100 Years Ago

Feb. 5, 1925 — Fine capons from E.B. Williams Ranch

What was perhaps the finest bunch of poultry ever marketed in Redmond was taken by Mr. Agee of the Deschutes Valley Creamery last Friday and packed for the Portland market.

When Mr. Agee has given these birds his professional care in packing them in the new boxes, all paper lined, they presented a sight seldom seen in this part of the country.

… These birds are almost perfect in their appearance. When dressed for market they were as round and fat as partridges, and when it comes to eating well it can’t be put into words how good they are.

75 Years Ago

Feb. 2, 1950 — City Gets Go-Ahead On Census

Residents of Areas Annexed by April 1 To Count, Says Bureau

The city has struck gold on the census. Those 400 to 300 airbase and GI project residents will be counted if the land is annexed before April 1, says the bureau of census in Washington.

An election was set March 3 by the city council Tuesday evening. Submitted for annexation will be the entire airbase, field and all, and the GI project.

A telegram from Senator Wayne Morse seemed to clinch the point that it still isn’t too late to get the job done, as the city had once assumed.

Bureau Says Okay

“Contacted Mr. Ekler of the bureau of census re Redmond annexation,” wired Morse. “He stated that if the city boundary lines are officially changed, and the new territory formally annexed, the bureau of census would be obliged to include this new territory in the city census April 1. Please notify the bureau of census as soon as annexation is officially completed.”

Only a small area in the immediate vicinity of the GI project is to be included in the new boundaries. The purpose is to get the 100-odd residents of the 24-unit project into the city limits.

Acreage Large

On an acreage basis, however, the airport annexation is to be a different matter. Nearly 2000 acres is to be included. This will take in not only the airbase housing project, but the flying field and its approaches. The city has always been contemplating the inclusion of the field, since this will give the city full police and zoning authority over the area.

Just as an afterthought, the city decided to include the Redmond caves area, which adjoins the airport property, since it has long been the plan to develop the caves.

50 Years Ago

Feb. 5, 1975 — Poet in the schools shares his dreams

“…Coffee black as coal mine water…..the cup clicks to its saucer.

“A horror as safe as a nuclear explosion in the sun where one belongs…”

“This toaster a mirror for my baby girl.”

And in such vein did gentle, near-mystical Ralph Salisbury read his poetry and talk informally about poetry last week in Redmond schools.

Does the word poetry mean rhyme, meter, a thought completely told? Yes, but more. It is imagery, feelings, internal rhyme and meter. Can you describe your dreams to another person?

“…Water filled wristwatch with shark fin hands…” “Crows are mystic creatures…so intelligent.” “…the smell of coffee…guiding mind from nightmares to headlines…!”

Salisbury continued, “Rhyme is internal; you must have an ear for language…write poetry, write nonsense. A child feels desperation. Adults feel desperation. It is high time for poetry… Words must be right and in a certain order…humility…all human beings need humility.

“Learn to memorize poems …Keep myths alive… We shall meet at the pass… There has been no time to pack books… We’ll all recite the poems we can remember…

“Poetry can be as natural as spaghetti on Saturday night.

“I tell my children while eating cereal with them, “it must be difficult to live with an appetite huge as a cloud’s…” (the fog envelops Spencer Butte).

“I like children, including the one I was.””…You’d know the east 40 of my mind is still in Buster Brown shoes, zebra-striped drop seat overalls, Tex Ritter bandana and hat that split the gunsmoke of many saloons…”

The poet says, “people who broke out of conformity (in the ‘60s) have matured to able, intelligent…capable of human good, spiritual good.

“After Vietnam…theater of cruelty had crept into poetry…violent, painful stuff…One way to get it out of the system, perhaps…War created a center for poetry…Students were writing a lot of it. Some sought to deal with horror by writing about its opposite, about good…”

Salisbury is poet and professor, once a house painter, factory worker, janitor, warehouseman, photographer, news reporter, hotel night clerk, literary editor, construction laborer and field hand. He was born on an lowa farm. He had just enough of his good voice left Thursday afternoon to captivate a roundtable audience of students and teachers in the Redmond High School library.

Currently an English professor at the University of Oregon, he was concluding a week of poetry …

25 Years Ago

Feb. 2, 2000 — District dropout rate takes dive

More students in Central Oregon are dropping out of school at the same time more juveniles are being arrested, according to a report released last week.

The statistics were published by Children First for Oregon, a statewide children’s advocacy group, in its 1999 County Duta Book.

Statistics included in the annual evaluation of Oregon children, focus on early childhood development, childcare and early education, family well-being and health and community investments.

The report said the high school dropout rate in Deschutes County jumped 49 percent for the 1997-98 school year — up to 7.5 percent from 5 percent the year before.

Redmond High School, however, was the only Deschutes County school with fewer students dropping out of school.

That year the dropout rate for Redmond High School dropped from 4.7 percent to 3.5 percent, the lowest in the county.

Numbers for the 1998-99 school year have not been released.

Unlike Redmond, Bend High School’s dropout rate soared to 9.2 percent in 1997-98 from roughly 5 percent the year before.

Although dropout statistics tend to fluctuate from year to year, the decrease in Redmond is due partly to programs specifically targeting students at risk of dropping out of school, according to Redmond High School Principal Dan Purple.

“We like to think we’ve done some things that are working here,” Purple said. “It’s a little speculative, though. These numbers tend to hop around.”

Three years ago, the high school implemented the LINK program, in which incoming freshmen are paired with older students in a mentor relationship.

To ease the shock of transition to high school, Redmond High School also switched to a trimester class schedule a few years ago. That means students now take an average of five classes per semester rather than the seven or eight of traditional two-semester schedules.

“It’s a little easier now for incoming students to stay organized and stay on top of their courses,” Purple said.

He added that he expects last year’s dropout rate to climb slightly higher than the 1997-98 school year.

More Deschutes County juveniles were also arrested in 1998, the report said. …