Hello Garden Home History Friends,

Thanks to a generous donor, our special 10^th Anniversary Gazette will be printed and postal mailed to our entire list of subscribers. If you are not on our postal newsletter mailing list and would like to receive this collectible Gazette, please send your name and current postal address to GardenHomeHistory@gmail.com.

Spooky Halloween in Garden Home!

Hope you saw the giant spook looking over the fence on SW Garden Home Road at about SW 80^th Ave. The green lights lit up the Halloween “Garden Home Graveyard” near the north end of SW 82^nd Avenue.

2020 Halloween – Spook – SW Garden Home Rd

2020 Halloween tombstones – Kirstin Lurtz on SW 82nd Ave

2020 Halloween tombstones at night – Kirstin Lurtz on SW 82nd Ave

Cell tower at the Garden Home Recreation Center

We caught the cell tower work on a beautiful day! This tower on the Garden Home Recreation Center’s property is owned by T-Mobile. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile lease the property. Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District (THPRD) receives approximately $60,000 annually for this lease. Thanks to Mark A. Hokkanen, CPRP, Risk and Contract Manager for THPRD for this information.

Rec Center cell tower – crane

Rec Center cell tower – worker up high

Garden Home Ballot Drop Box

Thanks to Garden Home Community Library for hosting an official Ballot Box for the recent election. A steady stream of people found the box just inside the Library door, with many a “no, not in the book slot!”

November 2020: Native American Heritage Month in Washington County

The Washington County Board of Commissioners proclaimed November 3, 2020 as Native American Heritage Month in Washington County. We support the proclamation which acknowledges that Washington County, Oregon rests on land that was first inhabited by the Atfalati Kalapuyans, also called the Tualatin people, who flourished here for thousands of years.

See the Washington County website for more on how this decision was made and the actual proclamation (PDF).

Also see the This IS Kalapuyan Land virtual exhibit on the Five Oaks Museum website (formerly the Washington County Museum).

Five Oaks Museum virtual Atfalati exhibit

Five Oaks Museum virtual Atfalati exhibit

New Garden Home History flag

This new flag for Garden Home history is flying at Jan Fredrickson’s Wormwood Manor at the north end of SW 78^th Avenue until Thanksgiving when the flag pole will become a holiday tree. The flag will be displayed on the front of the house, and on the pole again in January. The flag, designed and developed by Stan and Susan Houseman, features the Camassia (Camas Lily), symbolizing the many years that the Atfalati Kalapuya Indians lived in Garden Home by showing one of their important foods. Thanks to Stan, Susan, Jan and Kevin Mistler for the flag and pole!

Garden Home History flag

Patronize our Garden Home Businesses

Let’s keep our local businesses alive! We saw Shelly Bigley, owner of the Old Market Pub, on TV speak about the impact of COVID19 restrictions. Other businesses are also affected and need our patronage. Within the next year, we hope the shopping center will be newly revitalized. Note that the blue postal mailbox has been moved to the strip mall containing Starbucks and Ploy’s Thai Restaurant and Hyperion Computerworks.

2020 Old Market Pub – south outside

Reflections on COVID-19 in our 2020 Garden Home lives

All of our lives have changed coping with this historic pandemic of the COVID-19 virus. As of mid-November, Oregon is experiencing over 1,000 new cases daily, and so far this year, more than 56,000 COVID-19 cases and 772 COVID-19 deaths. The Governor has issued restrictions on group sizes, business closings to contain the numbers, social distancing and hand washing or hand sanitizers. Sports have special restrictions and are played to empty stadiums.

Our Board members have shared some of the ways the COVID virus has affected their lives, which we have summarized below:

It’s wonderful to hear children’s voices outside playing in the yards and on the street during the day with public schools offering online courses. Many students do not do well with online classes and miss their friends, as we all do. Graduation plans are a challenge with often poor online grades. We miss seeing our grandchildren and being part of their lives. Just seeing children, friends, and neighbors seems more enjoyable. We worry about all of our young families.

With our mostly-stay-at-home lives, we’ve learned how to do many home repairs, cooking, hair cutting and yard landscaping and revisions. We wave at our neighbors, enjoy some street talk, and hope they see our smiles behind the masks. We may change dog-walk times and routes to avoid meeting people. We see more wildlife such as skunks, raccoons, even coyotes in our yards and streets, even a deer in the yard. Reduction of street traffic or we’re all home more looking out the windows?

When quickly shopping or doing errands, we all wear masks, call ahead to see if some businesses are open, avoid all crowds or even small groups of people. We’ve learned to cope with scarce items such as paper goods, flour, yeast, and other “survival” needs. We wear masks even in the medical clinics, hair salons, greeting neighbors outside, at the bank, everywhere. Most friends and relatives in care facilities cannot have any visitors in the buildings or only with major restrictions.

We miss our in-person contact with our friends and relatives. Our phone calls, Zoom internet communications, emails, even letters, have become more important. More TV watching, home projects, walking, and more attention to meals and cooking. Living alone means really alone for many. We learn how to order groceries and other items from the internet. Most grocery stores employ “shoppers” who will select your grocery list and deliver it to your car or home. Takeout food is available by drive-through only for now. Diminished hearing is common with plexiglass shields and mask wearing. One has the urge to take down the mask in order to hear better!

We all share in the “COVID Fatigue” and wonder how much longer these restrictions will be necessary. The developing COVID vaccines may be available in 2021. We worry about the more vulnerable people, our older friends and relatives and others with underlying conditions. Our own vulnerability is tested each day with any activities outside of the home. We are more aware of the advantages and blessings that we each share unlike so many other people. Be well, wash hands, wear masks, social distance, take good care of yourselves and others!

Stay safe and well,

Elaine Shreve

Elaine Shreve