Corvallis Moments

       

    On Wednesday, I was walking towards downtown. The light on Third Street turned and Kim, on her SoupCycle bike, rode past. SoupCycle is a small local business that delivers handmade organic soup by bike cart. It’s been going for about five years; the soup is tasty and the delivery service is fine. I smiled. Then, another bike and cart rode past. This one was piloted by a homeless man with two huge—six feet in the air and three feet wide-- bags of cans balanced on an old Burley bike cart. I caught up with him on the sidewalk and noticed that he also had a small radio tucked into his belongings and was listening, I swear, to NPR. Only in Corvallis.

            We had another classic Corvallis moment—or hour—on Saturday night. We went for a walk after the Pie Social to settle our stomachs and ran into the Christmas Parade. Corvallis Parades are surreal experiences; I have never seen any others like them and this one was no exception. In the first five minutes we watched: Boy and Girl Scouts, an old fire truck decked in lights, the mayor, the CPD doing figure eights in the street around the police cars, and a belly dance troop. Then I started taking notes. The parade had:

•  Three rounds of Vintage cars
• Corgis in leis
• Veterans for Peace, joined by the Methodist church
• Blue Sky Power
• Four evangelical churches waving from the backs of Big Trucks
• A bad Elvis Impersonator
• The Healthcare for All group, chanting rally calls and dressed in boxes, like presents
• Not one, but two kazoo bands, one of which had altered the kazoos with small traffic cones to increase sound
• Dogs in Hula skirts
• The Nutcracker dancers
• The CHS Dance team (well, half) and Mr Spartan contestants
• Pregnancy Options
• Log Trucks decked in lights and wearing grass skirts. One also had a hand-made sign on the extra gas tank reading “Americanism.”
• Bikes of all sorts, including the Soup Cycle riders and some kinetic sculptures, decked out in lights
• The Rodeo Queen for the Philomath Frolic on horseback
• Benton County Commissioners and our state rep who is running for the Senate seat
• Guide Dogs with Reindeer antlers
• Every police car in town, sirens blaring, followed by Santa riding on a fire truck

The parade runs for over an hour. Everyone tosses candy into the crowd and kids scramble to find it, often running into the street while huge trucks head their way. In the end, the families at the beginning of the route have been known to join in and walk through downtown. It feels like you have moved back in time to the 1950s, when everyone got along and was happy, despite the tensions roiling below the surface.

Winter Fruit and Walnut Pie—slightly altered from the November Sunset Magazine

1 c of craisins

1 c of raisins

2 c of chopped apples

2 T of cornstarch

2 T of butter

Juice of one orange

.5 t cinnamon

.25 t of nutmeg and allspice

.5 c of sugar

1 c of toasted walnut pieces

Put fruit and .75 c of water in a pan and bring to a boil. Turn off and add .25 c of water with the cornstarch mixed in and stir. It will thicken. Add sugar, spices, butter, juice and stir.

Place toasted walnuts in the bottom of the pie and then pour the fruit mix over it. Attach the top crust. Maybe sprinkle some cinnamon sugar on top. Bake. 425 degrees for the first ten minutes, then drop down to 350 degrees to finish it off.

This is also fine for breakfast….