Photojournalism

Sitting on a high stool at a coffee shop window, Brian Severn enjoys yet another sip from his cup. The world has changed in this man’s eyes, there is no struggle anymore as life has gotten easier. Currently owning his own apartment complex, and known as landlord by three tenants, Brian has come a long way from the homeless state he was once at. After the Vietnam War Brian joined the Navy and pulled himself into a submarine for six years. “It taught me steady income” says Brian, relating that he had no concept of how to manage his money before his time in the Navy. When his house caught fire after he retired from duty, Brian found himself out of options. He roamed the streets, seeking help from any friend that would take him in for a time. “My one friend got me out of that slump” remarked Brian, as he explained the state of his decay; “I had money, I just didn’t spend it.” That untouched money, was enough that once Brian’s friend pulled him from the wreckage of his previous life, Brian was able to acquire an apartment building. For three months though, in the middle of winter, there was no power or hot water, but when the money came, in the two friends were able to weather the rest of the winter frost. Again Brian accentuates the kindness of friends and strangers as the reason for pulling him from where he was.

With the perspective from both sides of peoples’ struggles, Brian also has observed a change in the mentality of people. When in high school in the 70’s, Brian hitchhiked from Walla Walla to Florida, a trip lasting one year. He sees the simple, older times as characterized by the outdoor concert: Woodstock, “respect” was the word he used to describe the feeling between people. Though even amongst the atmosphere of appreciation there was an unfamiliar peculiarity that was manifesting. In Arkansas Brian remembers hitchhiking and having his spoon confiscated by a policeman. Brian added, “You can’t hitchhike through Arkansas,” as he lifted his cup once more to his lips.

Hitchhiking is not what is was. Brian can recall one time having a knife drawn on him when he picked up a lady hitchhiking, he got away safely when his brother pulled in behind Brian’s car and the woman fled. That corrupting mentality that Brian encountered in Arkansas, years earlier, had spread. Brian has seen it characterized through technology, as people become more accustomed to an easier and more convenient life, empathy is lost, and sympathy dissolves for one’s neighbor; people can no longer relate to one another.

As a child, Brian remembers going to the state penitentiary, where his dad worked as a guard in Walla Walla, for haircuts from the prison barber. The barber gave a close cut to Brian and his four siblings, perhaps a symbol of the slow shaving away, that Brian has had the unique experience to witness among men. Though perhaps that is reading to far into things.

----------------------------Wendy

Inside of Andy’s Laundromat, Wendy sits with her pooch, who she has quaintly named ‘Doggy,’ and waits for the rinse cycle to finish; she currently is enrolled at the Walla Walla Community College, and is pursuing a career in social work. Wendy sees the changing landscape of the valley, from onion fields to grape vines, and believes that the town is trying to change its image to appeal to a more refined world. She laughs as she remarks “There are great intellectual minds here with no common sense” and punctuates her claim by observing the towns ability to adapt to the snowfall. “It snowed fours days ago and the streets are still melting.” No matter the effort, according to Wendy, the reputation of ‘sweet onion capital of the world’ is too infused into this city to ever be erased.

----------------------------John Cress

John Cress is the newly appointed executive director for fund raising at the Walla Walla General Hospital. He previously was a pastor for the Adventist conference for 31 years and fondly remember his past duties. He has primarily worked with the youth and attributes this fondness to his own childhood role models who helped him. With his new position, John hopes the WWGH will further good in the community and help people.

----------------------------Alheli

Alheli has been part of the Walla Walla Symphony for four years. She graduated from the Conservatory of Mexico and gained her Masters from the University of Idaho. The symphony performed February the tenth, and filled with evening with love and romantic songs from Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Strauss.

----------------------------Jim

The hidden smirk Jim McKay stifles when he reminisces about wanting to become a pro wrestling announcer, brings back memories from his time as a Walla Walla College student. Jim first started wanting a career in broadcasting and says that it was hard to give up his goal. He graduated with a degree in carpentry and has since moved to maintenance. Though his original goal has changed, Jim takes away from his time as a student, the memory of friends that have stuck by him through the years.

----------------------------Jason

Starbucks creates a comfortable atmosphere as Jason sits down to his studies with the same hope of making the grade that every college student holds. His family lives in Korea and Jason has lived in Walla Walla for two years now. Hoping to one day work in a marketing department for merchandise in the NBA, Jason is focusing himself towards a degree in economics. Having already lived in the U.S. for a few years when he was ten, Jason is comfortable with his surroundings, and when it comes to the new debate of Kobe Bryant or LeBron James, Jason asserts that LeBron wins out every time.

----------------------------Heather

Heather Goodwin currently attends Walla Walla’s community college and ironically enough is racing her mother, who has recently enrolled in college, to a degree. Heather is focused on elementary education while her mother is taking her degree in computer graphics; Heather admits that it is her mom who is the computer genius in the house. Heather has been a Washington bound girl her whole life and plans to take her degree out of state, her love for kids has been nursed by years as a baby sitter and a camp worker at Mivoden.

----------------------------Brian

As the current plant engineering manager for a food processing plant, Brian holds a great responsibility to quality. Growing up in Idaho, Brian sensed no desire within himself to pursue the farming life he grew up in and instead began working toward a career in engineering. With a starry eye and a full moustache, Brian holds no regrets as he and Sandra, a new couple of seven months, prepare to venture back home.

----------------------------Don Herrett

With potato in hand, Don Herrett remembers a time "much harder than America is experiencing now," to paraphrase his words. A farm boy, then a veteran, Don lived through the depression and can remember when his family, then living in the Yakima valley, had no way of selling their own potatoes; five years passed before they sold their crop. His family left the valley in 1932, and after his tour of duty from 1938-’58, which saw him in Guadalcanal serving as a hospital corporate, Don Herrett retired from the Navy and now resides in Walla Walla.

----------------------------Mary Canby

Mary Canby stands on familiar ground as she sifts through the produce department at Andy’s Market. Growing up on a farm in Iowa was much different from our nation’s west coast, where Mary moved to in 1972. However, without the comfortable surroundings of farmland and sprouting crops, Mary felt a longing for familiarity; that is why, six years ago, she moved from the coast to Walla Walla’s valley. Though apple orchards and onion fields are different from the corn and red clove her family grew, she still finds the atmosphere of hard work and waiting on the weather, to be home.