Staff Sgt. Karl Laeger plays with his son, Keylar, and daughter, Karly Jo, at McMinnville’s Discovery Meadows Park just prior to leaving for Iraq in April.
Marcus Larson/News-Register file photo

Retired McMinville record store owner and music collector Woody Woodcock pats Roland Roy, his 180-pound Saint Bernard which was rescued from an abusive situation.
Marcus Larson/News-Register file photo

Deschutes Brewery’s giant beer barrel service bar was a major attraction at the 2009 Brews & BBQs festival in McMinnville’s Granary District.
Marcus Larson/News-Register file photo

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Another 52 weeks, another 104 Connections feature stories and Out & About columns. This is the 104th. People, places, public and private entities, events past and present have appeared on these pages during this, the final year of the first decade of the second millennium.
While the goal here is to mention many of them, it is also to avoid merely making a list. Instead, think of this as a hand-picked collection, checked twice, laundered, pressed and presented for your perusal.
First and foremost, there were the people. Breaking the mold on old is an occasional series launched this year. The idea is to tell the stories of folks well past retirement age who are still making important contributions to the community.
The elder statespersons profiled this year were P.R. man extraordinaire Bruce Huffman, former Linfield administrator Dale Tomlinson, Mid-Valley Rehabilitation founder Margaret Reavis Larsen and Third Street shoe retailer Jim Ragsdale.
Others of note span a wide spectrum of interests and accomplishments, from record store rocker Woody Woodcock to Ignitors Car Club and Southpaw Speedway Rockabilly band founder Truxton Meadows, helicopter pilot and former Evergreen exec. Don New to Sheridan realtor, author and ex-mayor Bob White.
We’ve visited with winery owner and worthy cause benefactor Ronni Lacroute, seen Sheridan scoutmaster and civic leader Harry Cooley put his young charges through their paces, and ridden the cross country rails with train buff and Yamhill historian Gordon Zimmerman.
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City manager Sam Sasaki’s dual role at the administrative helm of both Willamina and Gervais was revealed. Bright and talented Yulia Yershova, a 15-year old Dayton High exchange student from Southern Siberia, had her moment on stage. McMinnville’s Karl Laeger, an Army sergeant about to ship out for Iraq on his second tour of duty, bid a fond farewell to his family.
Richard and Francis Wright’s 75th anniversary merited our congratulatory attention as did the amazing abilities of Flamenco dancer, pianist and singer, Muriel Dresser of Willamina.
A year’s worth of volunteer-run annual events included the revitalized Sheridan Chamber of Commerce community awards, the always fabulous Flavors of Carlton in March, Dayton’s Old-timers Picnic in July and Harvest Fest in September.
The second edition of Brews & BBQs drew crowds from around the area to McMinnville’s rapidly evolving Granary District. The Dayton Community Chorus staged two praiseworthy presentations this year — A 1940s Radio Show in June and the Dayton Revels Christmas Madrigal in December.
Willamina’s Coastal Hills Art Tour continues a successful run of 18 years and counting. Many locals don’t realize it predates and inspired the Yamhill County Art Studio Tour.
Plays at Gallery Theater are well-supported by a solid base of live theatergoers, but little did yours truly realize he would actually be in one — Shakespeare’s The Tempest, no less. It showed me that, at least locally, you don’t have to be an Olivier to get in on the act.
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The opportunity to review two other plays this year led me to see the farcically amusing “A Valentine for Sky,” written and directed by Maggie Worrix King and staged at her parents’ sprawling second story abode on Third Street
Alice, Jr. a delightful musical rendition of the classic tale put on by Carlton School Theater, featured an array of cast members drawn from grade school students in the Yamhill-Carlton district. It is one of a long list of children’s plays offered by Broadway Jr.
Yamhill Valley businesses and organizations came in for a fair amount of coverage as well. Laughlin Logging of Yamhill, around since 1924, is still in family hands, still building forest roads and occasionally cutting timber.
After 32 years, The Sage Restaurant has become a Third Street institution for lunch. Only Nick’s has been in town longer. Older still was a McMinnville company now gone from the local scene but worth recalling for its unique product — Huberd’s Shoe Grease.
Huberd’s was established here in 1929 and operated by members of the extended Wortman family until 2004. Its shoe grease, shoe oil, leather dressing, boot and saddle soap and saddle and tack conditioner are still being made by a company in Arizona using the same formulas developed 80 years ago.
What can be said about our own municipal utility McMinnville Water & Light? Well, since the venerable operation is 120 years old, it took a two-week series to tell the whole story of how it evolved and why city residents pay considerably less for their power than all but one other, much smaller, community in the entire state.
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Two other long-time businesses, Bailey Nurseries of Yamhill and Stuck Electric of Sheridan, round out the list of companies chronicled this year.
Though Stuck is family-owned and Bailey a Minnesota-headquartered corporation, both are solid, civic-minded and employee oriented. In other words, good places to work.
Hanging out was another series theme this year. It led me to walk up and down Bridge, Ferry, Main, Main ( yes, two of them) Maple. Trade and Third (not McMinnville) to get a feel for the current retail environment in each valley town.
If you don’t know which towns these streets refer to, then you’re not a local.
No recap of the Saturday Connections features and Out & About columns would be complete without a walk down history lane. This year, we took the time machine back to the valley’s frontier roots in 1859, Lafayette during the late 1800s, the Mac downtown underground around the turn of the 20th century and Carlton and Perrydale in the 1910s,
We saw the restoration of Dayton’s 1859 Andrew Smith House, which narrowly escaped a dilapidated death. We talked about Century Farms, the history of the pioneer Sitton family and descendants of the Noble/Methany/Hewitt clan, who fought to retain a piece of their family’s original donation land claim.
All in all, we really made the Valley rounds. As for next year. Well, there’s a whole lot more to tell. So get ready to hit the road again in 2010.
And that’s what I found out reviewing the stories that arose from being OUT and ABOUT throughout the course of 2009.
Karl Klooster, the News-Register’s regional editor, can be reached by e-mail at kklooster@newsregister.com or by phone at 503-687-1227.