5 RAPS club reports Book Club: ‘The Help’ The RAPS Book Club will meet Tuesday, Sept. 21, at 1:30 p.m. at the home of Marge Terdal, 997 SW Westwood Drive in Portland. Contact her at terdalm@ pdx.edu or 503-244-5714 to RSVP and ask for directions. We will discuss The Help by Kathryn Stockett. The book is described as follows (©2009 Kathryn Stockett Site by AuthorBytes.com): Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step. Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone. Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken. Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own. Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed. In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women--mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends--view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't. Come to the next meeting with recommendations for future book selections. --Mary Brannan RAPS Bridge Group: Deals on Sept. 9 The RAPS Bridge Group meets at Willamette View at 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14. For further information, please call Colin Dunkeld, 503-292-0838. Please call no later than Friday, Sept. 3. --Colin Dunkeld RAPS Hikers: Bound for Banks Six hikers ate lunch at Mirror Lake on Mt. Hood Tuesday, Aug. 24. (See photo on page 1.) There was a slight breeze preventing the reflection in the lake, but it made a pleasant hike while the temperature in Portland was in the 90s. The next hike is Tuesday, Sept. 28. We will meet at 9:00 a.m. at the Cedar Hills Shopping Center near the DMV office to carpool to milepost 8 of the Banks to Vernonia linear trail. This is the location of Horseshoe Trestle. Sack lunch will be at approximately milepost 12 in Stub Stewart State Park. Confirm with Larry Sawyer by Sept. 27 at larry_sawyer@comcast.net or 503-771-1616. --Larry Sawyer PAST TENSE Portland State College’s first president John F. Cramer, 1899-1967 In 1955, when the Oregon State Board of Higher Education chose John Cramer to lead the school, he was a veteran of the Oregon public school system and well known statewide as Dean of the General Extension Division. He had also served as senior administrator in overseeing the formation of Vanport Extension Center, Portland State Extension Center, and Portland State College. But Cramer, presumably tired of administrative challenges, served only three years, stepping down in 1958 to become a professor of education. Cramer found teaching to be enjoyable, was passionate in his instructional role, took his new position seriously, and gladly assumed various administrative responsibilities when called upon by his successors. Cramer resigned in 1967 due to ill health. State Hall--Portland State’s first new building-- was renamed Cramer Hall in his remembrance in 1969. PAST TENSE features glimpses into Portland State’s history. To submit a story (or an idea for one), email the RAPS History Preservation Committee at raps@pdx.edu
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