Category: Growing Up in Central Oregon

Pictures of the cistern

This post is really to supplement my Water in the Desert post from yesterday; I wanted to include some pictures of the cistern we used to play on, because that was one of my favorite parts from that post. So while we were out at my parents’ place today, I snapped a few pictures.

Growing Up in Central Oregon: Water in the Desert

This is part of an ongoing series of articles that I’m writing on Central Oregon and growing up here; you can view the introduction here. Growing up on the desert, water takes on a special, almost symbolic, significance. You are constantly surrounded by sand, sagebrush, juniper trees, dry vegetation like bunchgrass and cheat grass, all… Continue reading Growing Up in Central Oregon: Water in the Desert

Growing Up in Central Oregon: Introduction

This is a series I’ve been mulling over for a while now and even at one point promised Simone I would write. I’ve been wanting to write it partly because I think the perspective of growing up in rural Central Oregon is unique, and partly because I think there’s some good stories to tell. So… Continue reading Growing Up in Central Oregon: Introduction

Water vs. Pop

monkeyinabox: “Mind you, this was back in the days before bottled water was all the rage. Water came from the tap, unless you bought gourmet water, Perrier, or whatever rich people drank. Growing up in a place with good tap water, it makes that kind of stuff seems pretty stupid.” Great bit on being a… Continue reading Water vs. Pop

Reynolds Pond

On Sunday I took the kids to the local swimming hole that I frequented when growing up: Reynolds Pond. As to be expected for something located in Alfalfa, there’s not much online about it, so I thought I’d remedy that a bit. Herewith a bit of local geography and history, along with some wistfulness over… Continue reading Reynolds Pond