Oakridge resident Ranell Curl jokingly boasts that over the past 12 years her backyard swimming pool has been home to an extended family of “mer-people.” Mer-people? Think mermaids without the fish tails. Think graduates of Curl’s Red Cross swimming and water safety classes who, in her words, have “crossed over” into the world of impassioned, mermaid-like practitioners of synchronized swim.
See, Oakridge hasn’t had a public swimming pool since the early 1970s—about the same time that Curl and her husband moved to town from the Bay Area, then realized that a town located near rivers but lacking swim classes for children was a problem needing fixing. The solution? The Curls sunk a pool in their backyard, and Ranell set about teaching water safety and swimming skills to local kids every summer.
It didn’t take long before parents discovered that Curl also had both a talent and enthusiasm for teaching synchronized swim to their kids. It also didn’t take long before Curl’s swim class students discovered that synchronized swim was not only fun, but a powerful, artistic, alluring sport that combined some of the best elements of ice skating, team gymnastics, and dance.
So now, a high point of summers in east Lane County is the annual Oakridge Synchronized Swim Team’s one-night-only, free public performance in Ranell’s backyard pool. The event demands no small commitment from the team participants―some traveling from as far away as Eugene, Cottage Grove, even Portland, to participate in a month of six-day-a-week, six-hour sessions in preparation for the annual costumed extravaganza.
The show draws 150 to 200 spectators, many of whom flood into the Curls’ neighborhood like migrating salmon toting lawn chairs and picnic baskets. The audience marvels at the ballet-like “strokes and figures” of the beginner, intermediate, and “champ” swimmers gliding through the pool in near-perfect synchronization to musical selections ranging from oldies and modern pop hits to orchestral movie soundtracks. The event has become so popular that local residents have lobbied Curl to install permanent seating—“but,” replies Curl, with good humor, “I just don’t want bleachers in my yard.”
This summer’s performance by the Oakridge Synchronized Swim Team is scheduled for Saturday, August 14. The Curl’s backyard opens at 8 pm, with the show starting at 9. Don’t forget to bring a lawn chair. 76504 Poplar Street in Oakridge
Moon trees
There’s been plenty of recent debate concerning the direction civilization is heading with respect to space exploration. One element in the debate involves the value of space exploration vis-à-vis the role that symbols play in inspiring grand dreams of our future. As the argument goes: When we lack symbols that embody our collective aspirations, we cease reaching for the stars.
Consider, then, a particular 75-foot-tall Douglas fir tree located alongside 13th Avenue just east of the Erb Memorial Union on the UO campus. Aside from a tiny bronze plaque and a couple of benches located under the tree’s low-hanging boughs, the conifer hardly seems a standout—the 280-acre campus is an arboretum of more than 2,000 varieties of trees. This specimen draws little attention from passers-by.
Except, this particular tree is truly a living representation of one of modern civilization’s boldest endeavors. It represents our real-life reach for the stars. Literally, this tree has been to the moon!
Before he became an astronaut, Stuart Roosa was a U.S. Forest Service smoke jumper fighting fires in southern Oregon. In January 1971, Roosa captained the Apollo 14 command module, Kitty Hawk, on NASA’s third lunar expedition. He traveled to the moon with a personal package containing three small canisters filled with several hundred tree seeds.
The “Moon Tree” seeds—an assortment of Loblolly pines, sycamores, sweetgums, redwoods, and Douglas firs—were germinated by the Forest Service after Roosa returned to earth. Over several years, the seedlings were distributed randomly throughout the United States as part of the 1976 national bicentennial celebration. Except nobody kept a definitive list of where all the trees ended up, much less how many got planted or survived.
Today, the whereabouts of roughly 50 moon trees have been identified. Oddly enough, there’re no discernable difference between the moon trees and their earth-bound counterparts . . . except, perhaps, as symbols. Oregon tops the list of states with the largest number of known moon trees. Besides the Douglas fir on the UO campus, living icons of the 1971 lunar expedition also stand proud on the OSU campus, at the Veterans Hospital in Roseburg, on the State Capitol grounds in Salem, and near the Siskiyou Smoke Jumper Base in Oregon’s Illinois Valley.
Design by design
Don’t be misled by the rather stuffy moniker of the local business known as Bradley & Englert. The name might conjure up images of a high-priced legal firm, or maybe an investment-services company. But it’s actually an upstart retail bazaar in Springfield that caters to purveyors and consumers of antiques and interior-design merchandise. The business, managed by Bill and Penny Englert, is sometimes alternately referred to as MDC, or Mohawk Design Center.
MDC occupies 9,500 square feet of floor space in a once relatively overlooked storefront on the backside of a rag-tag mall on Mohawk Boulevard near Centennial. Part of the mystique of the shop comes from asking customers to search out the location. Decades back, the MDC storefront accommodated a Sears department store. More recently, the building served as a gathering place for slot-car racing enthusiasts.
