Spreading the Oregon Love
Brian Wagner
(Warning: there is no political content in this post, only a celebration of all things Oregon--and blue)
New York can be a cold outpost of incivility for an Oregonian. At times, I despair that no one on the streets knows how to say "hello" to a stranger. Or that no one realizes you DON'T need an umbrella to go out in the rain. Or even that Orygun is not a state, it's an insult. But what, you may ask, can one college student do to change the largest city in the nation?
Easy. He founds the Oregon Club of Columbia.
Lying on the street surrounded by broken bottles and 10 dollar hookers (I assume that is what some of you expect New York to be like), I had a thought one night.
Why is it that no Oregonians at Columbia ever get to know their fellow rainy staters? Obviously the situation needed to be remedied, and out of this drunken revelation from above came the idea for an informal club to celebrate all things Oregon (and make fun of Boring).
So far we've linked up with the University of Oregon alumni club to watch Oregon Ducks football games at a dingy bar every Saturday, and held our first meeting, where we just talked of ballot measures, medical marijuana for all, and Oregon microbrews. In the future we hope to expand our operations to actually visit bars that serve Oregon microbrews and to link up with fellow Oregonians throughout the Big Apple.
It's great fun to be able to serve as the link for all Oregonians at Columbia (all 35 or so of us), and I'd love it if any of you folks back home or elsewhere could provide us with ideas on things to do, places to get Tillamook cheese, and other Oregon-related activities.
We're surviving out here in the cold Apple, but we could always use some love from the West.
Outpost Oregon, signing off.
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6:53 a.m.
Oct 15, '04
Watch out for the "Bandon" cheese -- I believe they're making it in Jersey City now.
Oct 15, '04
Your posting makes me wax a little nostalgic.
When I was attending Cornell in upstate NY in the 1980s, we had an informal meeting of folks from the Pacific NW that met on a semi-weekly basis for coffee. My senior year I subscribed to the Sunday Oregonian, which I would get a few days late in the mail.