Liberal History

This is Barbara. She likes to name her dogs after flowers. I was dropping books at the library when I saw her. Truth be told it was Lily who caught my eye, lying there so peacefully in the dappled sun.

She grew up in Portland, but moved to Antioch for college in ’66 and has spent the last 50 years living in New York. I likened it to my 20 years in Portland.

Barbara described herself as a “dumb hippie.” She didn’t strike me as one, so I called her out. She ended up talking passionately about the political climate of her college years. She still stands by those values and I got the feeling felt a little betrayed by them.

I had immense gratitude hearing her story. It was oral history at its finest. I only wished I had more time, but I didn’t. So I asked if I could take a picture of her dog. Which lead to this.