A return to Eastern Oregon...

Our House- 2011

Our House- 1977

I had the opportunity while visiting an insurance agent in Pendleton, Oregon to drive 60 miles south on a warm fall day down to Dale, Oregon where I lived when I was 12 and 13 years of age. At the time we lived there, Dale was an active ranger station in the Umatilla National Forest where my Dad served as Ranger. Several years later it was shut down. I was under the understanding that some people were still living there, but that turned out to no longer be true. I found the houses were still there and looking very much like they had when I was a young boy. As I peaked in the window of the the house we lived in, I even saw the same shag orange carpet and 1960's vintage linoleum. Only, there was not a sole to be seen anywhere. Try to imagine being transported back in time to find your childhood home still there and looking very much like it did in your memory, but all the cars, people, and furniture gone. It was a reminder that though places come and go and eventually disappear. The people in our lives have permanent and eternal value.