4 A
❘
WEDNESDAY EDITION
❘ NOVEMBER 23, 2016
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
NED HICKSON , EDITOR
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
EDITOR @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
Opinion
A whisper rooted in thankfulness
Though it’s been 35 years
since I arrived in Oregon as a
high school sophomore, when
people ask where I moved
from, I still whisper when I
say, “California.”
I do so in jest (mostly),
secure in the knowledge that
revealing my California roots
— however withered — won’t
suddenly bring nearby conver-
sations to an embarrassing
halt, leaving cricket chirps in
its place.
Part of the reason is
because, more often than not,
those around me are also orig-
inally from California.
Seriously, folks. I’ve heard
you whispering.
But recently, I’ve come to
realize there’s a different rea-
son I whisper when it comes to
explaining where I was in
relation to where I am now.
It’s a whisper rooted in
thankfulness.
It’s the whisper that escapes
you the moment after realizing
how close you came to being
in a serious accident. Or when
the gas attendant asks if you
want to use your .50-cent gas
reward when you thought you
only had 20.
“What? Yesss.”
Oregon changed my life for
the better.
Twice, actually.
First as a 15-year-old with
my family, then again when I
moved back as a 37-year-old
with my own family.
In the first instance, it was
culture shock just short of
defibrillation as I went from
the concrete jungle of Los
Angeles to the blackberry hill-
sides of the North Fork.
Instead of riding my
Schwinn to school and spend-
ing afternoons running around
I’d known.
It wasn’t until returning
that summer to visit my father
in L.A. that I realized some-
thing that changed my life:
Everything I thought I knew
wasn’t nearly as important as
how I’d come to know myself
thanks to the life I was experi-
encing in Oregon.
From the Editor’s Desk
N ED H ICKSON
the streets in my Nikes, I was
canoeing over a flooded dike
to meet my school bus and
returning home to stack wood
or dig post holes.
Usually in mud boots.
I hated Oregon because it
was the opposite of everything
Returning home at the end
of that summer, I still remem-
ber stepping out of the car and
onto our dirt driveway in a
new pair of Nikes, realizing
how those shoes — and that
life — just didn’t fit anymore.
This is home, I whispered.
Mostly because I didn’t
want my parents to hear and
know they had been right.
I was still a teeneger, after
all.
The lessons learned and
perspectives gained from life
as an Oregonian were things I
carried with me after graduat-
ing from Siuslaw High School
and becoming a regional chef
in Atlanta for the next 10
years.
But during all of that time,
the thought of returning to
Oregon stayed with me, par-
ticuarly as the gains in my
career began costing some-
thing far more important:
Time with my family.
So when, in 1998, the
opportunity was presented to
begin a new career as a jour-
nalist, my beloved Oregon —
and Florence in particular —
changed my life for the second
time.
Come Thanksgiving, these
are the things I’ll be thinking
about and quietly giving
thanks for as my family gath-
ers around a dinner table that,
if not for Oregon’s surrepti-
tious intervention in my life, I
may not be sitting at today.
On behalf of everyone at
Siuslaw News, we wish you a
very happy Thanksgiving and
many reasons to be thankful.
Especially if, like me,
you’re originally from...
*whispering*
California.
Write Siuslaw News editor Ned
Hickson at nhickson@thesiuslaw
news.com or P.O. Box 10,
Florence, Ore. 97439.
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Civil War Thanksgiving
Editor’s Note: In the spirit of Thanksgiving,
we are holding Letters to the Editor for this
issue and, in their place, are sharing a bit of
Thanksgiving history...
T
he first official proclamation declaring
Thanksgiving a national day of remem-
brance was issued by Abraham Lincoln
in 1863, partly in honor of Northern successes
in the war that year. Lincoln designated the last
Thursday in November “as a day of
Thanksgiving and Praise.”
That year, Thanksgiving fell on the day after
a crucial Union victory at the battle of
Chattanooga. The previous year in late
November, armies were on the march during
the Fredericksburg and Vicksburg campaigns.
Around Thanksgiving 1864, some Union
forces were on the cusp of the bloody battle of
Franklin, while others were marching to the
sea with William T. Sherman.
