Hawthorne Street Fair

Every city in America has street fairs, said to be a celebration of the neighborhood’s character. I visited the Hawthorne District Street Fair in Portland, Oregon.  The Hawthorne district is considered bohemian in style; the streets are lined with coffee shops, antique stores, cafes, pubs and trendy clothing shops.

A street fair is a great way to get to know your neighbors and introduce others to your business.  Local businesses offer sale items on tables in front of their stores allowing locals and unknowns to get to know their products.  On the streets and in the alleys, you will find tents covering vendors selling their hand made products.  The Hawthorne Street Fair provided all this and more

Kids at Heart Puppet Show

Music and entertainment was found on three stages with blues, rock, steel drums, country and old-time string band music as well as a fashion show.  The Kids at Heart Toy store put on puppet shows, dancing, juggling and martial arts demonstrations.  There was also a whole parking lot filled with kids activities like face painting, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, coloring and more.

The Bagdad Theater, a renovated theater built in 1927, offered movies, wine tastings and coffee tastings.  Anisha Holistic Health Center offered classes in alternative health solutions.  Voodoo Tattoo put on tattoo demos while spinning soul, hip hop, funk and blues music.  The local Fred Meyer Store has clowns, samples, and music by the Portland Metro Youth Pipe Band.

Portland Metro Youth Band

I’ve tried to find out the history behind street fairs, but can’t seem to come up with anything.  An article in the Fulton Sun talks about the history of the Fulton Street Fair and it seems to be similar to other stories I have found about other long running street fairs.  The Fulton Street Fair began in 1899 and resembled a small county fair.  Booths sold food and displayed handwork and sewing.  It gave the locals a chance to show off their accomplishments and honored veterans returning home.  Parades were big in the early 1900’s complete with floats, as well as carnival rides and competitions for farm animals.

There were no carnival rides or farm animals at Hawthorne Street Fair, but there were lots of fun things to do, great bargains to be found and vendor booths showed the imagination and hard work of local artisans.

Okinawa, Japan

The AARP/Blue Zones Vitality Project would like to see you live a longer, healthier life.  They have put together a program to help you do just that.  It is all online, so you don’t even have to leave your house to participate.  You’ll find lots of useful tools plus support to help guide you.  Instead of focusing on just diet and exercise, the Vitality Project encourages you to live like communities with the world’s greatest percentage of longevity.

Dan Buettner, an educator and explorer, is the co-director of the Vitality Project. The idea for the Project came from his Blue Zones Quests which he launched in 2005 in order to research the reasons people in small geographic areas live so long.  The term ‘Blue Zone’ came about by accident when a demographer used a blue marker to highlight a region where a lot of centenarians lived.

Costa Rica

So far, Buettner has studied three regions:  Okinawa, Japan; the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica; and the Greek island of Ikaría.  He found  that not only do these people live longer; they also have a much lower rate of heart disease and cancer.  Some of the lifestyle habits he finds common among all the regions are:  eating lots of greens, drinking herbal tea, napping daily, plenty of exercise, close friends, eating produce fresh from the garden, spirituality and not stressing about time.

The Vitality Project has chosen a small American community to become America’s healthiest town.  In January, Project experts began working with the town leaders of Albert Lea, Minnesota to change the way the residents eat, work, exercise and play.   In May, the residents were asked to sign the Vitality Project Pledge.  In September, Albert Lea will go online for six weeks issuing videos, photos and narratives on their progress.

You are invited to join the town of Albert Lea.  You will be asked to sign a pledge agreeing to follow the guidelines set forth by the Vitality Project.  Next you will be asked to take the Vitality Compass which consists of answering questions about your current lifestyle.  Using your answers, the compass calculates your biological age, life expectancy, Blue Zones years, and extra years of life you can add if you optimize your lifestyle.  Once you have completed the Compass, you qualify for a Vitality Coach who will guide you via email through your lifestyle changes.  You can also sign up for Longevity Tips, a weekly email giving you tips and information about the program.

The Vitality Project is sponsored by United Health Foundation.  With the desire to help people live healthier lives, the foundation provides information and support to the project.  They hope to see other towns follow in the footsteps of Albert Lea in pledging to become healthier.

Are you ready for a longer and healthier life?  Head on over the Vitality Project!

Ikaria

A Lineman's tool cart

You won’t find any horses or cowboys at this rodeo. Instead the tools of the trade are steel shank boots, floating belts, safety straps, gaff guards and climber pads. The Pacific Northwest Lineman Rodeo is all about the men and women who work on power lines to keep the lights and computers running. At the rodeo both journeyman and apprentices compete for speed in events that simulate every day work.

Pole Climb Contest

One of the events was a pole climb and did those guys go. Made my knees ache! This guy is at the top of the pole. Their boots are made with steel shanks and have spikes sort of like studs on your car. This is for grabbing onto the pole as they climb. He is leaning back into his leather safety strap. This is a strap that is wrapped around the pole and secured on either side of a harness they wore.

Hurt Man Event

The hurt man rescue isn’t very typical, but practice never hurts. Bent over backwards in the picture is a dummy simulating an injured man tangled in some lines and probably shocked from electricity. The lineman climbs up the pole to the injured man. All his tools are raised up to him in a bucket on a pulley system. After getting the injured man in a harness, the lineman cuts the lines the injured man was tangled in and the lineman’s partner lowers the injured man to the ground, once again using a pulley system.

Bucket on Pulley System

Other events included the high line event, insulator replacement event and relay event. Many events were done in pairs of lineman. In all of the events, the equipment used was raised and lowered by pulley including the ladder. The guys would climb up the pole with their spiky boots and no harness. Once at the top, they hooked their safety strap into place. They also wore big heavy gloves when dealing with any wires. While speed was the name of the game, their work was also judged for accuracy. The apprentices also took written tests that were judged and they had to demonstrate intricate work with the rope they use. One test was some fancy knot work. My son’s stint in Boy Scouts would have given him the edge here.

Harnessed and Ready to Ride the Aeriel Bucket

Here I am in a harness getting ready to go up in an aerial bucket. Today, instead of climbing the pole, the bucket is used as much as possible, mostly to save wear and tear on the body. Linemen only climb the poles when a bucket truck can’t get into the repair location. The ride up was smooth, operated by a 17 year veteran. Here is the view of the rodeo from the top of the bucket.

View from the Aeriel Bucket

What is a rodeo without vendors such as this one selling linemen supplies. There were also several food vendors, some informational tents and a raffle. Part of the raffle money was donated to the Oregon Burn Center.

Tools of the Trade

The rodeo is used as training for apprentices and as practice for journeymen. Journeymen complete as a team while Apprentices compete head to head. Winners of this rodeo go on to the International Lineman Rodeo in Kansas City, MO.