www.hoodrivernews.com
Hood River News, Wednesday, January 14, 2015
B3
The elusive thank you note
Grace a friend or
impress the boss:
tips on written
words of gratitude
By WENDY BEST
As a species, thank you
notes are vanishing off our
planet. That is too bad. When
I was young, we used to call
these short notes our “bread
and butter letters” — the
idea being that if you have
enjoyed a nice dinner or an
extended visit at someone’s
country estate, you must
write your hostess a letter of
appreciation to secure the
possibility of being invited
back.
Youngsters might call
these courtesy letters “Lego
set letters,” or “Barbie Doll
collection
letters.”
Grownups usually call them
“thank you notes” if they
write them at all. Fewer and
fewer adult and supposedly
mature people do. In any
case, the function of these
short and classy epistles
could be made crystal clear
by calling them “Impress the
boss letters,” or “Secure fu-
ture business and/or social
contacts letters,” or simply
“Make an old lady happy let-
C UBA
Continued from Page B1
U.S. credit and debit cards
will also be allowed in Cuba.
But back in 1997, Van
Valkenburgh and his bud-
dies knew that the Cubans
had a special affinity for
American $2 bills, so they got
$600 worth of the bills and
spent them all.
Cuba has the same latitude
as Hawaii, Van Valkenburgh
said, and the island was
memorable for its music,
friendly residents and deli-
cious food, though it was a
bit heavy on two island sta-
ples: black beans and rice.
“There’s a lot of Chinese,
Canadians, Europeans there,
and because of our embargo,
there aren’t many Ameri-
cans, which is a stupid deci-
sion,” he said. The distance
to the island from Florida is
not much farther than “the
distance between here and
Portland.”
While American commer-
cial tourist travel to Cuba
has long been banned — and
still is, even under Obama’s
looser regulations — it ap-
pears that travel there by pri-
vate boat has been another
thing entirely.
“We reported to the Coast
Guard before we left and did
it by telephone,” Van Valken-
ence of the gift-giver. This is
especially true of birthday,
holiday, graduation, and
wedding presents. A verbal
thank you, no matter how
gushing, does not do the job
adequately.
Be sure to say something
pleasant about the gift, even
if you hated it and found it in
the worst possible taste. Do
not do as I did when I was a
child and wrote, “Dear Aun-
tie, Thank you for the danc-
ing princess. Granny sent me
one just like it, so it didn’t
matter when Har ry (my
brother) broke the one you
sent.” Needless to say, I was
not allowed by my mother to
send that particular note.
ters” (their most common
use).
Certain situations ab-
solutely require thank you
notes. Gifts are the most ob-
vious. I had an aunt who kept
sending nice presents to her
nieces and nephews. One
family of kids never sent
thank you notes. She finally
stopped sending them gifts. I
don’t really blame her.
Thank you notes for gifts
can be very short, and need
take no longer than five min-
utes to write, put into an en-
velope, address, stamp, and
mail. Here is an example of a
perfect thank you note for a
gift:
Dear (gift giver),
Thank you for the (beauti-
ful, stunning, useful, unusu-
al) thing (name the thing
specifically).
I will (use, enjoy, cherish,
appreciate) it, and I will
think of you every time I do
so.
I hope you are well, and
looking forward to (the up-
coming year, Easter, the com-
ing months, summer, winter,
etc.).
Thanks again for the thing
(name it again).
(Love, affectionately, re-
spectfully, fondly, Cheers!)
(Your name)
Incidentally, you should
write a note even if you re-
ceived the gift in the pres-
An overnight stay at some-
one’s home absolutely needs
to be followed by a thank you
note. As soon as you get
home, sit down and write:
Dear Hostess and, if ap-
propriate, you should in-
clude your host,
I (we) had such a wonder-
ful time this past weekend at
your lovely (home, cottage,
apartment, beach house ski
lodge, etc.). The countryside
is beautiful there, or (alter-
natively) Seattle, (Boston,
Timbuktu) is a terrific city to
spend time in and especially
in the company of (thought-
ful people, dear friends, val-
ued family members, old
burgh said of their depar-
ture from Key West. “And
they said, ‘Well, you’re not
taking anything illegal?’ And
we said, ‘No,’ and they said,
‘Report back when you come
in’.”
They did, but it was late on
a Friday night and nobody
answered the phone, so they
just left a message.
After an eight-hour boat
ride, Van Valkenburgh’s boat
sailed into Havana and the
Hemingway Marina, “which
is a beautiful marina with
condos around it, swimming
pools, and is very attractive,”
he said.
“When we got close we ra-
dioed for permission to come
in and they gave us direction
where to come in and berth
the boat and we were met by
a small group of musicians
and a boy who offered to
wash the saltwater off the
sides of the boat.”
Two government officials
came on board and checked
their papers — all they need-
ed to enter the country was
their driver’s license — “and
they sent a diver underneath
the boat to make sure we
weren’t sneaking something
in.”
A man arrived and offered
to take them on a tour.
They went by the area
where Fidel Castro lived, and
spent a full day at the Hem-
ingway Museum, which is
the former home of the great
American writer, Er nest
Hemingway.
They learned that Hem-
ingway put on an annual
fishing contest, and Castro
won it a couple times. Also,
during World War II, at the
behest of the British secret
service, Hemingway went to
the Caribbean to look for
submarines.
Prior to the revolution,
Cuba was a hotspot for the
rich and famous – and the
mafia, Van Valkenburgh
said.
They saw former casinos
and brothels that were shut
down by Castro. The story in
Cuba was that those deca-
dent, sinful places were run
by President Kennedy and
his father, Van Valkenburgh
said.