When the Englerts and their business partner took occupancy of the building last September, they brought along a cadre of retailers excited by the prospect of a shared-space marketplace for antiques and interior design merchandise. In short order, floor space was gobbled up by more than a dozen vendors selling specialty furniture, antique household goods, lighting fixtures, vintage advertising merchandise, decorative crafts, novelty collectables, jewelry, period clothing, and a veritable emporium of other design merchandise. MDC also incorporates a small bistro, patisserie, and espresso bar—all part of efforts to shape the environment into a comfortable, low-pressure destination for regional home improvement–minded shoppers with a penchant for bygone-era merchandise.
You needn’t be an antiques expert to find fascination in the unusual items filling the MDC’s aisles: An exquisite, centuries-old, $6,000 ceramic bonbon case once used by French royalty; a stunning hardwood hutch reminiscent of the cabinet that once stood in great grandma’s kitchen; a kitsch-perfect $5 costume bracelet made in the 1970s. If you can’t find what you’re looking for on display, there’s a good chance one of the owners, vendors, or decorators at the center knows exactly where to locate one for you. It’s all part of the design.
Still a Duck at Heart Mike Bellotti moves onward and upward By Sam Finley
It all started in 1989, when Mike Bellotti was hired by Rich Brooks as an offensive coordinator. Six years later, as head coach, he led the Ducks to a nine-win season and a trip to the Cotton Bowl. No one knew then that he’d become the iconic figure he is today. And now, the most recognized face at the University of Oregon has moved on.
In late March, after only nine months in the position, Mike Bellotti resigned as the school’s athletic director to become a football analyst for ESPN. But though he may be physically leaving the UO, the foundations he built here could last for a long time to come. Bellotti says he’s he’ll let others decide what his UO legacy is, but if he had to guess, it’s that he and his assistants “made football relevant at Oregon.”
It really isn’t that hard for people who have observed Bellotti to define his legacy. Just ask Steve Tannen. “He’s probably contributed as much to the success and growth of Oregon football as anybody in its history,” says Tannen, a longtime sports radio talk show host in the area. “Let’s face it, if you asked the average football fan to name the 25 strongest programs in the country right now, Oregon would be on a lot of those lists. In the early 1990s, that would never have been the case.”
Bellotti certainly raised the expectations for Oregon football. He finished his career with 116 victories, which is the most by any coach in the program’s history. During that time, he took the Ducks to a bowl game almost every season and won two Pac-10 titles. Most people would agree that the most impressive year was 2001, when they won the Fiesta Bowl and finished No. 2 in the nation. “There is no question that is the best season,” agrees running backs coach Gary Campbell. “Almost everybody involved with the program thought we could’ve played for a national championship. One of the greatest years in our history by far.” Keenan Howry, a former wide receiver who played from 1999 to 2002, is one of the many players with a deep respect for his former coach. “Bellotti is of one of the greatest coaches in Pac-10 history,” Howry says. “The amazing part of his success is he did it during a period when Washington, UCLA, and USC were all playing at a high level, too. But he got guys to come here who weren’t highly recruited, and made them play above and beyond their abilities.”
Josh Bidwell, a punter during the 1995-98 seasons, concurs. “Coach Bellotti had the perfect temperament for a guy like me—I enjoyed working with him, knowing that he was a lower-tempered guy that was good at getting the most out of every position,” Bidwell recalls. “He was really interested in punting techniques, and the work we did kind of refined my abilities and gave me the chance to punt for what is now 12 seasons in the NFL.”
Senior quarterback Nate Costa says: “He was a cool coach. Bellotti didn’t look like he was doing a lot. But he was so good at managing people that he made it look easy.” He also draws plenty of admiration from the people who coached with him. “Bellotti was awesome,” says tight ends and special teams coach Tom Osborne. “He was great in the sense that he let coaches coach and didn’t micromanage things the way some coaches do. He gave us responsibilities yet held guys accountable.” Of course, recent events haven’t been entirely glorious for Bellotti.
Since becoming athletic director and handing the football reins to Chip Kelly, Bellotti has seen the football program he strengthened enjoy the highs of a Rose Bowl season and the lows of players getting into legal trouble. Bellotti also fired the basketball program’s winningest coach, Ernie Kent, after a couple of inconsistent seasons. “That was tough for me to do,” Bellotti reflects. “It wasn’t something I enjoyed doing.” Still, he was ready to stay awhile. Then came the call from ESPN. It is a less stressful position, and he’ll only have to work 16 weeks per year. Yes, he may be moving on, but he is not moving out—Bellotti will continue living in Eugene. “You don’t spend 21 years somewhere and not have deep roots,” says Bellotti. “Now I get to talk about football as an impartial observer, though I will always be a Duck at heart.”
