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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 17, 2016)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2016 ANY PLANET WITH WILD STRAWBERRIES IS A WORLD OF W aking at dawn to freez- ing straight-down rain when only a week before local rivers were weakly wiggling toward an early destruc- tive drought, I thought of my grand- mother’s incantation. At age 7 or so, I got into trouble with Mom. She asked why, when we were left overnight with her parents, my lit- tle brother steadfastly refused to give Grandma a goodnight kiss. I said maybe it was because Grandma was so very wrinkly. Oh boy. Not the right thing to say. “I was just spec-a-lating!” Talking fast, I assured her that we both dearly loved Grandma, wrinkles and all. Grandma was powerful in ways maybe only old women and young chil- dren can be, free from the restraints of self-consciousness and rational expla- nations. She was a wise woman in both the ancient and modern senses — a kindly witch and a smart old lady buoyed by optimistic con- fi dence in the mysterious pow- ers that still reside deep in the tendrils Matt of willow roots Winters and the bubbles in pure spring water. It is magic that vanishes the split instant anybody notices or tries to tame it. Once in our arid mountain valley, Grandma breathed an avid hope for “a good all-night rain.” Out of nothingness, clouds banded together from a clear sky and began wringing themselves out by midnight, sending a deluge that uprooted house-sized rocks that last budged when the glaciers were alive. I can still hear their voices as they pressed past one another in the Popo Agie River, granite grinding against granite like sumo wres- tlers thirsty for a barrel of beer. If that’s not magic, what is? Cynicism is to magic what rock salt is to a garden — long-lasting poi- son. Intellectual snobbery, not science, is the enemy of magic. My life is made richer by belief that Grandma could set in motion an epic rainstorm by breath- ing her hope into the expectant air. What pathetic wretch will tell me otherwise? As Mark Twain observed, faith is believ- ing what you know ain’t so. Wild berry time Another kind of magic is stirring in the dune grass and forest clearings of the outer coast this mid-June. It is the enchantment of sweet berries, perhaps brought to early fruit by the prayers of bears. Grandma used to note randomly Cynicism is to magic what rock salt is to a garden — long- lasting poison. Photo Courtesy of Lee Knott Atlas Knott practices the natural wizardry of boys by conjuring up a handful of precious wild strawberries during the Sea School Coopera- tive’s weekly foraging expedition, Wednesdays at 1 p.m. selected events like gardening mile- stones, weasel sightings, fi rst snows and family birthdays on the pages of gaudy paper calendars she hung on a nail above the white enamel chest-freezer on her “back porch.” In practicality, it was the entryway everyone actually used. A black iron bell was suspended outside that we many grandsons delighted in ringing to announce our presence (except between the hours of 1 and 3 p.m., when we knew she was napping). If we still had her cal- endars, there’s a chance I could tell you on what date her plum thicket began blooming in 1967. Though I’m no more methodical about record-keeping than she was, in 2012 when I last noted the ripening of the little wild blackberries, they weren’t abundant until around the fi rst or sec- ond week in July. On Aug. 7, I wrote “the fi rst fi nishers arrived a month ago, deceptively dark but shy of sugar. A wise old home species, they appreciate the urgency of completely utilizing every halfway decent day here on Bad-Weather Beach. For the past 10 days, they’ve mostly been sweet as kisses. Like a high- school romance, the fact the end’s so near makes them all the more delicious. In a process reminiscent of the 1960s board game ‘Operation,’ I make my hand small as possible and snake it through gaps in the prickle-covered vines, braced for the electrical shock of a thorn penetrating to a nerve. Fishing out about six berries at a time makes a mouthful.” Last Wednesday evening, June 15, I ate deliciously early blackberries while walk- ing Duncan in a foggy glade above the ocean. I returned from our walk looking like I just voted in an Arab election, right thumb and fi ngers dyed bright reddish purple. Wild blackberries are all-too-easily crushed but, wow, what a taste detonation. Salmon berries also are reaching full abundance just now, but are my least favorite. They ordinarily have a watery, washed-out fl avor in keeping with their anemic pink-tinged yellow color. Thim- ble berries — which remind me of a vari- ety of tart dime-store candy from boy- hood — are getting there, but still maybe a month away from eating. Sharp-eyed boys Very best of all are wild strawber- ries, which my old Peterson Field Guide says “possess a fl avor and sweetness not equaled by the cultivated varieties.” Sel- dom larger than a pea, they prove the entire universe is good. Heavenly, and healing, too. “Indians not only utilized the berries but made a tealike beverage from the leaves,” the fi eld guide says. This tea — along with that made from wild blackberry leaves — is a well-known folk remedy for diar- rhea. In addition, “The Quileute chewed the leaves and applied them as a poul- tice on burns,” according to Pojar and MacKinnon. Although wild strawberry vines are prolifi c along parts of my customary path down to the Pacifi c, until this month I was sure they either never fruited here or were gobbled by wildlife the moment they became edible. The Haida are supposed to have noticed the wholesale disappearance of strawberries after deer were introduced to the Queen Charlotte Islands. Washing- ton’s Cape Disappointment has tame deer aplenty, and it’s easy to imagine the dev- ils delicately nibbling every last berry just before I stride into view. However, Atlas Knott of the Long Beach Peninsula now has me ponder- ing a different reality: You have to be a child to consistently fi nd wild strawber- ries. Better