3 The RAPS Sheet Summer 2021 RAPS Group Reports Book Group DO YOU WANT to know how to call a mule team? Just ask any member of the RAPS Book Group, and we will be glad to tell you. The Book Group in May read Rinker Buck’s The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey, a memoir of a journey from Missouri to Oregon, made about five years ago. The journey was fascinating, as the author and his brother, in a wagon drawn by mules, tried to find and follow the ruts of the original wagons on the Oregon Trail. Their intent, to the extent possible, was to experience the journey as it had been originally. We had a wonderful discussion, recalling favorite parts, discussing the writing skill of the author, and wandering into Oregon history. A number of group members had ancestors who came west on the Oregon Trail, and after reading the adventures of this trip, we decided it was a wonder that anyone made it across. In June we read and discussed Lisa See’s novel The Island of Sea Women. Set on an island off Korea in the tumultuous years following the Second World War, it spans generations and is the story of the friendship of two women, both deepsea divers, working in a culture where the women are doing dangerous physical labor and the men are taking care of the children. The women’s relationship is complex and impacted by the dangers of the work they do. The culture they are living in is also complex and in the midst of rapid change. We had the sense of having experienced a very different way of life, directed by common emotions. In July we discussed How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need by Bill Gates. This is a grim and fascinating book, as the author outlines the vast difficulties that confront us if we are to avoid a global rise in temperature, with its attendant disastrous effects. Gates is not sparing in outlining the changes that need to be made and the difficulties in achieving these changes. One emphasis is on the need to make climatefriendly energy economically attractive. Another is on the critical role research and development will play. And a third is the short time frame left to us. Our discussion was intense, probably in part because it occurred in the month after our record-breaking temperatures, while fires were burning in Southern Oregon and floods were devastating Europe, illustrating the message of the book. In August we are going to read Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, and in September The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman, two novels for summer reading. In October we will return to nonfiction with Walter Isaacson’s The Code Breaker. The Book Group meets the third Tuesday of each month, traditionally in the homes of various members. Currently we are using Zoom for our meetings. Any RAPS member is welcome to join the group. —Joan Shireman Bridge Group PRIOR TO THE PANDEMIC shutdown, the Bridge Group met in the afternoon on the first Tuesday of each month. Play began at 12:15 p.m. and finished by 4 p.m. We met in Smith Center, and we had a set of about 10 regular players. Most months we had two tables but some months we could only get one table. We need to decide when to resume our monthly meetings. I believe PSU will open rooms in Smith Center this September. I need to determine the level of interest in the RAPS Bridge Group. n Do you want to join us? n Do you have thoughts about continuing to play bridge with RAPS at PSU? I would like to hear from any interested RAPS members or others you know might want to play in our group. Please contact Steve Brennan at 503-889-0146 or by email at the.steve.brennan@gmail.com. —Steve Brennan Hiking Group ELEVEN HIKERS TACKLED Tryon Creek State Natural Area on June 22, where they encountered dogs—all of them properly leashed—as well as red huckleberries, wild blackberries, and ripe salmon berries. The group finished hiking shortly before noon and retired to a large covered shelter to enjoy sack lunches and two bottles of sparkling wine to celebrate the return to a regular hiking schedule. The Hiking Group is presently planning hikes on a month-to-month basis. A hike on a trail off Highway 35 on the east side of Mt. Hood was scheduled for July 27. Please contact Larry Sawyer at 503-771-1616 for further information about the Hiking Group. Hikers encountered ripe salmonberries during the Tryon Creek hike on June 22.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz