OPINION
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, December 15, 2021
A5
Hutchisons met on Thanksgiving in 1980
MAIN STREET
Rich Wandschneider
WALLOWA
COUNTY
VETERANS
CORNER
‘I’m
lucky to M
be where
I am’
Jack James
ission: To highlight some of the
veterans who live here in Wal-
lowa County and to educate the
general public on the service, sacrifi ce, and
fun moments of military service.
Kim and Holly Hutchison
I
hadn’t been farther away from the county
than Pendleton since the COVID started
— and maybe months before that. I can’t
remember my last trip to Seattle. It’s been
years. Last week I went to Portland and Seat-
tle to see old friends and family.
Here we see the cities through summer
people and recent transplants, the evening
news and the stuff that makes the headlines in
the New York Times that I read online.
I’ve long thought that COVID is a magni-
fying glass, exposing the cracks in our worlds.
And that its impact is more than the people
who get sick and those who die. It’s the par-
ents who have to learn to teach their own chil-
dren, the parent who gives up a job because
someone has to stay home. It’s rich folks with
RVs and a job they can do remotely — or not
needing a job — who put their family in the
RV and do a history lesson on the road. It’s
people retiring early, selling out in Seattle or
Portland and moving to Wallowa County.
It’s kids missing proms and sports seasons,
and everyone retreating to places they fi nd
physically and emotionally safe. It’s divided
communities and divided families with diff er-
ent ideas of what and where “safe” is.
* * *
I left mid-morning on a sunny Thursday,
drove through the valley relishing every turn
in the road, thinking how lucky I’ve been to
make those turns for over 50 years. In Los-
tine, they know to give me a small cup of
house coff ee at Blue Banana, and sometimes
a biscotti. Mid-morning there’s no traffi c —
there’s never traffi c in the urban sense of that
word — and it was as if the road was mine,
had been built for me to make this drive.
Through the canyon and over Tollgate. I
love that road, although there have been scary
times with big winds and snow blowing so
hard visibility goes near zero. This Thurs-
day, the air was crisp and cars and trucks were
few. And it was stunning coming down on the
west side, through the one-time tilled and pas-
tured lands that have reforested with the CRP
(Conservation Reserve Program). The CRP
pays people to let marginal farm land go back,
reestablishing land cover, improving water
quality, preventing soil erosion and enhancing
wildlife habitat. It is, I thought, doing its job.
I stopped at Tamastslikt on the Umatilla
Rez. I love that place, too, with its honest
look at the past and its own “CRP” for reviv-
ing Indian culture. Tamastslikt helps us with
exhibits at the Josephy Center, and being
involved with both organizations — help-
ing people see the past honestly and think art
and culture in the present — is a great bless-
ing for me.
* * *
The traffi c picks up about Hood River; I
was in and out of cruise control the rest of the
way.
My granddaughter rents a tiny house —
about 250 square feet, with bedroom, kitchen,
and bath all jammed into it, for $875 a month
in Portland — and has a good job to cover
it. In her free time, she fi shes at the coast or
on mountain rivers. She made crab cakes for
dinner.
It was the beginning of a kind of gastro-
nomical frenzy. In Seattle, we ate bouilla-
baisse in a Pike Place restaurant, and had
an eight-cheese, prosciutto and fresh-fruit
brunch. Back in Portland, my brother and
his wife, who know how much I like Middle
Eastern food, ordered an Iraqi banquet from
DarSalam for dinner, and another gourmet
brunch with friends on Sunday morning sent
me on the road home.
I love that drive that some people dread
— unless there is slush or ice in the Gorge.
But on Sunday the sun shone, and somewhere
between Hood River and The Dalles my
hands relaxed on the wheel and I could listen
to music and think my way home.
I thought about how wonderful it was to
see the friends and family, and how good to
see faces on the streets and in restaurants that
were Asian and Brown and Black. But, how
much of their lives, I thought, do these people
spend bumper to bumper in their cars? With
the rain! And how wretched the freeway-side
homeless camps are. And how sad.
I thought about how hard it was for a son
from India and two brown grandchildren to
grow up in the very white Wallowa Valley.
Maybe we should have moved with our son
when he was young?
But he’s fi ne in Phoenix now, and the
grandkids are making their own ways in the
world. And the Nez Perce are coming home,
and I can eat Mexican and Thai in the Wal-
lowas now.
I’m lucky to be where I am.
——
Rich Wandschneider is the director of
the Josephy Library of Western History and
Culture.
Ladies fi rst: Holly served in the U.S.
Army from 1980-81, completing basic
training then Advanced Infantry Training
at Fort Leonard, Missouri. She was medi-
cally honorably discharged.
Holly met Kim at the enlisted dining
facility (“chow hall”) at Goodfellow AFB,
Texas, on Thanksgiving Day 1980. It was
a funny, yet memorable, event because
Kim started it by saying to Holly as she
passed by his table, “You look absolutely
miserable.” And she was, with two swol-
len knees and being away from home on
a holiday. She joined his table and they
have been together ever sense. They have
been married for 40 years and have two
daughters.
