Eric Berg

I’m glad I didn’t set the alarm.

I spent a part of Thanksgiving searching for this. I was hoping I’d run across it. Thanks to my pal @bule-betawi.bsky.social for the repost.

10 years ago today.

#kipstrong

It's that time year again for this simple reminder.

“They were helped by West Ham who, as they so often do, rolled out the claret and blue carpet to a team in need, and by Lucas Paqueta's silly red card.”

Welcome to my world. #coyi

My Dad wrote a check for $149.60. My grandfather chipped in $60 cash. I went home with a balance of $70.90. All three figures are huge for a 22 year-old dad and a 21 year-old mom already raising an almost two year-old.

Adjusting for inflation, it would be about $2000 today. A quick search shows that hospital vaginal L&D without complications is about $18,000.

Labor and delivery with two nights in the hospital was $210.50 when I was born. SGH closed in the early-70s after Salem’s two hospitals merged into what’s now Salem Health. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was filmed across the street.

Last one. Promise. Another picture new to me. My great-grandfather Vaclav Polensky.

1993 Scotts Mills earthquake - Wikipedia

Wikipedia share.google/DehJkl6ZdYYx...

We went through a lot of photos, records and other material today. I saw some things for the first time, including this. I’m the stylin’ blond kid on the right at my cousin Ryan’s (middle) first communion in Hillsboro. Gotta say, my cousin Jason looks pretty dapper in the turtleneck and blazer.

Grammy (Helen Lacher, daughter of Swiss immigrants) later married this guy, son of Norwegian immigrants. He’s the reason I’m Catholic|3:1|Lutheran.

Bonus Catholic school picture: My grandmother, eighth grader (seventh from left, middle row. St. Mary’s, Mt. Angel, 1921. I started first grade in the same building 52 years later. It was damaged in the 1993 Spring Break Quake and torn down.

Grammy (Helen Lacher, daughter of Swiss immigrants) later married this guy, son of Norwegian immigrants. He’s the reason I’m (Catholic) 3:1 (Lutheran).

My family moved near here almost 50 years ago (1977) from Mt. Angel, about seven miles away.

Scotts Mills. With a small ‘s’ at the end of “Scotts.”

My great-grandfather was the last direct ancestor to emigrate. He came to the U.S. as a teen just before WWI from what’s now Ukraine. His parents, like all of my mom’s side of the family, were Czech.

Great-grandfather
Alex Kostelecky, Sunday breakfast baker (middle, second row). Mom, Joan Polensky, eighth grader (first on left, first row). St. Vincent DePaul parish in Salem.

View from my sister’s house above Scott Mills. The brown and clearcut areas are from the 2020 fires. The family was evacuated for almost two weeks.

I’m three years older than Carol O’ Conner was when All in the Family *ended* in 1979.

Apparently, I’m not the only person who thought I looked great.

11/22/63 was supposed to be Mom and Dad's first date. She: Freshman at Mt. Angel College. He: Grew up in Mt. Angel, attended MAC 62-63 and visited campus after completing US Army basic training. They met earlier in the week and planned to see a movie in Salem.

Full circle, almost 40 years later.

This played a small part.

I still have no idea how, why and when I fell in love with opera. But I’m glad I did.

Leaving the house for our first La Bohème. Another @portlandopera.bsky.social season begins. I can’t think of the last time I wore a tie. It might have been to opera last year.

I can’t imagine living in a city where these aren’t the norm.