Taking A Walk Through Beverly Cleary's Neighborhood

If there was one character I could relate to as a child--it was Ramona Quimby. Oh, I liked Nancy Drew well enough--but she was too smart. And those Ingalls girls? They were a little too well-behaved if you ask me. But Ramona? She was a disaster. A hilarious mess on two feet. Just the kind of girl I would have loved to stand next to in the lunch line.

Little did I know that when I moved to Portland, I'd be living in "Ramona's" hometown. Beverly Cleary, creator of Ramona, was raised in Oregon and set her fictional stories in the real-life town of Portland.

Huh! Awesomesauce.

I've been reliving my childhood by reading a handful of the books to my kids, so "Ramona," "Henry," and "Ribsy" are familiar names to us all. Recently, our local library has been hosting a walking tour of the neighborhood--which is designed to connect the stories from Beverly Cleary's books to the sites around town.

I naturally assumed that you'd want to go on the happy little tour with me--or at least vicariously through the pictures I post on this blog. So let's get walking.

1. The Library. Though it is no longer a library, this retro-looking building is still being used as a bakery. But back in the day, it was the place where Beverly Cleary would walk to pick up some books.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Beverly Cleary's childhood home. The structure of this house is quintessential Portland, which makes it all the more delightful. It's roughly a five-minute walk down the street from the old library.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   "Hancock" is the name of the street, but Cleary chose "Klickitat" (which is nearby) as a more kid-friendly name of a street for Ramona to live on.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Our guide was Laura Foster, who has written a few books that describe walking tours in and around the Portland area. Laura was just what you'd want from a tour guide--informative, well-spoken, and passionate about the topic at hand.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   (Do you see me there in the top-right corner of that photo? Hey everybody!)
   
   
   
   
   
3. Neighborhood schools. Both of the following two schools were ones that Beverly Cleary attended, and therefore are weaved into the stories of Ramona and her friends.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   (Obviously, the schools weren't named "Beverly Cleary" until much later.)
   
   
   
   
4. Grant Park. One of my favorite stories of Beverly Cleary's is when Henry Huggins has to work to dig up a thousand or so night crawlers to be able to buy his friend a new football. Grant Park was the setting for that story.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Inside the park, statues of Henry, Ribsy, and Ramona have been erected to honor the writings of Beverly Cleary:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Come to find out, the "football thrown through an open window in a passing car" is based on a true story--something that happened right outside Beverly Cleary's other childhood home. Speaking of, we did see that second house--but by that time in the tour my photographer was walking on fumes.
   
   
   

Hope y'all enjoyed the walking tour around the Beverly Cleary neighborhood. Make sure to give out a shout if you are a Ramona fan too! Or you can simply tell me I'm a Mary Ingalls Hater and leave it at that.

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