Note: I will take a break over the holidays. My next post will be January 13. Happy Holidays all!

Nobody has to ask me twice to talk about the coast’s historic bridges. For example, one day at the Siuslaw Pioneer Museum, a woman walked in and wanted to know if anyone could tell her about the bridge she had crossed coming into town. My docent partner pointed to me. I told her I could giver her a five minute, half hour, or all-day talk about the bridge. She chose the five-minute one. And my neighbor came over for dinner a few years ago and when she left at about 10 p.m., she thanked me for the dinner . . . and the treatise on the coastal bridges.

So, when Dina Pavlis asked me if I would be interested in being interviewed about the coastal bridges for her radio program, I did not say “No.” She explained that it would primarily cover my book Crossings, McCullough’s Coastal Bridges.

Dina has a weekly program that is called “Beyond Your Front Door,” produced for the Pacifica Radio Network in the studios of KXCR in Florence. It is an adventure guide to the Central Oregon Coast. And many people associate her with the dunes because of her book, Secrets of the Oregon Dunes, that came out in 2008. It is written in “plain English” so everyone can understand; it has no scientific jargon. I did a review of it for Oregon Coast magazine and take it with me when I explore the dunes. Last year when the book Dune was being celebrated and the movie of the same name came out, Dina gave a PowerPoint presentation about the dunes preceding the showing of the movie Dune. She is considered one of the most knowledgeable sources when it comes to the dunes.

I like the way she prepares for her interviews. A couple of months before, we set the date, which we had to change once.Then a week or so before, she let me know that she would be sending some questions, so that I’d know what to prepare for. Two days before the interview, she sent her questions, and I could add to or delete them. And I could tell from her questions that she had actually read Crossings.

Her software program containing her questions, allowed me to type in the answers. I ran off a copy to take to the radio station. Imagine my surprise when she had the same exact sheets in front of her with all my answers on them. It was easy, peasy. She asked the questions that were on her sheets of paper, and I gave the answers that were on mine. This way, I knew that all that I felt was most important was covered. We did add a few things, though.

And then, she had an extra question, where we had responses back and forth for a few minutes. She will try to fit it in, and if not possible, she will keep it as a filler because it could stand on its own. Because the interview was not live, we relaxed and enjoyed ourselves.

And Dina knows how to operate the recording equipment in the radio station’s studio and how to edit the interview. So, I feel really good about the final result.

Besides questions about my background and how I came to write the book, there were questions about the ferries prior to the bridge, about what to specifically look for when walking across the different bridges, and what were some of the challenges encountered when writing Crossings.

She also asked about favorite memories, and I told about the non-dedication of the Umpqua River Bridge that had been postponed indefinitely. That’s when folks in Reedsport realized that their bridge had never been dedicated. As a result, there was a fabulous, day-long series of activities to dedicate the bridge that Crossings and I were a part of 75 years after the Umpqua River Bridge was built. And it would not have happened without Crossings.

Another favorite story was about Goodren Gallo, who called me when she saw a letter I had in the newspaper requesting stories about the building of the Siuslaw River Bridge here in Florence. She talked for several hours, and I just kept jotting down notes. She was 95 and had just come home from the hospital and wanted to make sure I had every one of her stories. Two weeks later, I called eo verify the accuracy of what I had written only to find that she had died in the meantime. I ended up using her stories throughout the book. I felt so very fortunate to have her stories as well as that of many other old-timers––none of whom are still alive. Because of their stories, I consider Crossings a repository of remarkable remembrances. And of all my books, it is the one of which I’m most proud. And it was the project of a lifetime.

***

Here are the dates when the interview with me can be heard:

12/16, 11:30 a.m., KXCR 90.7 (stream at kxcr.net)

12/16, 5:30 p.m., KXCJ (stream at kxcj.org)

12/17, 11:00 a.m., KXCR again

12/18, 4:00 p.m., KPNW-DB (stream at pnwradio.org)

And if you missed the show, it can be found on SoundCloud.com Just search for “Beyond Your Front Door Oregon” and look for the wave.