Kim served in the U.S. Air Force and
retired after a 20-plus year career. After
Airline KAL 007, the shoot-down of Ira-
nian Airline IR-655 (which was shot down
by the USS Vincennes in 1988 in support
of Operation Earnest Will during the Iran-
Iraq War).
Kim’s and Holly’s favorite memories
circle around family and friends in the mil-
itary. They were stationed at Goodfellow
AFB four times during Kim’s career and
remember the sense of community being
very strong. Holly specifi cally remembers
sending Kim boxes for Thanksgiving and
Christmas while he was deployed to South
Korea, and fi lling them with fun toys and
gag gifts as well as cookies, candy and
popcorn balls. These “care packages” cre-
ated great memories for the family mak-
ing them and were a highlight to Kim and
about 10 barracks or “hootch” buddies,
who enjoyed every silly and tasty item.
Retiring here to Wallowa County
for Kim and Holly was a “no-brainer.”
Contributed Photo Not only for the natural beauty but also
Holly, left, and Kim Hutchison met at because Kim grew up in the Hermis-
Thanksgiving in 1980. They have been ton area and Holly’s roots are deep in the
together ever since.
Wallowa Valley. Her great-grandmother
arrived to the valley in a covered wagon
and her grandmother settled here, also.
his technical school at Goodfellow AFB,
This couple’s history runs deep, as well as
he served in many locations, including:
a heritage of service and sacrifi ce to this
Fort Meade, Maryland; Misawa Japan;
great nation. Thank you Kim and Holly!
and South Korea. His Air Force specialty
———
code (AFSC) was radio communications
Jack James is a 35-year veteran of the
intelligence analyst. Some of the high-
U.S. Navy and serves as a veterans service
lights of his career included participa-
tion in and support to Desert Shield/Desert offi cer with the Disabled American Veter-
ans organization.
Storm (1991), the shoot-down of Korean
United we stand, divided we fall, Part 2
OTHER VIEWS
Carl Kiss
hen Benjamin Franklin signed
the Declaration of Indepen-
dence he proclaimed, “We
must all hang together, or assuredly we
shall all hang separately.” As Devin Pat-
ton similarly wrote a month ago, every
American needs to now unite behind the
American ideal that “all men are created
equal.” His nonpartisan appeal correctly
noted that “(i)f we cannot stop (our coun-
try’s current) descent into tribal warfare,
we will become an uncivilized nation
characterized by warring factions and
disharmony.”
Unfortunately, Mr. Patton did not go
on to say what we must fi rst accomplish
to return the U.S. to a healthy democracy.
Our democracy today is tarnished by
both liberal and conservative online sites
that profess to be reliable new sources
while spouting lies and mischaracteri-
zations that promote divisiveness and
anger. If you are a liberal who dispropor-
tionately relies on Daily Kos, MSNBC or
Facebook for your news, you welcome as
truth lies and deceptive characterizations
meant to infl ame you. If you are a conser-
vative who disproportionately relies on
OAN, Newsmax, Fox, the Daily Caller or
Facebook for your news, you welcome as
W
truth lies and deceptive characterizations
meant to infl ame you, and also favor their
intentionally omitted coverage of truths
that inconveniently belie your politi-
cal beliefs. Such so-called news sources
are great only if you want fl awed politi-
cal beliefs reinforced and unchallenged
at the expense of true facts and rational
thought. Liberals and conservatives who
rely on any of them too much have each
chosen a world of delusion, hubris and
anger over true and rational thought.
For those who believe that the above
paragraph is wrong, perhaps the sharing
of one truth will help you to see the light.
Are you aware that Fox successfully
defended a slander lawsuit against Tucker
Carlson by convincing the court that “no
reasonable person” would ever believe
what Tucker Carlson says on his show?
When liberals and conservatives fi nally
reject such biased sources of supposed
news, these sources will lose their power
and Americans will once again have a
shared understanding of many facts.
Mr. Patton’s appeal to the ideal that
“all men are created equal,” however,
demands more from each of us than
just an insistence on truth and rational
thought. It demands that states respect
the importance of every citizen’s vote,
because “all men are created equal”
and because such universal respect of
every vote is essential to any democracy.
But since the last election, 19 Repub-
lican-controlled state legislatures have
enacted 33 statutes to make it dispro-
portionately more diffi cult for Demo-
crats — and especially black and brown
Democrats — to vote. And congressio-
nal Republicans strongly oppose a federal
bill to bar voting discrimination against
black and brown citizens. All this is sup-
posedly justifi ed by Donald Trump’s
repeatedly disproven claims, rejected by
over 60 courts, of widespread voter fraud
in the last election. Sadly, many conser-
vatives still believe DJT’s claim of win-
ning an election he lost by over 7 million
votes. Even sadder, many Republicans
apparently reject America’s founding
principle that all people, and all voters,
are created equal.
