Thankful to be Home

Giving Matters by Lawson Knight

Much of giving is born out of a sense of thankfulness. In that spirit, here is a story from this past Thanksgiving, brought to the surface by this past week’s events, which showcases how thankful I am to be at home in the Blue Mountain area. The focus here is “at home,” meaning not driving my minivan. Now you might ask what this column really has to do with giving, as my wife did. My rationale is that you will find this column a gift—a gift of laughter.

The event that brought this buried memory top of mind was the shakedown cruise of the new tent trailer affixed to the back of said minivan en route to Clarkston in the record-setting torrent of early April. Not having much mobility, what with the aforementioned trailer, we—the wife, three kids and I—happened upon some unidentified foreign material (UFM) stuck to the road. With the only avoidance maneuver being the “take it between the wheels” one, we drove over it. Fortunately the UFM did no damage and turned out to be the hind end of a pheasant left to decorate a stretch of eastbound Highway 12.

The formerly buried memory is a UFM story from Thanksgiving, but more foul than fowl. Among many things I am thankful for living here is the relatively little traffic we face on our roads. On a drive home from the Boise area after Thanksgiving, I dodged the traffic of Interstate 84 in favor of the pass through Tollgate. It is prettier and hardly a soul is on the road.

In crossing the pass, we—the wife three kids and I—happened upon some UFM in the middle of the road. While there is no tent trailer in this story, I went with the same trusted avoidance maneuver as the encounter with the ringneck. The outcome was different. It was a BANG!!

Luckily, we were near the Tamarack store at this point. I asked my dear wife if we should stop or keep go. She said stop, but in typical male fashion I kept going. Then heeding her advice, I stopped a 150 feet past the oasis. I turned the minivan around and heard a scraping sound that was not present before the UFM interaction. Something was stuck. Returning to the market, I hopped out and looked under the van. Something was there. It was dusk so it remained unidentified. As the store was open, I asked the manager if he had an implement that could dislodge the object. He offered a snow shovel. Poking the object with the shovel had no effect, so I took the additional advice of that blessed store manager. He recommended that I do a series of back-and-forth maneuvers over the bumps (think moguls) near the gas pumps. It did the trick.

I hopped out again and discovered an antler-less, frozen deer head. The kind storekeeper was quite amazed (less so than me) and went inside to fetch a garbage bag in which to place the frozen, severed head. If you have not lifted a frozen, severed deer head, I can tell you they go about 80 pounds. It ripped out the bottom of the garbage bag, so I dragged it by the ear to the dumpster across the frozen terrain. I completed a hammer-throw toss of the head into the dumpster on only the second attempt.

Returning to the van, I found my wife in tears .. . . and fitful laughter. The van checked out no worse for the wear after the encounter and we drove home. Boy, I am thankful to be home and not have to fight the traffic or the next UFM. So, out of thankfulness and glee to be in the comfort of home away from the travails of the open road, I give you this tale.


Lawson Knight is the Executive Director of the Blue Mountain Community Foundation, located in the Baker Building, 8 South 2nd Ave., Suite 618, Walla Walla, WA 99362.
He may be contacted at 529-4371 or by e-mail.