By Laura Bair • Everyone loves a celebration, don’t they? A time to feel carefree and joyous; a reason to do what you may not otherwise do. Cinco de Mayo is such an occasion, and it’s right around the corner. Many believe the day to be Mexico’s Independence Day, but it’s not. It’s to commemorate the Mexican Army’s defeat of French forces at the Battle of Puebla, in 1862. And many U. S. "big-wigs" then believed it also benefited America, by not allowing the French to supply Confederate rebels any longer.

Sue's Views • By Sue Piper • No matter how many times I go to Disneyland, it’s always the same “magic kingdom” I fell in love with on my first visit. When my parents announced to my brothers and me that our 1956 summer vacation would take us to Anaheim, where Disneyland had opened just the year before, I was filled with joyful anticipation.

Story & Photos by Nancy Chennault • As the early spring rains persist, it is not easy to visualize the beauty of blooming baskets, swinging gently in the summer’s breeze. However, within bright greenhouses, hanging gardens of every conceivable cultivar, combination and color are being nurtured. Tenderly grown and groomed, they are destined to become thoughtful gifts, lovingly showered on mothers throughout the world.

By John L. Perry • Near my house along the road to town (Brownsville, Oregon) is a 2-acre pond with a tiny island in the middle. This islet, about the size of a desktop, usually extends two feet above the water’s surface. For the past three years a Canada goose hen has laid a clutch of eggs on that high spot. After several weeks incubation, they hatch and downy goslings emerge. This year the mated pair of geese reappeared the first week in March, as usual; soon the female produced half a dozen eggs and began incubation.

It’s a rough time for young people these days who are looking for jobs to pay for college, or full time jobs to pay off college loans. I grew up at a time when jobs were available, high paying summer jobs at the local mills. Some of my friends who got summer jobs at Weyerhaeuser, Fibre or Reynolds Metals continued their employment, eventually carving out comfortable livings for themselves and their families.

Man has been curious about aging throughout history. We all know the stories of Ponce de Leon searching for the “Fountain of Youth” in Florida and Cleopatra using make-up 2000 years ago, trying to look younger. In modern time, many of us look in the mirror and fret about our wrinkles or graying hair, or experience those painful joints in the morning.

When you have 12,500 tons of steel stretched across the Columbia River, it’s hard for some to resist using it for other than its intended purpose. When the Longview Bridge was fairly new, Tom McCaskey, a lovable Rainier native and prankster, crept up onto the bridge at night and conducted target practice. Not with a gun, but with sacks of cow poop. He tried dropping them into smoke stacks of passing ships. You can just imagine the confusion on board ship when a mystery stench emanated from the boiler room. And my high school friend, Mike Clouse, remembers flying with his brother Danny under the bridge in the 1960s in a Stearman bi-plane, a World War II trainer. Mike said they flew so low their tires skimmed the water.