eyesight, closer to the ground, or just maybe a special kind of boyhood magic. When his mom posted Altas’ photo on Facebook with a whole handful of coastal strawberries, I fi gured maybe I’d better try to recollect what it’s like to be an observant boy. Sure enough, the secret is stopping long enough and genuinely looking, with a renewed expectation of succeeding. I was rewarded with my fi rst wild straw- berries since I was about Atlas’ age. There were just three — not even a meal for a mouse — but they somer- saulted me back to a long-ago day in a remote river gorge, the summer sun fi l- tered by quaking aspen leaves. I was the “fi nder,” the boy with sharp eyes. The “Luck of the Matt,” my mom used to call it. Those berries were the best dessert of my life, gobbled down before a lunch of chicken fried over an open campfi re. Any planet with wild strawberries is a world of magic. —M.S.W. Matt Winters is editor and publisher of the Chinook Observer and Coast River Business Journal. In Trump’s America, a pistol for every bar stool By GAIL COLLINS New York Times News Service he nation hasn’t exactly joined hands in a united response to the Orlando massacre. T But since this terrible mass shoot- ing happened in one of the most weapons-friendly places in the coun- try, maybe we can at least all agree that having wildly permissive gun laws does not make a city safer. OK, probably not. On Wednesday, Donald Trump took time out from vilifying Muslims and put some of the blame on gun control. If the patrons of Pulse, the gay bar in Orlando, had been carrying concealed weapons, he said, they could have taken control of the situation. The gunman would have been “just open target practice.” (This was at the same speech where he congratulated himself for his stu- pendous relationship with the gay community, suggesting he didn’t “get enough credit” for having a club in Palm Beach that was “open there, he would have shot to everybody.” This is a lit- the terrorists. (“I may have tle off our topic today, but I been killed, but I would have to once again point out have drawn.”) that Trump’s club is open to This is an excellent exam- everybody with $100,000 to ple of delusional gun think- cover the membership fee.) ing. Although Trump fre- But about guns. Let’s fol- quently reminds us he has a low Trump’s thought. It’s permit to carry a gun, there’s easy to buy a gun in Florida no indication he’s ever done and supereasy to get a permit so. And there’s certainly no Gail to carry around a concealed evidence whatsoever that he Collins weapon. Even the Florida has any skill in hitting things. Legislature, however, doesn’t allow peo- It’s very, very diffi cult to draw, aim ple to carry guns into bars. Trump did not and shoot accurately when you’re under specifi cally say that we need to uphold severe stress. It’s one of the reasons that Americans’ freedom to drink while police offi cers so often spray fl eeing armed. But there doesn’t seem to be any suspects with bullets. They can’t hit a other way to interpret his argument. moving target, even though they get far Also, there actually was an off-duty more weapons training than your nor- police offi cer working in the club who mal armed civilian. tried to shoot the gunman but failed. In Florida, people who want to carry This is important, because the myth of a gun merely have to be able to demon- the cool and steady shooter is one of the strate they can “safely handle and dis- most cherished beliefs of the National charge the fi rearm.” Nowhere does it Rifl e Association and its supporters. say anything about accuracy. Trump himself has bragged that if he’d A few weeks ago in Houston, a been in Paris on the night of the attacks 25-year-old Afghanistan War veteran named Dionisio Garza walked up to a stranger sitting in a car at a carwash and shot him in the neck while railing about “homosexuals, Jews and Wal- Mart,” according to local reports. He fi red off 212 rounds, mostly from an assault rifl e, hitting a police helicopter and a nearby gas station, which burst into fl ames. The police said a neighbor who heard the shooting came running with a gun, but was shot himself. People who hear this story may draw different morals. The way we’ve been going, it’ll be a miracle if some member of the Texas Legislature doesn’t submit a bill requiring employees of carwashes to be armed at all times. However, oth- ers might note that the weapon in this case was an AR-15, the same type of military-style rifl e that was used in the Orlando shooting, the Newtown school shooting and the terrorist attack in San Bernardino. It would seem as if the best way to cut down on mass shootings would be by eliminating weapons that allow crazy people to rapidly fi re off endless rounds of bullets. The possibility of banning assault weapons like the AR-15 is most defi - nitely not on the table in Congress, although Hillary Clinton supports it, and has brought it up a lot since Orlando. No, the current debate in Washington is over whether people on the govern- ment’s terror watch list should be kept from purchasing arms. The fact that even people who aren’t allowed to get on a plane can buy a gun in this country is obviously insane. Yet most of the Republicans in the House and the Senate regard changing the sta- tus quo as an enormous lift. “I think you’re going too far here,” Sen. Lind- sey Graham of South Carolina told the backers during one of the bill’s pathetic trips to nowhere. Since the Orlando shooter had actu- ally spent some time on the terror watch list, the pressure seems to be growing. Trump says he’ll meet with the NRA to talk over the matter. Perhaps, after all this time, we’ll get some patheti- cally minor action. Then only apolitical maniacs would have the opportunity to buy guns that can take out a roomful of people in no time fl at. STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher • LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager • CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager • DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager Founded in 1873
