Ashland Plaza, December 2008, copyright Debra Murphy
Our posts and photo galleries about Ashland:
If you’ve seen the (fine) movie Blood Diamond, you may recall the refrain, “This is Africa, my friend!” spoken by the Leo DiCaprio character to explain (or explain away) circumstances and events he regarded as unique to that continent. In fact, it was more often than not expressed as a sort of lament over the constant state of violence and civil war.
Well, we here in Clan Murphy have adopted “T.I.A.!” as a our refrain as well; our comment, or chorus, if you will, on all the (often rather wonderful) circumstances and events that seem unique to this little town, nestled in the foothills of the southern Oregon Siskiyous, aka “the State of Jefferson.”
As for T.I.A., it all started in the summer of 2007 when our viewing of Blood Diamond happened to coincide with the following incident: Dan was driving over on Church street near the Plaza one afternoon when he witnessed a humorous and not entirely atypical confrontation—let us call it an “exchange”—between two different sorts of Ashland residents. The first was a group of three or four teenaged skateboarders, townies no doubt, decked out in a motley of dreadlocks and baggy clothes and hanging out more or less in the middle of the street. The second was a well-coiffed middle-aged matron in a Lexus—or BMW, or Infiniti, or [insert brand name of luxury vehicle here]—with California license plates. Her passage through the quiet street encumbered by the teenagers, the matron took to gesticulating and articulating in a vociferous manner common to natives of Big Cities who are otherwise used to having their own way.
Finally one of the kids, who was taking his sweet time moving to the curb lifted his hands in a “Hey, lady, be cool” gesture and exclaimed, “Chill…this is Ashland!
It is the belief of Clan Murphy that if you understand this story, you will have a head start in understanding our unique little community.
So, Ladies & Gents…chill, this is Ashland. And these are our posts and photo galleries about Ashland:
