Read a good book lately? Even techies like to read a good book once in a while, and libraries, book stores, book publishers, even online sites such as Goodreads.com, meetup.com and Facebook, provide outlets to discuss the written word.

The Contreras family owns a small bakery but bakes traditional Mexican goodies with a big heart. “We love what we do,” says Maria Contreras, who runs Pilos Mexican Bakery in Corvallis with her parents, Celestino Contreras Padilla and Marcelina Lopez de Contreras, and brother Alberto Contreras.

When your whole world is just a bed and a few personal items, a bouquet of lovely flowers can make your day. Heidi Berkman discovered that fact when caring for her stepmother’s mother in her final days. She remembers how the mood indoors often matched the gloomy January weather outside. There was no sun to fill her stepmother’s condominium, and little to perk up her disposition.

Like most teens in the mid-1960s, Robert Santelli found himself glued to the television as Ed Sullivan introduced the Beatles. And, like so many, it was a life-changing experience. On that day — Feb. 9, 1964 — 12-year-old Santelli made an emphatic decision – he would be a musician.

In 1912, aviation pioneer Silas Christofferson settled into his Curtiss-type Pusher airplane and, in an audacious move, took off from the roof of downtown Portland’s Multnomah Hotel, cruising across the Columbia River to the Vancouver Barracks.

Each time Barbara Yasson turns on the ham radio in her Vancouver home, she carries on her father’s legacy.

Retirement for Chrissie Forbes meant the end of teaching, but it opened the door to a colorful new beginning as an artist. This avid artist explores color on canvas and creativity with found objects, especially her “robot art.”

Do you remember newsreels before movies, Blackjack chewing gum, roller skate keys, Butch wax, party lines, and cereal with prizes in the box? Did your mom buy her groceries at a particular grocery store just to get that free dinner plate? Did the groceries come with an added bonus – S&H Green Stamps?

Andrea and Curtis Ryun sold their boat and bought a recreational vehicle, so they could have a fun vacation without worrying about where to stay or what to eat.

Sheila Hamilton is an Emmy Award-winning radio personality who hosts shows on KINK-FM and KXL. She was recently voted Oregon’s best radio personality. But there’s a lot more to Hamilton than what you hear on the radio. She should be voted “most able to cope with life’s sudden crises.”

The little town of Crawfordsville houses a celebrity named Tommy Nelson, a man who has lived in the area for more than 40 years.

It’s a Sunday morning at Unleashed Community Church in Eugene. Members of the congregation start arriving and find their seats.

At a time when most seniors are enjoying their retirement, Guy and Mary Ann Scott still run a 400-acre farm about 10 miles northeast of Sublimity. “We’re very busy,” Mary Ann says. “We have a big garden and big yard to take care of and other daily chores.”

If there’s one person who knows hiking in Lane County, it’s William Sullivan. He’s written five books covering all of the hikes in Oregon, as well as 16 other books including adventure memoirs, novels, mysteries and short stories. “The thing I like about fall is the fall color and huckleberries,” Sullivan says. “For huckleberries the trick is to go to the high Cascades to places where the forest has been cut back by fire or windstorms or clear cuts. The huckleberries only develop fruit if they get sun, so you see huckleberry bushes in the deep woods all over the high Cascades but there’s no fruit.”

Retired businessman Bill Lackner loves to fish, dig clams and catch crabs “over and over, again and again.” “I got interested in these activities when I was unable to work, and wrote a book about harvesting the amazing bounty from the marine environment common to the Oregon Coast,” says Lackner, founder of the Clam Diggers Association of Oregon. “The work included thousands of hours of research. The topics in the book, which in time became an encyclopedia, was too large to be published.”

Rod Minarik likes to drive. In fact, it was a trip “passing through” Oregon with a 35-foot trailer that changed his life. He’s originally from southern California, but 17 years ago, he was just expecting to pass through Oregon on a tour when he quickly realized his trailer was too big. So he parked it in Eugene and stayed awhile.

By the time many adults reach the grandparent stage they often are retired and their nests are empty. A program sponsored by the Oregon Cascade West Council of Governments gives some of those adults an important connection with children they may be missing.

Several destinations immerse visitors in nature – some are more urban and suburban, while others are in forested or protected areas – yet don’t require a long car trip to access. Here are some of our recommendations:

Hungry, but no time to roam the aisles of the grocery store? Local grocery outlets are now offering ways for customers to shop without coming into their stores.

Dorothy Wallace Foisy sews baby quilts — a lot of them. Often, two a day. In fact, since September, she has sewn 50 blankets. But as she sits among the blankets, folded neatly on the bed by her daughter Lynn Walker, Foisy picks up a blanket, unfolds it, strokes the pink fleece and comments, “Who made these?”

Gerald Gaule was just a boy when he had his first on-air experience in radio. He was at the Clark County Fair in southwest Washington when he came upon a radio station disc jockey broadcasting remotely. Gaule, already a fan of radio who loved to listen to his shortwave and create radio shows at home, watched and listened to the DJ for two or three hours.

When Viola Lopez’s son Checo wanted to start a business 17 years ago, this mother tossed out a challenge: “Decide what you can do and make money fast.” At the time, 22-year-old Checo had been working at a car renta

A chance conversation among teenagers in an ice cream parlor led Harry Hendricks not only to contribute to America’s war effort, but learn lifetime job skills. It happened in 1943, when Hendricks — barely a teen himself — struck up a conversation with another teen working at the bustling shipyards run by businessman Henry J. Kaiser on the north side of the Columbia River, where thousands of workers were churning out U.S. military vessels during World War II.

An Oregon icon is set for a major tune-up as Metro renovates the famous "Portland" sign on Broadway at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

Dee Anna Morgan has been an arts and crafts gal as far back as she can remember. “We are neighbors with Jessica Ramey, and one day she sent me a Facebook invite to ‘like’ the Free Art Friday page,” says Morgan, who lives with her husband Hugh in South Salem.

Elizabeth Woody is the first American Indian to be named poet laureate of Oregon. She has overcome many obstacles to earn multiple advanced degrees, share her poetry and art, and voice her support for many causes.

As warehouses go, a nondescript building in Philomath looks as expected. But walk inside, and find thousands of artifacts — from a wooden loom and old-fashioned carriages, to vintage cars, wheelchairs and even a mastodon. Carefully stored and archived, these relics were rescued by the Benton County Historical Society from a tax law that surely meant their demise.