Forrester

My wife and I spent our first night in Enterprise at the OK Theater. The place place was rocking as we walked into a near capacity crowd. Billy Strings and his bluegrass group was eliciting shouts from the audience.

Billy (born William Apostol) is from Traverse City, Michigan. He plays a Preston Thompson guitar, made in Sisters, Oregon. It’s a top of the line instrument.

Strings’ group included mandolin, bass and banjo. Those players came from North Carolina and Portland.

Our family’s love of Bluegrass was fueled years ago by hearing a young Ricky Skaggs sing at the Birchmere, in Alexandria, Virginia. Ricky was a walk-on that night, joining Buck White and the Whites.

I was eager to see the OK, since I’m a believer in the revival of historic theaters – like restoration of the Liberty Theater in Astoria. The OK opened in 1918. It is older than the Liberty, whose birth was 1925.

Saturday night at the OK was a perfect example of why these old performance venues matter. In the dark and cold of winter, the music inside lit up the town.

Theaters like the OK and the Liberty become social gathering places. That was apparent on Saturday. All ages were in attendance. In addition to the middle aged, there was a large younger crowd, many with small children.

Following Strings were the Shook Twins. It is always a delight to hear siblings sing, because such a unique harmony of timbres is only found in family members.

All across Oregon, this has been a desperate winter. That is the case in our hometown of Astoria. In Pendleton as well. And I’m hearing that this winter has turned the heads of even old timers in Wallowa County.

Walking to the OK Theater, we passed a Chevron station reader board that proclaimed: “Spring is coming.”

On Sunday at the Josephy Center, there was a gathering of photographers. At Rich Wandschneider’s urging, we dropped in on the workshop of old Wallowa County photographs. David Weaver, who led the discussion, invited attendees to bring old photos.

Much of the discussion revolved around young Chief Joseph, the history of the lands surrounding Wallowa Lake and the phenomenon of 19th Century photographers who captured the earliest images of this county.

One folio contained an array of photos of early Wallowa County residents. They ranged from three young women – remarkable for their short stature – carrying rifles and the game they had shot to a grizzled homesteader clutching his domestic cat.

Weaver pointed out that until the box camera was invented, it was itinerant photographers who captured family history and the social fabric of rural places.

Prior to his retirement in August, Steve Forrester was editor and publisher of The Daily Astorian. He is serving as interim editor of the Chieftain.