Planning My Oregon Birthday Party
By Tracy Barry
KGW-TV Portland, Oregon
I’ve been planning a birthday party for our youngest daughter Grace.
She wants balloons. Done. Crafts and cake. Easy. Then we got to the guest list. Is it really possible for a child of 6 to have so many “best” friends? I don’t blame her though, since it’s your friends that make a party fun.
It got me thinking about Oregon’s landmark 150th birthday. What a party that would be if we could invite anyone we wanted from history! I am far from an expert on Oregon history but it’s not hard to come up with a long list! I’ll get this party started with a few suggestions and then the guest list is all yours!
Number one on my list is Sacagawea. I love reading about Lewis and Clark, but I so want to know more about what that journey was like for their Indian guide. And if nothing else we could finally settle the name pronunciation question… is it SAC-a-ja-wea or Sa-COG-a-wea…or more likely something else entirely!
Next up, another woman. American missionary Narcissa Whitman was reportedly the first white woman to cross the Rocky Mountains with her husband Marcus in 1836. Having read some of her journal and many of her letters home, I feel as though I know her. I admire her courage and faith. She truly loved the Northwest, but the Whitman’s relationship with the local Cayuse and Nez Perce people went from friendly to uneasy and then worse during their 11 years here. Both Narcissa and her husband died very violently. The extensive collection of her writings paints a very vivid if sometimes narrow view of life then. She would be a fascinating party guest.
Just one more from me. Ing “Doc” Hay, a Chinese Herbal Doctor that practiced in John Day for more than 60 years. Oregon sure wasn’t considered tolerant back then. In 1888, just being Chinese put your life at risk, but he and a friend opened a very successful general store and medical center. His clinic thrived for 60 years offering traditional herbal therapy. It’s now the Kam Wah Chung State Heritage site, complete with more than 500 herbs that “Doc” left when he died. Many of them haven’t been identified. There are so many questions we need to ask him!
It’s your turn now, who would be on your guest list? Unlike little Grace you have no limit. I’ll bring the virtual balloons.
P.S. I love Oregon. Don’t ever want to leave.
February 9th, 2009 at 9:39 am
Hi Tracy-
Nice post and my son will turn 6 in March and like your daughter is planning the guest list-
For Oregon’s party, how about Ellis Hughes who discovered the Willamette Meteorite in West Linn in 1902- his grandson Bill Hughes- will have to do-
- Cornelia Seigneur-West Linn, Oregon
1Freelance Writer, The Oregonian newspaper
Author, Images of America: WEST LINN
February 10th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Visionaries make for good party guests. Among many found in Oregon, I would invite Abigail Scott Duniway (1834-1915). Publisher of The New Northwest, her campaign for women’s rights culminated in 1912 with the women’s suffrage amendment to the Oregon constitution.
Another inspirational “must-have” would be Governor Tom McCall (1913-1983). A pioneer in the truest sense, Oregon’s character was shaped through his efforts to secure the Oregon Bottle Bill, public ownership of beaches, and the clean-up of the Willamette.
Lastly, and perhaps most literally a visionary, no list would be complete without the painter Mark Rothko (1903-1970). Latvian born, Rothko grew up in Portland and went on to paint fields of color that sought to inspire the viewer to experience and transcend time and space.
This is just the beginning- what other visionaries should make up the list?
2February 11th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Great guest list, Tracy–
Thanks for including Ing Hay, one of my favorite Oregonians.
I’d like to invite Beatrice Morrow Cannady, a pioneer in the civil rights movement in Oregon. She was a journalist, editor, and newspaper owner. She was a law school graduate. And she helped write Oregon’s first civil rights legislation–mandating full access to public accommodations regardless of race. (Sadly, that legislation wasn’t enacted at the time.) Ms. Cannady vigorously fought against racial discrimination wherever she found it. I’d like to meet her and shake her hand.
3February 12th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I love Oregon, too. So much so, that I organized a Sesquicentennial Birthday party on February 14 for my neighborhood here in Dallas. We’re expecting at least 25 party-goers to participate in the potluck dinner with birthday cake, followed by Oregon trivia games (and prizes)! I also wrote a 7-part series on Oregon’s 7 scenic regions which you can find here: http://www.examiner.com/x-2310-Portland-Day-Trips-Examiner
Happy Birthday Oregon!
4February 12th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
The musicians and conductors at the Oregon Symphony believe that no birthday party is complete without great music! They are planning to serve up many orchestral delectables at this year’s Young People’s Concert aptly titled “Happy Birthday Oregon-150!”. These hour long interactive performances are at the Schnitzer Concert Hall on April 23 and 24 at 9:30 am and 11:00 am.
5You can check out the program and order tickets to this very affordable celebration online or by calling 503.416.6372.
February 12th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
My first guest would be imaginary. When I was in seventh grade at the two-room Lower Logan grade school in 1952, we learned Oregon history from a book about a fictional pioneer boy in the Willamette Valley who would look toward the east and say, “When I look at Mt. Hood, I want to be good. I want to be good when I look at Mt. Hood.”
6Today, 52 years later, I look out my back window in Boring at Mt. Hood, and can’t help sub-vocalizing those same pioneer boy’s words
My second guest would be Nettie Connett, arguably the most colorful figure in the history of East Clackamas County, and her legendary feats are legion. She even had her picture in Time Magazine, with a cougar she had killed. It seems everyone has a story or two about her ability to stand on her head on a barstool, or walk on her hands across Pioneer Blvd.
It’s hard to track down a real eyewitness, though—most accounts are of the hearsay variety: “My grandpa told me that he knew someone who heard that Nettie once….” These are the kinds of stories we find on the internet these days, and call them “Urban Legends.”
Some said she had come out from the East after a tragic love affair. Others said she came from McMinnville, was married briefly and worked as a waitress, a carnival worker, or both.
In due time, Nettie moved to Sandy, bought property, hunted and logged, and owned interests in several sawmills, and was instrumental in bailing a number of families out of financial difficulties when they were out of work and out of food.
And my third guest would have to be Sam Barlow, who blazed the first trail and later built the toll road across Mt. Hood through what is now Sandy and on to Oregon City, which became the first incorporated city west of the Mississippi.
It would be nice to have Burl Ives singing, “Toward the land of dreams trudge the old ox teams, down the Oregon Trail.”
February 14th, 2009 at 10:23 am
I have a home on the coast of Oregon. It is a magical place indeed. I would invite to my party all the creatures that live in the ocean and along the coast.
7February 20th, 2009 at 9:25 am
I am glad someone put my Great Aunt Bea (Beatrice Morrow Cannady) on the list. I would love to be at that party to talk to her more about her life.
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