Twentieth Century Pioneer
by Ric Minich
Portland, OR
From my youth, having been born and raised in Delaware, the west coast was my dream destination for life. Opportunity arrived in the Spring of 1974 and like the forefathers a century before, our family (my wife, two sons, and I) left Pennsylvania headed for the Willamette Valley. A week before the journey began, my wife had a miscarriage.
A schedule to meet, furniture packed and house sold, we loaded the two children, house plants, and two dogs in our 1973 Plymouth Duster, a “U-haul” trailer behind (somewhat similar to a Conestoga wagon), the Willamette Valley our destination. The family recovering and sleeping in the back of the Duster, the dogs in the trailer, we arrived in Portland, five days later, the same week as Bill Walton. This is the time of Govenor Tom McCall, “Visit Oregon but don’t stay” proclamation. We feared hostility from the natives. Our family was of good stock; soon many good Oregonians (the natives) befriended us. Like many pioneers, our family grew with the addition of two native Oregonians, by birth. We experienced the 1997 Blazers NBA Championship and the 1980 St Helen’s eruption (the two defining NW Oregon events of the second half of the century).
In 1977, using the Oregon Veteran’s loan process, we purchased and developed property in Boring that in fact was part of the last leg of the Barlow Trail to Oregon City. Within six short years, we had truly become Oregonians.
Thirty five years later, our family boast of three Oregon college graduates (the universities of Oregon, Eastern Oregon, and Multnomah) as well as a Mt Hood CC Associate. We have started two businesses and begun the careers of numerous young Oregonians in both the electrical field and special education. In the field of limited energy electrical, our family is synonymous with success (another second half-century phenomenon).
We rejoice, cry, laugh, suffer, enjoy, volunteer, participate, preserve, and defend nearly everything Oregonian. In a single generation, our family has become integrated Oregonians (three native born daughter-in-laws, one son-in-law). Today, our Oregon family reunion consists of sixteen people with more grandchildren to come, me being the patriarch. Perhaps after many more generations will the significance of our family be fully recognized in the longer history of Oregon. Meanwhile, having begun life outside Oregon, we more than many appreciate the natural, plus created, beauty, environmental, and progressive thinking of our wonderful state. We are an Oregon story, because we are the Twentieth Century Pioneers.
