j.lowe : making and finding stuff

For several months I’ve been meaning to write a woman who lives in my hometown of Waldport, Oregon. She was an older woman, with a husky voice, a great sense of humor, a bit of that East Coast attitude (even though she lived in my small West Coast town). I bagged her groceries at Clark’s Market while attending Waldport High School. When she found out I wanted to make movies for a living, she brought me in an old 8mm camera that still worked. Unfortunately, they had stopped making/processing 8mm film at the time (this was the film film that was before Super8, not the tape stuff from the 90s) – but it was the thought that counted.

When I graduated high school, she gave me a card, and enclosed a ten dollar bill in it, with a picture of me glued to the center. The bill read “In Justin we trust.”

She knew how to appeal to my ego.

Ten years go by. I now live in Portland, editing for Wieden+Kennedy, still working towards making movies etc. I come across the bill. She pops into my mind. I think ‘I should writer her a letter and give her a little update about things, she’d love that.’ I ask Chuck who runs the videostore in Waldport and also paints these amazing child-like images of dogs, cats, plants and other oddities, if she is still around. He says yes. 

More time passes. I keep thinking I need to write the letter. Tonight I finally do…I type it up on my computer here at work. I open up Safari, and google her name to get her mailing address…and what comes up? A very recent obitiuarie. Agnes passed away on 6/13/09.

Damn.

Don’t put the important stuff off!

J.Lowe, 6/30/09