Two weeks ago, Mr. Patton aban-
doned his attempt at nonpartisanship
by condemning liberals for their sup-
posed desire for mob rule. I admittedly
have diffi culty understanding how the
extension of due process to Mr. Ritten-
house, and his nonguilty verdicts, were
an example of mob rule. Seems like the
January attack on our Capitol, to dis-
rupt Congress’ counting of the electoral
votes, hang Mike Pence and maybe Mitt
Romney, and have losing candidate DJT
declared president, might better illustrate
attempted mob rule in the U.S. Sadly, his
attempt to infl ame conservative anger
while ignoring inconvenient truths is pre-
cisely the sort of tactic that Mr. Patton
condemned just one month ago.
I sincerely hope Mr. Patton will use
his future columns to call out both Demo-
cratic and Republican lies and deceptions
that many now accept as true, to help us
return to a nation that esteems the Amer-
ican ideal and shares the same set of true
facts.
———
Carl Kiss is a lawyer living in Enterprise.
Food trends looking back and ahead
IT’S ABOUT
HEALTH AND
WELLNESS
Ann Bloom
I
f last year’s pandemic and forced
work-at-home time taught us anything
it’s that many of us turned to food as
a way of coping and for comfort. Not just
for sustenance, but also as a creative out-
let (think of all the people who learned to
make bread and sourdough starter). There
was an increase in sales for pots and pans,
cookbooks, kitchen gadgets and tools.
Some of those trends continued into 2021
and some will continue into 2022 and
beyond. Though no one has a crystal ball
and can truly predict what will appear as a
trend for 2022, it is still interesting to look
back at the food and health trends of 2021
and to look ahead at what 2022 may have
in store.
In 2021, along with an increase in bak-
ing, people turned to cooking from scratch
and meals made from pantry staples.
This was due, in part, to save money and
because many restaurants were still closed
due to the pandemic limiting the number
and availability of places to dine.
Cooking focused on mental as well as
physical health, specifi cally the need for
nutrients. Nutrients such as vitamin D and
B vitamins encourage mental and emo-
tional health and may help fi ght depres-
sion. Vitamin D, sometimes called the sun-
shine vitamin, is found in fortifi ed milk,
fortifi ed cereal, fatty cold-water fi sh such
as salmon, mackerel and sardines, egg
yolks and some organ meats. Vitamin C is
found in most citrus foods, strawberries
and broccoli and leafy green vegetables.
As an antioxidant, vitamin C helps sup-
port a healthy immune system. Iron and B
vitamins are all found in meat, fi sh, poul-
try, eggs, legumes and nuts. And cooking
was therapeutic. It relieved stress and was
creative.
People also turned to comfort foods.
Although comfort foods have always been
a way of life for most of us, they became
even more important as the pandemic
turned everyone’s world upside down.
Foods such as macaroni and cheese, bis-
cuits and gravy, pancakes and meatloaf
with mashed potatoes somehow tasted
better than ever before.
With time to spend in the kitchen, peo-
ple began experimenting. They experi-
mented with diff erent herbs and spices
in cooking along with diff erent types of
mushrooms, oils such as pumpkin seed
and avocado and sugar alternatives like
maple and coconut. People were also try-
ing diff erent milk alternatives such as oat,
coconut, almond and hemp.
Home preservation increased in pop-
ularity and there was a shortage in home
canning supplies such as jars and lids. The
home preservationist moved beyond can-
ning, trying fermentation and canning
quantities of sauerkraut, pickles and kim-
chi (a type of Korean fermented cabbage),
along with drying fruits, vegetables and
herbs for later use.
Businesses were closed, but local sup-
port of farms and local farmers’ markets
increased, and money was put back into
communities.
As 2021 draws to a close and 2022
begins, some of the health trends that
began in 2021 will continue into the new
year.
The frozen food market, which held
steady, is continuing to increase for sev-
eral reasons, among them convenience
and budget. Improvements have been
made in processing and frozen foods can
taste on par with their fresh counterparts.
Also, frozen foods are quickly processed.
Since they do not have to travel hundreds
or even thousands of miles like some of
their fresher counterparts, the nutrients
of frozen fruits and vegetables are more
intact. In terms of nutrition, it is important
to remember that all forms of fruits and
vegetables — fresh, frozen, dried, canned
or 100% juice — are all nutritious and are
part of a healthy diet.
Companies will continue to try dif-
ferent milk alternatives going into 2022,
using grains like barley. These milks are a
good option for people with lactose intol-
erance since they are more easily digested.
However, unless fortifi ed, they lack the
calcium and other nutrients of regular
dairy milk.
Nutrients, no matter what year it is,
will continue to be important for general
good health. Nutrients for mental, phys-
ical, emotional and gut health will never
go out of style. A balanced diet of whole
grains, fruits, vegetables, proteins (meat,
poultry, fi sh, beans, nuts, legumes and
plant-based protein) and whole grains
along with healthy fats provide the vita-
mins and minerals needed to maintain
one’s health.
And as far as the baked bread and com-
fort foods go? Yes, they’ll still be popular
in 2022.
Happy New Year!
———
Ann Bloom lives in Enterprise and has
worked for the OSU Extension Service for
15 years as a nutrition educator. She stud-
ied journalism and education at Washing-
ton State University.