Oregon150

Last train

Thurston Ohman
On the train from Seattle to Portland

by Thurston Ohman
Gresham, OR
The year was 1948. I had been born in Portland, but my father had just been hired to work in the shipyard in Bremerton, WA. Because WWII had ended and the need for workers was dropping, my parents decided to move back to Portland. My father got a summer [...]

The Passenger Train

Robert C.A. Moore
Northeast Portland

by Robert C.A. Moore
Portland, OR
In Winter 1942 our family lived on northeast 52nd Avenue about 300 feet south of the freight rail track that parallels US Highway 30. The rare appearance of passenger trains on the line would capture our attention and when one appeared we would dash outside to wave and [...]

College Town Life in 1944

Gladys and Bob Chambers
Corvallis

The following excerpt is from the Twenty-Fifth Annual letter of the Chambers Household in Corvallis, Oregon describing the family’s activities of 1944. O.R. (Bob) and Gladys Chambers were faculty in the Dept. of Psychology at Oregon State College (now Oregon State University). This letter is part of the Oregon State Yank Collection in [...]

War Work on the Oregon Coast in 1943

Jayne Walters Latvala
Seaside, Oregon

The following excerpt is from a letter written by Oregon State College alumna, Jayne Walters Latvala, to Elaine Kollins Sewell, editor of the Oregon State Yank. This letter is part of the Oregon State Yank Collection in the Oregon State University Archives.

Seaside, Oregon
24 November 1943
Dear Elaine–
From my typing, you’re probably wondering what kind of [...]

I Just Happen to be 100 Years Old, That’s All

Faith Black, told by Cheryl Clark- Salem, OR

“Faith Kimball Black turned 100 years old on December 19, 2007…”

Lost In Paradise

Daniel C. Robertson- Yoncalla, OR
“My maternal grandparents (AH and Flora Keck of Adrian, Oregon) lived on a farm called the Island at the junction of the Owyhee and Snake Rivers…”