty crowded so social distancing is difficult (plus, the bathrooms are closed).
2017
Here I am with my niece’s daughter…and the little pumpkin is sticking her tongue out at me!
A Web of Stories 