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
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