While America embargoed
Cuba two years after Castro
took over and it became com-
munist, prior to that the U.S.
had backed the dictator Ful-
gencio Batista, “a crooked
snake,” Van Valkenburgh
said, who brutally controlled
the country with death
squads.
Batista was overthrown in
early 1959 and Fidel Castro
took over. Castro’s brother,
Raul, is in power today.
Van Valkenburgh and his
buddies spent a week and a
half on the island and had a
great time. “People were
very friendly. T hey all
seemed to have relatives in
■
friends) like you (your-
selves).
If you are ever out our
(my) way be sure to look us
(me) up. If you actually hated
the hosts and had a miser-
able time, you can leave out
that sentence. Instead, say
something like “We rarely
travel or entertain, which
made our visit with you all
the more memorable.”
Thank you again for shar-
ing your home with us.
(Sincerely, Love, Affection-
ately, etc.)
(your name)
Before you even ask, an e-
mail or a phone call do not
count. You need to send these
little notes on proper note
paper either through the
mail or hand-delivered.
■
And now we get to the “it
would be nice” notes. Obvi-
ously, it would be silly for
people to start banging notes
back and forth when they
stop by casually for coffee or
a sandwich. A thank you
note is never wrong, but we
have to be realistic here.
However, if you go to
someone’s house for a deli-
cious home-cooked dinner,
where the hostess or host
have obviously gone to a lot
of trouble and/or expense, a
note is in order if you feel
grateful. This is particularly
true if the hostess is an el-
derly person. For some rea-
son, elderly people like thank
you notes and often treasure
them. I should know, because
I am fast approaching old age
myself.
Dear Hostess (or host, or
both),
Thanks so much for the
wonderful evening and din-
ner I (we) enjoyed last Tues-
day. It’s always a pleasure to
get together with friends,
and we do appreciate your
thoughtfulness in inviting
us. Hope to see you again
soon.
(Sincerely, love, affection-
ately, etc.)
(Your name)
If you actually had a rot-
ten, boring time, don’t send a
note at all. Just let it pass
and, with luck, you may
never be invited again. If
you do get invited again, you
can always fall back on the
flu, back pain, or prior com-
mitments. But never be
overtly rude.
■
Another occasion which
might rate a note would be
one in which another person
did you a really important
favor. Recently, our car broke
down on a broiling summer
day in a nearby city. The
owner of the local liquor
store, of all places, took us
home along with our two
very large dogs and some
nursery stock. She let us use
her phone to call AAA, and
she was entirely gracious
throughout. The very next
day I dashed off a three-line
note to her, and we stop to
say hello every time we pass
by her store. What booze we
buy, we buy there. It’s only
fair.
The other day an elderly
neighbor’s sink overflowed
and she called me in a panic
to help her clean up the
mess. T here was water
everywhere and she had
heart trouble. Naturally, I
went over right away and a
couple of days later she
slipped a little thank you
card into our mailbox. It
meant a lot to me.
So there. Please, please, for
the sake of future civiliza-
tion, write thank you notes.
Otherwise, our entire society
might crumble down into a
shapeless mass of bar-
barism. You wouldn’t want
that to happen, now, would
you? Just because you could-
n’t take five minutes to make
an old lady happy?
■
Wendy Best is a writer liv-
ing in Parkdale. Hood River
News will be sending her a
thank you note.
Contributed photo
A GROUP OF MUSICIANS greeted The Dalles attorney M.D. Van Valkenburgh and friends upon their
arrival at the Hemingway Marina in Cuba.
Miami,” he said. A few
asked them to forward let-
ters to relatives, and they
did.
Nobody had cell phones,
since they were banned, and
long distance calls could
only be made with permis-
sion, he said.
While Cuba is famous for
its cigars — visitors can now
bring home $400 of items
from Cuba, but no more
than $100 worth of tobacco
products — Van Valken-
burgh didn’t buy any. He did-
n’t buy any rum either, an-
other favorite.
Rather, he said, he just
went “for the experience.”
Banner runs of Pacific salmon helped
feed thousands of Oregonians in 2014
Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife hatcheries
donated more than 350,000
pounds of Chinook and Coho
salmon to food banks in com-
munities across the state.
The huge donation of high
quality protein was made
possible by one of the largest
returns of Pacific salmon in
years. A record 1.2 million
Chinook and 1 million Coho
returned to the Columbia
River in 2014. Similar re-
turns are expected again in
2015.
“The unprecedented re-
turns salmon to our region
the past two years have bene-
fited fishermen, the econo-
my, and helped feed thou-
sands of people who might
otherwise have gone hun-
gry,” said Chris Kern, deputy
administrator of ODFW’s
fish division.
T he vast majority of
salmon donated to Oregon’s
food banks are collected after
ODFW hatcheries gather
enough eggs to produce the
following year’s crop of juve-
nile salmon. Once the young
salmon are reared at the
hatcheries and then re-
leased, a small percentage of
them will retur n to the
hatcheries as adults after
spending three or four years
maturing in the ocean.
“We’re proud that our
hatcheries have such posi-
tive impact on the lives of
Oregonians,” said Manny
Photo by Rick Swart/ODFW
CHARLES BAKER, a hatchery technician at ODFW’s Sandy hatch-
ery, puts a Coho salmon into an ice-filled tote destined for the Ore-
gon Food Bank.
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Farinas, ODFW West Region
hatchery
coordinator.
“Thanks to all of our great
volunteers that helped col-
lect, process, and deliver the
fish to the various food
banks.”
If forecasts materialize as
hoped, 2015 could be another
outstanding year for salmon
returns. Preliminary data
compiled in December by
fishery managers from Ore-
gon and Washington sug-
gests Chinook returns will
be even larger than 2014
while Coho returns could be
mixed.
“All the indicators are
pointing to another good
year of salmon returns,”
Kern said.