Back, and Forth: New 'Calendar of Quirk' coming in the new year
Consider the Quirk around us: The Bigfoot of Whiteson, “Fred’s Old Fashioned Garage” and City Park’s mixed-up historical signs.
Starting with our e-edition of Jan. 3, we’ll present a weekly Calendar of Quirk, a friendly and interactive digest of the unusual in Yamhill County.
Quirk is all around us. In fact, the News-Register already has 366 examples in hand from McMinnville and its sister Yamhill Valley communities.
Sometimes fleeting but mostly permanent, these are things that you generally won’t see anywhere else.
There are few rules or criteria with quirk. You know it when you see it. Or, you see it when you know it.
Finding quirk involves both attention and serendipity. Examples can be simple or surprising, baffling or beguiling.
We embark on quirk with those mixed-up signs downtown in City Park.
I noticed something amiss a year or so ago in a visit to the west side of the park, which is bisected by Cozine Creek.
Just west of the creek, you’ll find a pair of interpretive signs describing the 19th-century gristmills so important to McMinnville’s history. On the east side, near the playground, you’ll discover a fine example of the actual grinding stone, along with some signage.
I encourage you to visit the sites and learn for yourselves. Park in the lot next to the shelter and take the pathways on either side of the creek.
Just remember — as of this writing, the signs on the west side have been switched.
According to Jay Pearson, who served as city Parks & Recreation director from 1997 until his retirement in 2017, the signs were installed around 2003, and were correctly placed then. However, he said they were subsequently removed for cleaning and repair, and ended up being reinstalled in the wrong spots.
Right now, the one at the bottom of the hill describes what you see looking downslope and the one at the top what you see looking upslope. It can be a little confusing.
The error became clear to me when I realized the lower sign referred to “the brick wall behind you” when you are standing in front of nothing but the creek. The brick wall can be found at the top of the hill.
I called Susan Muir, current parks director, about it.
She and Pearson determined the signs were indeed reversed. At her request Public Works has scheduled switching the signs.
“The park has such a great history,” Pearson said. “It once had a zoo, and ponds with all kinds of plants growing in them, and a pool where lots of kids learned to swim. The gristmill history is just part of it.”
To me, quirk represents a big part of the joy of living here. Some “calendar” entries might resemble something one can see in other places, but you will truly not see most of them anywhere else.
Here are a few more examples to give readers a better feel for the concept — a long-abandoned pay phone, a carved wooden monkey with its tongue sticking out, a British callbox and a tavern’s steampunk tap handles.
Among the first batch, slated for presentation Jan. 3, will be a pot-bellied bear sculpture, missing metal address numbers and an extraterrestrial manikin.
Each week, I’ll present a few more entries in Calendar of Quirk, and invite comments and suggestions of quirk readers have noticed. Let me know at kirby@newsregister.com.
I might use them in an update on these fun and surprising details of life in this corner of the world.
Contact Kirby Neumann-Rea at kirby@newsregister.com or 503-687-1291.
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