Sanctioned by Kathy Gillespie from the city of Lake Oswego and Cindy Heisler, the Lake Oswego Adult Community Center executive director — she came up with the name — in 1999 as Jottings from Fifth and G, this group, based at the Lake Oswego Adult Community Center, started out as an informal gathering of individuals who wanted to share their fascinating life experiences. There was no writing involved in the early days. But the more the group shared their life stories, they decided that people outside the group might enjoy them so they began writing them down with the idea in mind the Review might be interested in publishing what they wrote.
Bingo. The Review embraced the idea. Jottings from 5th and G became the official title for the column, which is published weekly online and in print. Currently 12 Jotters — all women but we have had men in the group in the past — comprise the group.
I joined Jottings in 2007. I don’t know what motivated me — maybe curiosity or maybe I’d always been a wannabe writer or wondered how I’d look in print? English and journalism classes in high school and writing term papers in college, I excelled at, but never thought of myself a writer — as in writing a book or a magazine or newspaper article. Boy, has that changed.
When I joined Jottings, there were three women in the group I connected with: Tonsy (Hortense) Sylvester, Mrs. Lausch and Helen Mahle. All three were moms whose offspring were in my LOHS high school graduating class. If they could write and be published, so could I. Tonsy is the one I really connected with: We both loved history and enjoyed sharing it. She kept every article written by a Jotter or about Jottings, cutting and pasting them into scrapbooks for several years until it got to be too much. Housed in a storage shed behind the Adult Community Center’s main building, those scrapbooks never resurfaced after the remodel. I suspect they were tossed out because no one except myself and one or two others would have known what they were and the value of having them. Luckily my curiosity about Jottings history led me to view the scrapbooks and my instincts told me I should probably scan many of the documents for posterity in case I might want them for a future purpose … like a book.
I had been wanting to compile a book of my Jottings articles as a keepsake instead of just having a pile of newspaper clippings stuffed away in a file somewhere. The thought of the history of Jottings being tossed out like bathwater motivated me to get the book done and would include the history of Jottings. I went on hiatus in 2018 to write “Story Soup,” which published the same year. Yes, I’m patting myself on the back for having the foresight to include the history of Jottings in the book. Had I not, there would have been no documentation about the group’s beginnings.
JoAnn Parsons curated the group when I joined, assigning deadline dates and making sure everyone had a chance to read aloud to the group what they’d written. Jottings is not a writing class or a critique group, although we do often give feedback to each other. We are a group of women — there have been men in the group in the past — of that certain age from all walks of life who enjoy sharing that walk in a positive, supportive environment. And we always have fun doing it. Before the remodel, executive director Ann Adrian’s office was right next to our meeting room. On several occasions she thought pounding on the wall would quiet us down. When that didn’t work, she bounded through the door … could she join in? Ann, we miss you. You were a dear friend to Jottings from 5th and G.
John O’Malley, one of the original members of Jottings, wrote the first article the Review published. He titled it “No Hills in Indiana,” a piece about skiing vicariously where there were hills and not the reality of the flatlands of Indiana. When he moved to Oregon and joined the LOACC, he got to ski those hills. The first article I wrote for Jottings I titled “Torvill and Dean: Mime Team? Tennis Duo?” Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean were two-time Olympic gold medal ice dance champions from England in 1980 and 1984. Other Jotters in that original group included Kay Wall, JoAnn T. Parsons, Molly and Bob Dusenberry, Helen Mahle, Peg Patterson, Tonsy Sylvester, Barbara Jelen, Fritz Kramer, Clarissa Reins, Dorothy Walter, Peggy Coffin, Ruth Hoover, Helen Grigg, and Dorothy Frantz. Hele Frantz was Dorothy Stafford’s sister, wife of Lake Oswego’s well known poet William Stafford.
I rejoined Jottings in 2022 not long after JoAnn turned the reins over to Cherie Dupuis. What I enjoy most about the group: the laughter, being able to share what’s going on in our lives and creating new connections.
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