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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us March 7, 2005 Essentially Ashland Birds of a Feather: A flock working together Lance Pugh During an early Saturday evening in 1976 the piano began to spill the notes of an old ragtime tune as the spotlight focused on the swaying curtains within the theater at Pioneer Village in Jacksonville. Clothing from the 1880s through the 1940s was modeled for an exuberant audience as the narrator described what each model wore in great detail. Between scenes Annette Pugh flowingly modeled period lingerie, while carrying a placard across the stage announcing the next decade's display of authentic vintage clothing, this worn by the strikingly beautiful owners of Birds of a Feather, located in downtown Ashland. Debbie Cordova and Cherise Stull began Birds of a Feather in the back of Sister Moon, located next to the Colombia Hotel. Barbara Brandt, part of Manna Bakery that made the fresh bread daily for Lithia Grocery soon came on board. Alene Kaplan, who was working at Sister Moon, next joined the flock in the small 200-square-foot space and business began to take off. Rhandy Simmons flew into the nest from years at Lithia Grocery. Within 18 months the Birds had moved next-door to a larger space, then, a couple years later into what is now Chateaulin's wine shop and back dinning room. The Birds were winging their way to success. Their business model was simple and engaging. Each of the seven "Birds" worked one day per week at the store. On that day she was owner, operator, sales lady and buyer. Used quality clothing was not placed on consignment, rather cash was paid out on the spot, allowing many in those hard financial times to walk in with a bag of old clothes and depart with cash. This made a big difference in the lives of many woman who were struggling through those demanding financial times. Dignity was afforded to all while everyone made money. Debbie had previously been making deerskin bikinis and squaw dresses for Nimbus, but felt the need to bring her friends into a new venture. Every Bird had a niche market. Some focused on estate sales, where, in addition to vintage clothing, jewelry and treasured antiques were purchased. Garage sales, the Goodwill, Salvation Army and any other lead or location were followed down and rigorously inspected. Soon their store overflowed with boas, silk kimonos, Hawaiian shirts, Victorian white eyelet cotton dresses, flapper dresses, gabardine suits with fitted padded shoulders and big brim hats with ostrich feathers, steamer trunks, silver bracelets and a host of broaches. Good music was always playing in the background and it seemed that the Birds were always in a playful and positive mood. I used to frequent their men's department, there to buy a colorful shirt, a striking straw hat or some irresistible collectable. They always knew what would look good on me and I never regretted a purchase. Birds of a Feather closed in 1985 and Pioneer Village has been moved to Don Rowlett's Box "R" Ranch in the Greensprings. Time has passed and things have moved on, but everyone and everything landed on their feet. Alene Kaplan now works at Fredrica Lawrence's store on the Plaza, keeping the front windows fresh with dazzling displays and merchandising the entire store. Rhandy Simmons works at the Furniture Depot as an Interior Decorator. Cherise Stull works at an art gallery in Portland and has a framing studio in Corbett in the Colombia Gorge. Debbie Cordova is running Gypsy Rose's vintage and costume department for Nola at Renaissance Rose. Barbara Brant is busy marketing a special fried-green tomato mixture in Hawaii. Linda Stevens is making and marketing herbal remedies worldwide. Bonita Byrne is selling hurricanes in Florida and business is howling. Future columns will focus on many downtown businesses that have helped make Ashland unique. Nimbus, Rare Earth, Alex's, Brothers and the Log Cabin will lead the charge from decades ago to lend perspective to the revival of the downtown. Send your favorite remembrances to: [email protected]. Drop by my blog and help me figure things out: http://essentiallyashland.blogspot.com/ Commentary A sexually compromising position Rob Asghar When it comes to sex, a Wisconsin pharmacist named Neil Noesen and the Pope might be the last two consistent people on the planet. All the rest of us are whores and compromisers. This may seem like a surprise to social conservatives, many of whom feel they have worked long and hard to do the uncompromisingly right thing. But if they take a long look at what Noesen stands for, they could come to some meaningful nuances on their positions-nuances that wouldn't make them seem so shrill to the great mass of humanity. Noesen, because of his devout Catholic views against birth control, had worked out an arrangement by which another colleague would fill any birth control prescriptions that came in. When he found himself the only pharmacist on duty one day, he declined to fill such a prescription; now a judge has recommended that Noesen take ethics classes and be reprimanded. Forget for a moment what he should or shouldn't have done as a health-care professional and ponder the passion of his beliefs, beliefs that the rest of the world and even most conservative Protestants dismiss as quaint. Family planning is considered good old-fashioned common sense by most morally conservative Americans. It lets a married couple enjoy the unbridled jollies of conjugal union without the setback of too many screaming children and college funds. Yet the Trappist monk Thomas Merton vigorously and thoughtfully defended the Catholic church's teachings a half-century ago. He proposed that, while human love is the fuel for the engine of creation, birth control's manipulation of the process of creation exposed society's modern view of love as a sham, an insincere hoarding of what is momentarily pleasurable and a rejection of what is enduringly meaningful. Genuine love, Merton maintained, was stronger than hunger, pain and all the hardship implied with twelve children; as such, any effort to stifle the