Dec 28 2020 thru Jan 3 2021

Going to share a Christmas story from 1964. I need to premise this story with the following: As a boy growing up in the 1940s and ’50s in the great Northwest, clothes drying was a major task in the household. I grew up with a Maytag ringer washing machine. It filled with a hose from the faucet and drained with another hose, either out to the yard or to the laundry tub.

The beginning of winter ushered in a couple very powerful storms that brought a good dose of rainfall to most of western Oregon. The heavy precipitation blew out nearly all the coastal rivers and dampened efforts of most anglers for a few days.

COTTAGE GROVE – As winter settles into communities throughout the Willamette Valley, ending a year that has brought challenges like no other, it’s the arts and humanities programs that continue to provide needed connection and healing.

The Holiday Farm fires burned a total of 173,393 acres, destroyed 768 structures and caused one death. – According to the final “Burned Area Emergency Response Summary” assessment

When Covid guidelines that were issued by the governor’s office kept the usual Creswell Fourth of July activities grounded this year, residents organized their own “parade” through Creswell neighborhoods.

Graduation updates and words of encouragement for the future.

CRESWELL – It was a term cut short for former Creswell mayor Richard Zettervall in 2020 after he resigned in September amid adversarial community reactions to an equity resolution he and city councilors were discussing. He had three months left to serve. It was an abrupt ending to Zettervall’s term, and what a term it was. Zettervall has led the City through tumultuous times since his first month as mayor, from the 2019 historic snowstorms and floods, to a pandemic to wildfires and issues around social justice.

The Fool referred to in the above lyric was President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who, despite sober assessments that the war in Vietnam was unwinnable, continued escalating a conflict that eventually cost 66,000 Americans (and close to a million Vietnamese) their lives between 1964-68. Johnson’s leadership failure cost him his presidency, which seems like a small price to pay weighed against the cost of those who lost a child, a spouse, a father or a mother in a senseless war.

The Year 2020 has culminated into an historic year – from a global pandemic, to calls for social justice and equity in our local cities, to destruction by wildfires on the outskirts of town. The pandemic effectively shut down much of the southern Willamette Valley in March, and local businesses, educators, healthcare workers and community members have faced unprecedented challenges ever since.

The pandemic was felt across the southern Willamette Valley, and while cases and deaths were not as high as other regions, the economic impact was real.

The Wisconsin Grove has become a bit of a Rugby mecca. The nonprofit Madison United Rugby is the nation’s largest community-based nonprofit organization that promotes the sport. It was formed in 2007, uniting different rugby clubs in the Madison area. Located in the Village, the Wisconsin Rugby Sports Complex project started about 10 years ago, boasts two rugby fields, covered bleacher seating, and youth soccer fields.

There is not enough candy in the world to sugarcoat this year. The pandemic has blanketed our lives with a slime that sops us to our fingertips. It’s been 10 months and we’re still trying to scrub it off. We can probably agree that we all haven’t been at our best this year, neither on a personal or collective level. Our nerves are wires after having been yanked out of an electrical box – sparking, splintered, frayed at the edges. Acutely stressed, scared and frustrated, we are all a little more bitter, more terse. Our vulnerability feels like it’s doing a marathon, not a sprint. And hey, more uplifting news: Health experts say that the “darkest days” of the pandemic are still ahead.

Making the best out of the unconventional 2020 school year.

CRESWELL – The old Star Theatre at 187 W. Oregon Ave. has been purchased by the owners of the Creswell Bakery, Jeffery and Colleen Tunnell. The property went up for sale after the former owner, Elinor Ann Bright, died in June. No word yet on what the Tunnells plan to do with the building, said daughter Heidi Tunnell, who runs the bakery on the same block.

March 21, 1930 – Dec. 19, 2020

Sept. 2, 1934 – Nov. 27, 2020

May 4, 1961 – Dec. 16, 2020

April 15, 1922 – Dec. 22, 2020

Oct. 14, 1937 – Dec. 17, 2020

Feb. 13, 2000 – Dec. 19, 2020

Remembering our family, friends, and neighbors Presented by Major Family Funeral Home