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July 7, 2017

A Phone Call for The Beach Bill

Today marks the 50^th anniversary of Oregon’s famous Beach Bill. Undoubtedly, many of us will commemorate this visionary law by going to the beach and cutting loose or taking a nap in a driftwood fort. Either way doesn’t cost a cent.

Besides celebrating, we might also considering educating others about this important anniversary.

To that aim, I have a somewhat guerrilla teaching method to help.

The telephone number in this photograph is from a pay phone at Oswald State Park. This park is nothing less than holy ground in the creation of Oregon’s unprecedented legacy of publicly-owned beaches, one of the greatest spots to surf in the state, the site of the Matt Kramer Memorial, and a perfect place to observe how free beaches enrich our lives.

I would like everyone reading this who cares passionately about Oregon’s beaches to call this number. Someone will answer because the park is sure to be mobbed and the phone is located at the beginning of the trail to the beach and adjacent to the restrooms.

And what person wouldn’t pick up! Hearing a pay phone ring represents an utter novelty in American life and is sure to intrigue park visitors on their way to and from the beach.

Below is a suggested script to use to use with people who answer. Or you can just wing it on your own.

You: Hello, did you know today is the 50^th anniversary of the Beach Bill, a law which forever ensured that Oregon’s ocean beaches would remain publicly owned and free to use?

(The person may or may not know about the Beach Bill.)

If the person answers “yes,” then ask: “How are you celebrating the anniversary today?”

If the person answers “no,” then say: “Well, now you know. Spread the good word.”

I encourage readers of this blog to share this post on social media. Get that phone in Oswald West State Park ringing off the hook!

(If you found this post enjoyable, thought provoking or enlightening, please consider supporting a writer at work by making a financial contribution to this blog or by purchasing an NSP book.)

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The Old Crow

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In December of 2020, author Matt Love moved to Portland to care for his elderly father.

Returning to the Rose City jolted Love after 23 years residing on the Oregon Coast. In the Sellwood neighborhood where he lived, Love met a homeless man named Mark. They formed a friendship over literature and the unforeseen magical discoveries in street libraries. They created The Old Crow Book Club, and yes, sometimes that involved drinking Old Crow on a sidewalk.

The club also included several other Sellwood homeless men and women cut from John Steinbeck's Cannery Row cloth.

In due course, Love learned the members' stories of homelessness and how they survived. He wondered what happened to his beloved state of Oregon and attempted to help Mark get off the streets only to run up against the seemingly futile policies to address the crisis.

Along the way, he had the best conversations about books in his life and wrote The Old Crow Book Club, where he recounts his interactions with the homeless people in his neighborhood and offers some suggestions how to alleviate what he considers the greatest man-made American humanitarian disaster of his adult life.

The Old Crow Book Club is available for purchase here and select independent bookstores in Oregon.

Choice Cuts

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Choice Cuts of Oregon Fiction by Matt Love contains 20 stories, all set in Oregon. The cast of characters includes a depressed Santa Claus, Steve Prefontaine, Jack Ramsay's fast break offense, socialist squirrels, a clearcut, a dead deer, a junior high football team, a high school tennis player, a dissipated teacher, a man who evolves into a beaver, a homeless vet, a jilted preacher, a double date to a prom, rural degenerates, a wily caterer, and much more.

The publication of the collection culminates a quarter century of the author's writing about Oregon and rambling around the state.

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The Savage

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Nestucca Spit Press is proud to present The Savage of State Street: The Thieving and Literary Lives of Smoky Epley. He is the greatest unheralded writer in Oregon history and also one of its more mediocre, colorful and persistent thieves.

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In 1973, Oregon State University Press published Men in Exile: An Anthology of Creative Writing by Inmates of the Oregon State Penitentiary. Twenty-two of Smoky Epley's pieces appeared in the book.

Smoky spent most of his adult life in state and federal prisons for robbery. In 2008, during one of his brief stints of freedom, Smoky became friends with Matt Love, an Oregon author and publisher. They met after Love discovered Men in Exile and wrote a newspaper column about the landmark book. Smoky read the column and reached out.

He returned to prison in 2009 after forging a check. Upon his release in 2011, Love encouraged Smoky to write a memoir. He completed half of Auto before dying in February of 2013.