birth process is a form of practical atheism, an idolatrous sham that separates love from its life-giving consequences. Let me address conservative Protestants for a moment "Oh, it's not that big a deal, really," you may respond if you reserve sexuality for marriage and now happily use the pill to stay at a manageable 2.3 kids. But aren't those very words unsatisfying to you when they proceed from the lips of people who are more permissive than you? You may also say, "We're just doing the sensible, practical thing." But more permissive people than you say the same about their own use of birth control and condoms within broader parameters. In our day of extended adolescence, is it always more "immoral" for a 21-year-old to have birth-controlled sex with a lover rather than rushing headlong into a bad marriage in which neither side is ready for the attendant roles and responsibilities? The apostle Paul famously wrote, "It is better to marry than to burn," but at the time he thought the world would end in two or three years anyway, and thus didn't believe that a bad marriage would be nearly the problem that it can be over the long haul. Conservative Protestants have worked their fannies off to build an approach to relationships, marriage and society that they feel is honorable and right for all parties involved, and there is much of benefit for others there. Yet there are some inconsistencies there, as the Neil Noesens of the world manage to show us. This is relevant because of the tone of the cultural war that's being waged. Too many conservative Protestants are able to break society down into the camp of perfect morals and the camp of just disastrously awful morals, which is ironic given Merton's withering judgment of them. Yet their haughtiness has ultimately resulted in them being tuned out of the cultural debate. And because Jesus noted that standing up for the right thing will get you mocked, such persons see no fault in their own prickliness and instead blame their failure to change society solely on the irredeemable evil within society. Thankfully, there are many socially conservatives Protestants like Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Seminary, who can maintain their positions with both boldness, intellectual honesty and modesty. And there would be even more intellectual honesty and refreshing humility among them if they realized that they, despite their best efforts, are in what could be described as a sexually compromising position. Tales From The Crib Does your baby's sex matter? Jennifer Margulis "I really wanted a boy," my mother said of her first pregnancy. We were sitting side by side at a faux Japanese restaurant where the food is prepared at an enormous grill in the middle of the table. I had left my three children at home with my husband so my mother and I could spend some time together. A handsome Korean twirled his spatula in the air. "And I had a boy." My mother looked pleased. In one deft movement, the chef squirted teriyaki sauce on the tofu on the grill. "Then I really wanted a boy," she laughed. The chef added a heaping portion of white spaghetti to the tofu. "And I had a boy." My mother looked smug. The chef flipped the tofu dish onto my plate and shot a mass of oil onto the grill. It started to sizzle. At a nearby table I heard the squeal of delighted customers. Their chef was hurling shrimp directly into their open mouths. Although there was space for ten others, the rest of our table was empty. "Then," my mother continued, "I really wanted a boy." Something in the way she said this - her emphasis on the word really and her forced exuberance perhaps - made me suspect she wasn't really telling the truth. I looked down at the tofu and spaghetti on my plate. This restaurant had been my mother's idea. "And I had a boy!" she exclaimed. OK, boys are great. I like boys. But does anyone really want three of the same gender in a row? "Then," my mother paused for a moment and pointed at me, "I really wanted a girl." Her voice was full of remembering how much she wanted me to be a girl. "And I had you." When I was pregnant with my first child, I really wanted a healthy baby. Forget counting fingers and toes. If some of those were missing, I knew I wouldn't care. The bigger issues worried me. I hoped for a baby who was mentally OK and who did not have a crippling physical ailment. I didn't want a boy or a girl per se, I wanted a living breathing baby. So when I was 8 1/2 months pregnant and my doctor looked at my small measurements and ordered an immediate sonogram, I panicked. She mumbled something about wanting to rule out "inter-uterine growth retardation." Then she clicked her pen closed and walked out of the room. I had been exercising a lot during my pregnancy. We lived in Atlanta then and I would zoom down the bike path in a sports bra and tight shorts with my enormous belly (I don't care what the doctor thought, it seemed enormous to me) hanging out. "You go girl!" African-American women would call out to me. So I'd pedal faster, leaving open-mouthed teenagers in my wake. Feeling better after 6 1/2 months of toe-curling nausea, I was in the best shape in my life. Still, I was too superstitious to have a baby shower or to buy anything in advance except one tiny little pink and yellow striped outfit. No crib. No changing table. No clothes. The sonogram confirmed that the baby was fine. Then, 10 days before my due date and more than three weeks before I expected her - I was sure my firstborn would be late - I was flying home on my bicycle over jagged potholes and terrific bumps and my water broke. Twenty-two hours later, my daughter was born. When it was clear that she was strong and healthy I finally had the luxury of admitting that I had been lying to myself. Unlike my mother, I had really wanted a girl after all. Jennifer Margulis, Ph.D., has eaten fried crickets in Niger, performed the cancan in America, and appeared live on prime-time TV in France. Her new book, "Why Babies Do That" (Willow Creek Press), will be out this fall. Read more about her at www.ToddlerTrueStories.com. 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