Eidectic Fugue - Part five

Yes there are four previous parts to this story of the 60’s in a small store in Salem Oregon. You can read them on a blog, along with this one and the coming array of parts. These stories focus on a store called the Eidectic Fugue which existed for about a year and filled a vast gap in a cultural wasteland. Although it is 2016 as I write this, the story began long ago.


I left off telling this story (six years ago) just as we were ‘discovered’ by the local newspaper. The Salem area had two newspapers in the 1960’s - a morning paper call the Oregon Statesman and an afternoon/evening paper called ‘The Capitol Journal’. The Journal was a little more left leaning of the two, but they merged into one daily in 1973, called ‘The Statesman-Journal’. The person who interviewed me appeared on the Tuesday morning following Thanksgiving wearing a sports jacket and a tie. I don't think he was thrilled with the assignment. It was hard to get the story his editor wanted about how this younger generation was different and worthy of you buying the paper to find out more. The article made the front page the following day with a picture of Bill’s door with the “Psychedelics come to Salem” banner. My memories of the interview and the article are fuzzy but I clearly remember remarking on his tie (I wasn't wearing one, as opposed to every other business owner in town) being a symbol of one of our differences. In those times, a tie was a strong symbol of the established masculine culture. The article brought a lot of attention to the store, both good and bad. Mainly good.


I'd really like to read that article again and probably could find it at the Statesman’s archives. I can't find it online now and in fact very few references appear online about the Eidectic Fugue. It really happened though and regardless of its existence in hyperspace, it was a strong reality for many people. There became more and more places to gather as a young person in Salem and the store was not made as a social center, although it became one sometimes. More on those occasions in another part of this story. Little did we know that our next public appearance would be on local TV and I would meet the most special person in my life and a no school snow day would happen AND so much more.



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Location:Salem, oregon

Reaching out to the Senator

Below is a  note I sent to Senator Ron Wyden after attending the Polk County Town Hall meeting held in January of 2013.  Should I get a reply from Senator Wyden, I will try to post that also.

"Recently my wife and I attended the Polk County town hall and appreciated greatly you continuing to take the time to reach out to each county in the state on an annual basis.  That is wonderful and we hope you continue this process.

Apparently I was one of the "shy" ones in the audience in that my ticket was called and I had no prepared talking points.  This is my opportunity and below is my question.

My question is about climate change.

How do you think the Senate will be most effective in the coming years in addressing the outcomes of climate change?  

I do not expect the legislative bodies in this country (fed,state, county, local) to solve the climate change problem, nor do I have any expectations that climate change will not continue at least at its current rate.  I believe that the federal bodies will continue to respond to emergencies around the country on a more recurring frequency and that more "Sandy" type bills will be passed through congress in the near future.  Personally I expect the weather to be completely different that it was 60 years ago when I was a child in Polk County and find the weather wisdom passed down from the 5 generations of Farmers that have lived on our farm to be less relevant that it was a decade ago.  Weather is going to be much more extreme and we feel so fortunate that we live in the parts of Polk County that will not be devastated by the rising sea waters or even river waters.  

Our lives are good and we love the people in our community and seek to improve their lives are we improve our own.  I'm active in Polk County related groups and feel a part of my community like never before.  

Please continue to seek out others whose views differ from yours,  offer the hand of friendship and compromise and give this congress a reason to be proud of the 2nd decade of the 21st century."

Why not ask about food allergies?

After many decades of eating in restaurants, cafes, bars, and bistros, I am still waiting for a food server to approach our table with a question like this: "Does anyone at this table have any food allergies?".  This may have happened to you and hopefully so.  If it has ever happened to me or a member of my family, I sure can't remember it.  In fact, the strongest memories I have regarding restaurant servers and food allergies goes to the other extreme.  Instead of being proactive and asking prior to taking the order, several servers have either not understood "I am allergic to nuts" or not heard us when we mentioned it during the order taking.  This has resulted in food sent back, food not eaten and never returning to certain restaurants.  Perhaps the worst case was the server that brought the dish soaked in peanut oil and when reminded that someone had a strong allergic reaction to nuts, said "So?"

I think I need to follow the example of a pre-teen girl I observed (and later spoke to) at Denny's one morning.  When the waitress arrived at her table (she was seated with four constantly talking companions), she engaged the waitress privately with a clearly printed laminated card that stated two things:
  1. she had strong food allergies
  2. the three food items that caused her to react.
Nothing about what the reaction was, how strong the reaction could be, what might happen if the restaurant failed to heed her warning - just a simple message.
She said it worked almost all the time and that she had found examples of such cards online.  Of course I immediately forgot the name of the website just after I spoke with her.  It might have been foodallergy.org which seems to have some card templates although they seem more verbose than her card.