Due to their harsh surroundings, many Civil
War men in the field enjoyed only the most
spartan of celebrations. In Kewanee, Ill.,
teenage sisters Tirzah and Sarah Vaill received
a letter from their older brother, an Illinois
USPS# 497-660
infantryman, describing his 1861 Thanksgiving
holiday meal as, “hard bread” and salt pork.
He added that “during the day I thought of
you at home having your nice dinners” and
“wishing maybe that you might present a plate
to some of us soldiers filled with your own
goodies.”
From his camp in Virginia that same year,
Private Zebina Bickford of the 6th Vermont
Infantry made the best of his day. In a letter
home, he mused that “you may think we are
homesick today but it is not so,” mainly
because of a care package sent from loved
ones back in Vermont.
The goodies consisted of “a box of clothing
and a few nicknacks consisting of eatables”
that made “a very good thanksgiving for us.”
With tongue in cheek, he wrote that “you
can’t imagine what a lot of fine things we had
for supper… a piece of sour bread and salt
pork.”
However, he gleefully noted that “some of
mother’s cookies and doughnuts that came in
our box” made the evening memorable.
It would be Bickford’s last Thanksgiving; he
died the following April 30.
Presbyterian Church.”
He also wrote there was “no drill today,” a
welcome respite.
In 1864, the Union League Club of New
York City pleaded for donations of “cooked
poultry and other proper meats” as well as
“mince pies, sausages, and fruits” for men in
the field.
The call brought in some $57,000 in cash
donations, as well as nearly 225,000 pounds of
poultry and large quantities of cakes, ginger-
bread, pickles, apples, vegetables, and cheese.
One appreciative soldier saw the deeper
meaning, writing that “it isn’t the turkey, but
the idea that we care for.”
Others received far less. That year, Lewis
Crater of the 50th Pennsylvania recorded in his
diary that the Sanitary Commission “issued
three fine apples to every man.”
Despite the middling fare, Crater and others
likely gave thanks that they had survived to
see another Thanksgiving during the four
bloodiest years in American history.
— Submitted by Tom Emery
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John Bartlett
Jenna Bartlett
Ned Hickson
Susan Gutierrez
Cathy Dietz
Ron Annis
Jeremy Gentry
The next year, Asa Bean, a doctor in the
114th Ohio, enjoyed greater tidings. On Nov.
27, 1862, he wrote that “there has been a sur-
prise party here today for the benefit of sol-
diers and nurses.”
The feast included “roast turkey, chicken,
pigeon and oysters stewed” along with “baked
chicken, boiled potatoes, turnip, apple butter,
and cheese butter.”
Bean, though, lamented that he “cannot eat
much without being sick.”
He, too, would die months later.
Elsewhere that year, Federal soldiers sta-
tioned at Fort Pulaski, Ga., held their own
“fete and festival.” The day’s events included
target practice and a rowing match, foot race,
and hurdle sack race.
Competitions involving a greased pole and a
greased pig were also on the agenda, as was a
“burlesque dress parade.”
In some cases, Thanksgiving was a time of
spiritual reflection. On the first official install-
ment of the holiday in 1863, Sewell Van
Alstine, a soldier in the 95th Illinois, wrote in
his diary that he “went to town” and “heard an
excellent discourse by an army chaplain at the
Pres. Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD Comments: 202-456-6213
www.whitehouse.gov
Gov. Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court St.
Salem, OR 97301-4047
Governor’s Citizens’ Rep.
Message Line 503-378-4582
www.oregon.gov/gov
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
541-431-0229
www.wyden.senate.gov
FAX: 503-986-1080
Email:
Sen.ArnieRoblan@state.or.us
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753/FAX: 202-228-3997
541-465-6750
State Rep. Caddy McKeown
(Dist. 9)
900 Court St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1409
Email:
rep.caddymckeown@state.or.us
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (4th Dist.)
2134 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6416/ 800-944-9603
541-269-2609/ 541-465-6732
www.defazio.house.gov
State Sen. Arnie Roblan (Dist. 5)
900 Court St. NE - S-417
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1705
West Lane County Commissioner
Jay Bozievich
125 E. Eighth St.
Eugene, OR 97401
541-682-4203
FAX: 541-682-4616
Email:
Jay.Bozievich@co.lane.or.us