Re-charging
One of the greatest things about living on the coast is that you can often find a beach or hiking trail to explore without seeing another soul! This serenity and quiet is appreciated by folks that deal with people on the job, at the markets, on the highways, and in the busy restaurants especially in the summer months. With that quiet time you can de-compress and recharge your batteries and jump right back into the thick of things with renewed energy.
However, another way to recharge your batteries is to zip over the hill to what Coastal Dwellers refer to as The Valley! My girlfriend and I recently had the opportunity to go to the valley to see a professional baseball game and do a bit of country boy sightseeing. When I say country boy sightseeing I mean when you find yourself staring at tall structures and busy streets like you’ve never seen anything like that before!
Fortunately I’ve been able to see a lot of the USA and many other parts of the world, but I still couldn’t escape the initial awestruck feeling I got when we were standing on the turf and looking up at the University of Oregon’s towering Jumbotron scoreboard in an empty Autzen Stadium. Or rounding a downtown corner and looking at the modern, busy rapid transit station with people and buses daring in and out. Since there are no scoreboards or bus terminals in the village where we live, these things haven’t become everyday sights.
Later when we arrived at Civic Stadium, the home of the Northwest League Eugene Emeralds, to catch the important game between the first place Salem-Keizer Volcanoes and the second place Emeralds I could feel my energy level rising. The sight of the old ball park filling with people and the player’s warming up on the brilliant green grass was exciting.
The game was eventually won by the Volcanoes but there had been contests between innings, crowd participation events, foul balls zinging by, hoots and catcalls from the home fans, and the sight of Reggy, a purple big bird type mascot who was representing the Mascot Hall of Fame; a creation of David Raymond, who was the original Phille Phanatic mascot from 1978 to 1993 and currently heads the Raymond Entertainment Group out of Newark, Delaware. He cajoled the willing crowd, pestered the ballplayers and thoroughly thrilled the kids.
After the game ended and the crowd began filling out we stood amongst the peanut shells and discarded refreshment cups ready to head back to the Coast with a great memory of city sights and sounds, and freshly re-charged batteries!
To reach Rick Schultze email: yarick@pioneer.net
Added 01 August, 2007 by Rick