Jan Bono’s Blog

This year’s Northwest Garlic Festival is coming right up! Hard to believe, but the fledgling festival begun in 1982 in the Ark Restaurant parking lot (yes, I was there), continues to get bigger and better every year, and on June 20-21, on the Wilson Field (25815...

Within days of posting my blog about how I didn’t “miss” public school teaching, I got an invitation to come present a special “guest lesson” to Suzanne Knutzen’s 4th grade class at Ocean Park Elementary. And I have to admit, I jumped at the chance! Fourth graders are...

I’m inextricably drawn to the more creative, quirky kinds of people: Actors, musicians, writers, artists, circus clowns and hams of all types. So naturally, during the UFO Festival in McMinnville a couple weeks ago, you could find me hanging out with The Willamette...

It’s been awhile since I’ve been behind a public school teacher’s desk—nine years ago today, to be exact—and yet I’m still fairly frequently asked if I “miss” teaching. Granted, teaching minor children consumed 30 consecutive years of my life, but I’ve been “no longer...

I recently got my driver’s license renewed, and for the first time since I starting wearing glasses—over 35 years ago—I was asked to remove them for the photo. “But I can’t see without them,” I told the man behind the desk. “So I certainly won’t be caught driving...

Back in mid-March, which now seems like at least a hundred years ago, Rick promised me he wouldn’t die in May or June. “May is my birth month,” he explained, “and June is yours, so don’t worry about me checking out during those two months.” He made good on that...