ABC’s of Life in Hippieville

Inspired by my friends Brittney, Colin and Sadie who wrote the ‘ABCs’ of their new adopted homes in Canada and England, I thought I would tell you about the ABC’s of living in the not-so-exotic-unless-you’re-an-ultra-conservative realms of Hippieville, USA, aka Eugene.

A – Anarchy: in 1999 Eugene was declared to be the anarchist capital of the Unites States. This has decreased since 9/11, but there are still pending cases of eco-terrorism here to keep Eugene on the map.

B – Buttes: according to those from insanely flat areas of the Midwest, what we call buttes are mountains. The two most prominent are Skinner and Spencer, with the latter being a wonderful place for hiking within city limits

Bicycles: I see more bicycles on my morning walk to work than I do cars. At one intersection there were six bikes waiting for the light and only one car.

C – Cherry Poppin’ Daddies (“Zoot Suit Riot”) formed in Eugene in 1988

Craters: what all the potholes on our street are becoming with the construction going on. You actually have to careen around some if you care about your car.

D – Dorcas Smucker is one of my favorite local authors who writes about her family’s Mennonite life on a farm just north of where I grew up.

Ducks, our mighty school mascot. The beaver is OSU’s mascot, leading me to wonder why our state chose such interesting, albeit nonthreatening, school icons.

E – Eugene Emeralds, our local baseball team where we go mainly to socialize rather than watch killer ball being played.

Eco-terrorists set fire to some SUV's in protest of their emissions and fuel use, however doesn't setting fire and putting untold of amounts of pollutants into the air do even more damage to the environment?

F – Fifth Street Public Market, which actually has shops much too expensive for normal people, but is very pretty and nicely decorated for the holidays; its more of a window shopping experience.

G – We sit in the middle of the grass seed capital of the world (no joke) so seasonal allergies are a plague on almost a biblical level.

H – Hendricks Park, close enough to walk to and see some of the most beautiful rhododendron gardens around

Hippy – general term for those who follow alternative lifestyles and are prevalent in Eugene

I – Income (per capita) for Eugene is around $21,500 and 17% of our residents live below the poverty line

J – Jackhammers, and bulldozers, cranes, dump trucks, backhoes, cement trucks and every other loud machine you can think of doing construction for more than a year directly across from our apartment, making our home extremely noisy (especially when it’s jackhammers at 7am.)

K – Ken Kesey, famous Eugene resident and author of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Kutsinhira Cultural Arts Center, which is "dedicated to the music and people of Zimbabwe," is based in Eugene

L – Lane Transit District (LTD) is the main public transportation

M – Marijuana, legal for medicinal purposes in Oregon and also used by just about every other person in our neighborhood.

Tom McCall was an Oregon governor who famously invited people to “visit Oregon, but not stay.”

N – Nike corporation began in Eugene and Phil Knight donates astounding amounts of money to the UO,

O – We hosted the Olympic Trials for track and field last summer

Oregon Country Fair (think major gathering of alternative lifestyles where clothing has been optional in the past)

P – Patchouli Oil, used as a type of perfume and conditioner for dreadlocks, it is a smell not easily forgotten

Pre, as in Steve Prefontaine the Olympic world-class runner who lived and died tragically in Eugene

Q – Q&A with Bob Welch, a local columnist/author who takes readers’ random questions about the area, finds the answers and publishes them in the newspaper.

R – Rainfall annually is about 51”

Ridgeline Trail is 14 miles of hiking/bike trails through beautiful natural habitat, close enough to our place to walk to parts of it.

S – Saturday Market, a gathering of local vendors where you can experience the smells of exotic food, marijuana, patchouli oil, incense and BO all at once and yet still have a good time.

T – We’re known as Track Town, USA (and maybe more important to college students, home of Track Town Pizza and its heavenly BBQ chicken pizza!)

Tie Dye is a quintessential Eugenian garment.

U – University of Oregon, where David goes to school

V – El Pato Verde, a great Mexican restaurant owned by some of my friends with AWESOME authentic food, though they did increase the portion sizes to ‘American’ standards soon after opening.

W – Willamette River, pronounced will-AM-et, not will-a-MET-ee

X – Em-Ex, the name of the eco-friendly bus line connecting Eugene and Springfield that taxpayers spent millions on, but that I don’t really see too many people riding.

Y – years we have lived in Eugene: almost 4

Z - The anarcho-primitivist author John Zerzan, known for being a confidant of the Unabomber, lives (or lived, can’t tell) in Eugene (thanks Wikipedia for that little tidbit)

You current and former Eugenians, can you think of any that I’ve missed?