Related Friends
Mosier, Oregon 2017
Arlene Burns
Photographer/Kayaker: Mosier Mayor, Oregon
I live in a small town on the Columbia River in Oregon far removed from my past life in Chicago and the East-Coast. The current mayor of Mosier, Oregon was someone I had briefly met several years ago at a party.
When I built a house not far from hers, she befriended me on Facebook and socialized more and more when we discovered our mutual interests in photography and connections with National Geographic magazine.
She invited me to stay at her home to cat-sit while she traveled the world in the winter months of 2008. As I worked in her office one day, I noticed a photograph of a young Arlene Burns that was eerily familiar. It was a 8.5×11 print made on Kodak RC paper and it had a black border that looked very much part of my signature 40 years ago. I studied it. There was a familiarity in the picture, never thinking that it could be mine and then put it out of my mind.
Years go by as our neighborly lives intertwine into good friendship. It was she who introduced me to Walter Ordway who was visiting her and ended up being kicked out because of his irritating dog. Walter and his loud dog came and stayed in my tepee. It was during those 10 days that he spent with me, the countless stories he told me of his travels that inspired my first attempt in writing a movie script.
One day in the summer of 2009, we ran into each other in San Francisco and she hitched a ride back to Oregon with me. During the long drive, we shared some of our life stories and somehow the name Penny NickeI got mentioned. She was a Young Life intern working in High-Schools south of Chicago and befriended me. She, John White and John Howard were all recent graduates of Wheaton College who I had a connection. A year later, I ended up attending this same school. As it turned out, Penny Nickel started teaching at a college in North Carolina where Arlene attended. It was Penny Nickel, said Arlene who encouraged her to pursue her passion in kayaking.
That little nudge transformed Arlene’s life. She would go on to became a world-class kayaker, traveled the globe as a river guide, became a devout naturalist and photographed for companies like Patagonia. Her charisma and expertise with a paddle also landed her as Meryl Streep’s stand-in in the movie The River Wild
Thrilled by our newly discovered connection, we Googled and sadly found her obituary dated one year earlier.
The kicker with all this was that we had actually met in a Wilderness Camp called Honey Rock 45 years ago when Arlene drove a group of students from her Montreat-Anderson College. That picture with the black border, gone missing since she renovated her home, could have been mine after all.
It is a small world!
2010’s DECADES
GRATITUDE: A decade beyond expectation. I learned to live in the moment instead of capturing the moment. . . simply, being present to welcome the moment.
1980’s DECADE
INDULGING DEFIANCE: Photography gave me wings but also a sense of boundless creativity. This was a decade of independence, anti-establishment. It was a decade that avoided entrapment, both stylistic and accomplishment,. an era of exploration and renaissance.
YOSEMITE SUNSET
NEW WORK: Enter to see photo: This is a work in progress page. SUBSCRIBE for the latest stories, blogs and (if I’ve taken pictures of you in the last 50 years) don’t miss friendship updates. Thank You!
CELESTIAL ARTIFACTS
NEW WORK: Enter to see only photo: This is a work in progress page. SUBSCRIBE for the latest stories, blogs and (if I’ve taken pictures of you in the last 50 years) don’t miss friendship updates. Thank You!
Ted Hope
FILM PRODUCER
A future blog about Ted Hope will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 2014.
Romul Grivov
RESTAURANT OWNER
A future blog about Romul Grivov will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 2011.
Charles Kogod
PHOTO EDITOR
A future blog about Charles Kogodwill be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 1979.
Harry Lunn
Welcome to the future page about Harry Lunn, the founding father of fine art photography market. Enter to see photos. Circa 1981
Kroum Tirilov
PLUMBER
Future blog page about Kroum Tirilov will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 2010
Neil Pryde
SAILMAKER
Future blog page about Neil Pryde (yes it’s a real person) will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 1993.
Bill Clinton
FORMER PRESIDENT
A future blog about Bill Clinton will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 1979.
Stephanie Cutter
POLITICAL STRATEGIST
A future blog about Stephanie Cutter will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 1993.
Doug Crow
ECONOMICS PROFESSOR
A future blog about Doug Crow will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 2009.
Tony Milbank
BANKER
A future blog about Tony Milbankwill be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 1975.
Jess Lee Perry
WRITER/WATER PROTECTOR
Future blog page about Jess Lee Perry will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 2016.
Mark Godfrey
PHOTOGRAPHER
A future blog about Mark Godfrey will be added here. Enter now to see photos. SInce 2010.
Neil Pryde
SAILMAKER
Future blog page about Neil Pryde (yes it’s a real person) will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 1993.
Buey Grossman
BABY BUEY
A future blog about my bird name Baby and Buey Grossman will be added here. Enter now to see photos. Since 2010.
- 541-380-0907
- sacredridgejc@gmail.com
- P.O. Box 994 Mosier, Oregon 97040
©JOHN CHAO All rights reserved
don't
kiss goodbyE
©JOHN CHAO All rights reserved