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You're listening to StoryHelix: intertwining
stories past, present, and not yet
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Imagined in Lane County, Oregon.
What's up, earthlings? I'm Leah Velez and
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I'll be your host. The story
we're about to hear was recorded at Oakshire
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Brewing Company in the Whiteaker neighborhood of
Eugene, Oregon, in early 2022.
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Let's open up
our ear nuggets and give it a listen.
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You think it's going to be like
Drunk History? All right,
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How has Eugene shaped me? I
am from Ithaca, New York. I
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moved to Lane County in 2000,
and then I left for a few years
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to go to graduate school and then
I moved back in 2005.
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Hey, you know when I
first came to Eugene, I came to do a
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personal growth work... I came to Lane
County to do a personal growth workshop at
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Lost Valley Educational Center, which is
out in Dexter, which was an intentional
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community, and I came to take
this personal growth workshop, and it changed my
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whole life and I decided to move
here with my partner, and we basically moved
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to a commune and lived there for a
a couple of years. You know,
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we were doing a lot of like
personal growth and like being really super vulnerable
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with each other, and there were
like thirty people and we would have these
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weekly well-being meetings where we would stare
into each other's eyes for long periods of
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time and share what was true for
us in the moment. Like what brings
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us joy, what are we irritated
about in the moment... Yeah, it
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was really powerful. It really actually
helped me become a lot more vulnerable and
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be willing to share more personal stories
with with people, and it totally gave
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me a lot of confidence. It
helped me feel like there was more work
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that I wanted to do in the
world. Yeah, it gave me an
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amazing launching pad. I feel like
it's kept me down to Earth. I
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don't know that much about here. I
know that the Kalapuya lived here, and would spend
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time harvesting kanna in this valley.
I know about the Hoedads who used to plant trees
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around here and I know about Ken Kesey, but as far as like Eugene
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history, I don't really know that
much. I feel grateful that I was
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able to, afford to buy a
house back in the day, and was able
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to invest in a local business that
did okay, and gave me enough to put
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a down payment on a house, and
I feel like it's shaped me by helping me
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be more comfortable. I feel like
Country Fair is like my favorite place in
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Lane County. All the people that
I've known for the last twenty two years
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are all usually there. And I get
to run around the eight and run into
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my friends and stay out late at
night dancing. And I love The Ritz,
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which is like, do you know
about The Ritz? The Ritz Is
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the most amazing music venue on the
planet, but it only happens during fair
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and it is a couple of huge
saunas and then there's like fifty outdoor
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showers and there is a stage and
there's a fire pit and it's super fun
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because where else in the world can
you be standing outside on a July night,
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getting showered, hearing like world class
music and be hanging out with all
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your friends naked? I'm really not
into sports culture at all. So when I'm around
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a bunch of Ducks fans, I'm
feeling... I don't necessarily feel a sense of
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belonging, but I think it's awesome
that people do have a sense of belonging.
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I just kind of have a little
bit of judgment, that I wish it
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was around something other than sports.
I feel like there are a lot of
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places in this country that I wouldn't
feel comfortable living. And I feel like Eugene
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is probably one of the few places... After the experience of
living at Lost Valley, and being in community there,
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but also now working at the U of O, I feel like being a
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part of place, having connections,
having people that know me and know me
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intimately and deeply and care about
my wellbeing and I feel... I didn't have
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that...I mean I had
community, but I didn't really have that
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until I moved to Lane County. And
I really appreciate the authenticity and depth that
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I feel like can happen in this
community. I hope that folks would be
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interested in each other here, and that
there could be a sense of community and
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belonging for anybody that wanted to
be here. One of the things that
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I love about Eugene is like how
many wonderful grocery stores that there are.
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The small independent grocers. My hope is
that we would still have places like Sundance
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and Cappella, Red Barn and other
places. I get scared that we're going
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to lose some of the magic of
this place and become more corporatized or more
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sprawl. Yeah, so I hope
that people get... I want to get more
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educated on the history of Eugene.
I want it to be a place where
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more folks of color feel included.
I feel like that's a thing that Eugene
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doesn't do well. I think there's
a lot of stratifying and that people aren't
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curious about each other. I would
like to think that some of the things
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that I've contributed and done over the
years have created a nicer place for people to be.
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Thanks for listening. You can find
us wherever you listen to your podcasts.
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If you've got your own Lane County
story to tell, we'd love to
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hear it at StoryHelix.Wordcrafters.org.
