Victor Bremson's Reflections
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
On The Road
We are traveling by car to Los Angeles to attend a wedding and visit family and friends. We are stopping on the way to celebrate our son’s interim graduation from UC Davis with a Masters in Statistics and to share time with him and Bessie. I call it interim because he is on the way to a PHD in Transportation. We stopped in Ashland, Oregon to attend a couple of plays on the way down. We will be on the road for two weeks.
Ashland is truly a great resort town if you love theater and great people. The B&B’s and restaurants are wonderful and the theater is always great. There is an emphasis on Shakespeare but plenty of other plays to meet everyone’s need. For example there is a musical going on outside of the main theater grouping right now that salutes Carole King. One of the local problems is that a group of nudists are trying to make the downtown area a clothing optional zone. We didn’t get to see any on this trip.
We saw two plays yesterday. The first was a 40’s farce called Room Service. The Marx Brothers made a movie of it. It was a good laugh. At night we saw Love’s Labor Lost, a Shakespeare comedy about men learning about the importance of love. I enjoyed it more than Roberta. I would like to gain a greater appreciation for Shakespeare’s writing. Roberta suggests that we should read the plays first. But the themes still come through and the pageantry is wonderful.
We always meet interesting people along the road who teach us about life. Here are a few examples:
We met a beautiful young woman who was clerking in a children’s bookstore. She had many tattoos on her arm. She is a young mother who is pulling her life together. She spent 5 years addicted to Crystal Meth before she spent a year in jail. She said that Meth makes you feel like you are all powerful and that even after you are clean for 10 years you still crave that feeling. It is her young child that keeps her clean. She moved back home to Ashland to get away from the big city to raise her child. She said that she needs to get her child out of here before high school. Most everyone in town smokes pot and thinks that it ok but the kids want something with a bigger pop and don’t realize how quick that Meth can get them. We know that Meth is pandemic in small towns across America. It probably explains some of the fear that is rampant out there.
We met a young lady who is a waitress in a small restaurant. She is from Renton, WA but going to school here to work in the criminal justice system. She wants to work with young people in trouble. She believes you can still help these people. Her boy friend is away right now at National Guard Training. He joined before the war and now they are both praying that he doesn’t get called up. They don’t like the war.
Our innkeepers are a hoot. They had previously retired and moved to the Oregon Coast. She was a schoolteacher and he a chemist. They lived on the coast for two years and became bored to death. They moved back to Ashland where they decided to buy this home and turn it into a B&B. They are going to do it just as long as it stays fun. She is a great hostess and cook from Alabama and he is a chemist who loves to talk about cosmology. If you come through Ashland try the Redwing at 541-482-6944. It only has three rooms.
We met an older woman and her family vacationing here from Erie, PA. We got into a discussion about Wal-Mart while our traveling partners were shopping. She was an expert on this subject as she generally liked the store and wasn’t going to take any of my practiced reasoning. She believes that they have great selection and doesn’t buy the argument they are pushing everyone out of business. She said after all that there was a K-Mart in her town as well. There are several Wal-Mart’s near her. However she still shops at her local market. It is too far to drive to the Wal-Mart just for a little food. She admitted that her sister works there but only because her husband gets health insurance from his company. She didn’t know that 80% of the workers there need to get help with medical care from the state they live in. She said Wal-Mart spent a lot of money helping people but didn’t know that they spend a tiny portion of their profit on community and spend much more advertising how generous they are. And finally she did seem sad that her downtown area was no longer vibrant and she did wish that she could still go there, walk around and see her friends. I was very gentle and we enjoyed our conversation.
Anyway I wanted you to know that I am still out here trying to change the world despite the great drive, food, entertainment and fun. Off to Davis.
Victor Bremson
June 22, 2005
Ashland is truly a great resort town if you love theater and great people. The B&B’s and restaurants are wonderful and the theater is always great. There is an emphasis on Shakespeare but plenty of other plays to meet everyone’s need. For example there is a musical going on outside of the main theater grouping right now that salutes Carole King. One of the local problems is that a group of nudists are trying to make the downtown area a clothing optional zone. We didn’t get to see any on this trip.
We saw two plays yesterday. The first was a 40’s farce called Room Service. The Marx Brothers made a movie of it. It was a good laugh. At night we saw Love’s Labor Lost, a Shakespeare comedy about men learning about the importance of love. I enjoyed it more than Roberta. I would like to gain a greater appreciation for Shakespeare’s writing. Roberta suggests that we should read the plays first. But the themes still come through and the pageantry is wonderful.
We always meet interesting people along the road who teach us about life. Here are a few examples:
We met a beautiful young woman who was clerking in a children’s bookstore. She had many tattoos on her arm. She is a young mother who is pulling her life together. She spent 5 years addicted to Crystal Meth before she spent a year in jail. She said that Meth makes you feel like you are all powerful and that even after you are clean for 10 years you still crave that feeling. It is her young child that keeps her clean. She moved back home to Ashland to get away from the big city to raise her child. She said that she needs to get her child out of here before high school. Most everyone in town smokes pot and thinks that it ok but the kids want something with a bigger pop and don’t realize how quick that Meth can get them. We know that Meth is pandemic in small towns across America. It probably explains some of the fear that is rampant out there.
We met a young lady who is a waitress in a small restaurant. She is from Renton, WA but going to school here to work in the criminal justice system. She wants to work with young people in trouble. She believes you can still help these people. Her boy friend is away right now at National Guard Training. He joined before the war and now they are both praying that he doesn’t get called up. They don’t like the war.
Our innkeepers are a hoot. They had previously retired and moved to the Oregon Coast. She was a schoolteacher and he a chemist. They lived on the coast for two years and became bored to death. They moved back to Ashland where they decided to buy this home and turn it into a B&B. They are going to do it just as long as it stays fun. She is a great hostess and cook from Alabama and he is a chemist who loves to talk about cosmology. If you come through Ashland try the Redwing at 541-482-6944. It only has three rooms.
We met an older woman and her family vacationing here from Erie, PA. We got into a discussion about Wal-Mart while our traveling partners were shopping. She was an expert on this subject as she generally liked the store and wasn’t going to take any of my practiced reasoning. She believes that they have great selection and doesn’t buy the argument they are pushing everyone out of business. She said after all that there was a K-Mart in her town as well. There are several Wal-Mart’s near her. However she still shops at her local market. It is too far to drive to the Wal-Mart just for a little food. She admitted that her sister works there but only because her husband gets health insurance from his company. She didn’t know that 80% of the workers there need to get help with medical care from the state they live in. She said Wal-Mart spent a lot of money helping people but didn’t know that they spend a tiny portion of their profit on community and spend much more advertising how generous they are. And finally she did seem sad that her downtown area was no longer vibrant and she did wish that she could still go there, walk around and see her friends. I was very gentle and we enjoyed our conversation.
Anyway I wanted you to know that I am still out here trying to change the world despite the great drive, food, entertainment and fun. Off to Davis.
Victor Bremson
June 22, 2005
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