One Man’s Town, Another’s Shangri-la

George Wenschhof

What a twelve weeks it has been and it went by ever so quickly. Many thanks go to my good friend Frank and his wife Deb for being such excellent hosts.

They helped me secure lodging, were generous with help toward expenses and were visitor guides as well, even though both have full lives. It was remarkable to watch a youthful looking Frank and Deb, seemingly effortlessly, always be there for their four daughters, participate in community activities and manage their professional lives.

Frank, as a physical therapist who started up his own business; Encore Physical Therapy within the last few years and Deb, as a often on-call registered nurse, never missed a daughter’s softball or soccer game and were always there for advise or a shoulder and ear, whatever was needed.

Corvallis, Oregon, Willamette Valley along with the youthful appearance of Frank and Deb remind me of two of my favorite movies. One is entitled Lost Horizon which was based on a book by James Hilton and the other; Brigadoon, based on the Musical of the same name.

Shangri-la is an imaginary mystical place depicted in the movie Lost Horizon as a harmonious valley, a permanently happy land, where people live long past a normal lifespan and only slowly age in appearance.  Brigadoon was the magical Irish town, where the actor Gene Kelly stumbled upon a town not on the map, where people also never age and fell in love with actress Cyd Charisse.  

It has been a full and rich experience for me; as Mary, a woman who befriended me said, “You are soaking up everything”, and she was right.

Of course, I could not help but notice the form of government in place and the delivery of public services to the community, but that discussion will come another day and in a more appropriate time and place.

I will briefly say Corvallis has been deliberately preserved in a small town manner, free of Malls and Box stores with bicyclists and pedestrians given right-of-way and respect as you travel throughout the community.

Parking is a major issue downtown which is exacerbated by the absence of parking decks and the lack of a reasonable plan to address non-metered spaces.

The fast food franchises are present, but more prevalent are independently owned stores of every description.

The weather was spectacular the entire time during my visit; warm days with cool nights amid generous sunshine and little rain. However, as Angelina, the delightful woman who cut my hair at the So Fly Hair Salon while I was in town told me, “the Oregon weather is bipolar”.  Meaning, in addition to the wide ranging daily temperature changes which require one to wear a light jacket when the sun goes down, the rainy season was about to set in and last for the next eight months.

The adventure never stopped from the day I got off the plane in Portland and attended a jazz festival on the river. Many craft fairs were taken in throughout the valley, all of which seemed to have music and food.

Surprisingly, it also seemed everywhere we went, from the craft fairs to even a small town on the coast, a person who was a patient of Frank’s would walk up to us to say hello and talk about how wonderful he was.

Speaking of food, the restaurants in downtown Corvallis are numerous in number and variety, equally offering up scrumptious cuisine. Several micro-breweries exist as well, which combined with good food, led to a weight gain that I plan to lose before my next doctor visit.

Not much of a natural foods person, my bachelor days leading me to a lazy microwave dinner routine, I also witnessed the allure of the downtown Saturday morning “Farmer’s Market”.

It actually was a community meeting place where people looked forward to seeing each other as they chose the vegetables they would be taking home with them.

As, the Willamette Valley is wine country, wine tasting opportunities were aplenty, but on late Saturday mornings, the place to stop by after visiting the Farmers Market, is Jerry Larson’s Wine Shoppe; Wineopolis. A friendly man, quick to share his knowledge of wines, he always provided a palate pleasing choice, full of flavor and most important to me, affordable.

Perhaps, the doubling of the size of Corvallis by the annual arrival of 25,000 students to attend Oregon State University for nine months adds to the youthful appearance of the residents.

But, in the early mornings and evenings, as I watched the dew rising like clouds above the fields with the mountains in the background, I could not help thinking of the movie Brigadoon and what a special place this is for many.

It was gratifying to see Frank and Deb have found their Shangri-la.  I plan a return visit.

Wheels up to Oakland, then Sonoma County, California as my journey continues.

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