18 June 2009

Kudos: LostOregon In The Oregonian Today!

2091.LostOregon has long been a favorite of mine: John Chilson pursues Oregon history of the 20th Century via old ads, postcards, and other ephemera with a single-minded passion that puts even this Oregon native to shame.

We should all care more about our shared histories and the memories that make modern Oregon, Oregon.

Well, today, one of my favorite Oregonian writers (Peter Ames Carlin, whose command of the english language has made me smile in admiration more than once), takes on the proprietor of LostO and shows us what makes him tick.

Proper payoff for someone who obviously cares about where we all have been, and does it in such an entertaining way.

Time wasted at LostO is actually time well spent, and I recommend it highly, and not just because I was one of the first people he linked to when he set it up, way back when as Stumptown Confidential. Good times.

Congratulations, John!

Technorati Tags: , , , , , ,

2 comments:

John said...

Thanks for the kind words and for reading.

I've been meaning to write you about a couple of things:

1.I have some older [late 70s?] Oregon maps I thought you might be interested in. They're in my "collection" [aka, a bunch of paper memorabilia stuffed in a shoebox marked "for the blog"] and I will gladly pull them out and send yr way if interested.

2. Sign changes! River Road in Milwaukie/Oak Grove has been getting newer, wider [practically square] street signs that are replacing the traditional green background, white lettering horizontal ones. Weird - the older signs seemed OK.

Samuel John Klein said...

Meant every word of it, John. My feeling is that it's easy to get jaded as a native Oregonian, I love the people who move here and then get even more passionately Oregonian than I do.

Some people dread those who move to Oregon. I welcome every one, because, far from trying to remake Oregon in the style of the place they came from, they tend to fall furiously in love with this place, and make even better Oregonians than some of us natives.

In answer to your questions:

1. Yes, definitely interested. I'm going to be discussing some of my own map collection in this blog, and things like that would fit very well.

2. Looks like another street blade safari is in the offing. As far as the ones they're replacing here in town, the old signs aren't really that worn out either. Something about Federal Government standards for signage, I understand.