Driving While Female
Remembering
Last week I was reminded of the pleasure of washing dishes. A couple days ago, as I was appreciating my warm hands and the satisfying process once again in real time I remembered the other convenience - the lack of dishwasher noise.
The relevance to my Substack title is that in 70 years and many long driving trips, (one was 10,000 miles) I have always been treated well by the many, in those early years, mostly male truck drivers on the road and I was actually rescued in my little Honda from very strong wind gusts which would have pushed me over the right side cliff, by a truck driver who stayed to my left at the driving summit of the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming. Afterwards, I could picture the CB Radio conversation the truck drivers still on the road were having: “That little Honda with a roof rack will be thrown right off the road - who’s going to get up there and keep it out of the wind until it’s safe?
At 86, I find that more free time, looking through photo albums, cleaning out file cabinets and cupboards and reading other people’s writing have opened the door to many memories.
My work for 16 years starting in 1988 was to offer support to Portland’s dozens of community Main Streets and Business Districts from Portland’s NW to the SE as well as from NE to SW! My role was to create communication among all of the Business Districts in the City. The Board of Directors and I assisted District leadership in organizing, skill-building, conferences and the production of a newsletter with ideas, activities and events designed to create vibrant neighborhood business districts. We also assisted developing Districts in organizing their Boards, writing their by-laws, and thinking of new ways to bring their neighbors and customers to their businesses.
For the next 10 years, I worked closely with the Boards of seven Business District Associations as contracted staff or on their Board of Directors. From the Hawthorne Street Fair to Fun on Foster we activated streets and Districts in many different ways: The Oregon City Trolley drove Foster all day for the first few events; Hawthorne’s Street Fair sponsored an Art Car Parade and exhibition in the early 90’s; Division-Clinton and 82nd Avenue hosted Parades, Belmont put on a great Street Fair and these events and more continue to this day.
My longest association was 34 years with the HBBA which ended in March, 2025. The contract was part time so during those years I concentrated on the Hawthorne Boulevard District as well as serving on several non-profit Boards, one of which is AHB, soon to be the Association of Healthy Businesses. We will meet for breakfast once a month on the 3rd Thursday and talk business. I continue on the Boards of 82ndAveBA.com, 82RosesCEC.com, S2C2PDX.org and Woodstock Community BA - all organizations that have specific roles in the Community and great people involved in making things happen, (All of them welcome new members to help with their work.)
For the majority of those years, I have worked from my home office. I enjoy the view of the very small grove of Coast Redwoods out my window and the beautiful rainbows on the walls in the morning from the crystals hanging in the east-facing window! I know many of you have also designed a space or spaces to work which give you pleasure and you can enjoy being in for those hours at the computer or working on what you write, build, sew or create.
So now, at 86, losing so many friends, my favorite cousin and school classmates, I am hoping to continue actively contributing to the health and safety of my community. A group of us are creating what we call Giving Seniors A Voice: seniorsvoicepdx.com - ferreting out current services and how to access them. Next is working with others to identify and help raise the funds to do what is needed to identify and assist our elders to age in place comfortably and happily.
In 1995, I went to China for the United Nations 4th World Conference on Women. I found some great pictures and will share that story next time!
Still going strong Nancy!