By Jim Kinghorn
To go or not to go, that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to attend the Silverton Poetry Festival…..Feb. 27–March 1 at a variety of area locations. The 15th annual festival will feature workshops, free public readings and open mic sessions. The Man doesn’t know about you but the festival sounds like a whole lot more fun than the “suffering slings and arrows” thing…. For information, dates and times, go to silvertonpoetry.net
Silverton High School will host the 2015 Future Farmers of America State Convention on March 20-23. The FFA expects to have nearly 2,000 members descend on our little slice of heaven to learn about the skills needed to achieve personal growth and career success through agricultural education. Let’s be sure to give them a warm welcome as these are the people that will be working hard to put the food on our tables for years to come. They shouldn’t be hard to spot…not too many of the hat on sideways, underwear showin’ crowd in this group…..
The state of Florida announced it is looking for volunteers to catch Burmese Pythons…. Yep, volunteers to go out and hunt for huge pythons which seize prey with their teeth and kill by constricting their bodies. Of course the “Python Patrollers” will be given an hour (a whole hour mind you) of training about how to “pin a snake’s head to the ground, slide it into a bag which is then sealed with electrical tape” for, get this, “safe carrying”…What could possibly go wrong with that plan??…Uh, The Man says thanks but no thanks – think I’ll pass….and you thought Oregon was nuts…
She’s helped countless people celebrate the milestones in their lives so now it’s their turn to help her celebrate one of her own. Silverton’s Sweetheart Norma Jean Branstetter will celebrate her 90th birthday on March 2. Friends, family and community members are invited to an open reception from 2 to 4 pm. Sunday, March 1 in the recreation center at the mobile home park at 1307 S. Water St. Please stop by to have coffee, punch and cake and join The Man in wishing Norma Jean a happy 90th birthday.
Like lot’s of us, Joseph Quinones and his wife Cindy are going for a bike ride this spring… but they aren’t talkin’ about a lazy trip on the bike trail at Silver Falls or a loop to the Gallon House Bridge. Oh no, Joseph and Cindy have a little more ambitious ride in mind, like 4,250 miles across America to raise money for veterans programs kind of ambitious. They promise if you donate a mere penny per mile to the cause, that they will do all the work and endure the sore butt and sore legs for you…. Drop off your donation at the Silverton Elks or the local Wells Fargo branch.
Imagine our surprise when a contingent from the Silverton Area Chamber of Commerce paid a visit to the opulent and spacious but not overly ostentatious Our Town Headquarters and notified us we had been selected Business of the Year. Our first reaction was surely someone had written down the wrong address or possibly some kind of sick ruse designed as payback for some transgression The Man had made in his dopey column. The representatives assured us that although they couldn’t understand it either, we had indeed won. The second reaction was there are lots of great local businesses that surely deserved the award more than this ragtag bunch. Once again, the representatives agreed, but insisted we had won, The third reaction was because we put out Our Town for you – the reader– you the advertiser, you our communities, it wouldn’t exist without you. So that means the award really goes to all you.
