Native Writes: Going along for life’s ride

Heading toward San Luis, I thoroughly enjoy the drive. Putting a favorite CD in the dashboard player, I’m set.

These pre-fall days are amazing and I see them getting better.

A devotee of autumn colors, I’m so ready.

When I was a young adult, I gathered sunflowers in bunches and put them in Mason jars all over the house. My mom’s dad, who had been raised in Oklahoma and Kansas, asked me, “Why do you love weeds?”

One man’s trash is another person’s treasure, I guess.

He went back to Oregon and passed away the next year.

Now, with sunflowers found to be useful for fuel oil extraction, I wonder if he would feel differently.

Probably not. Much of what each older person feels has been etched in his or her mind since childhood. My mom, his daughter, accepted my love for sunflowers, cattails, changing leaves and cooler days.

She still carved herself into my mind.

“At least all the bugs are dead,” she would declare, sitting on the bank of a lake fishing with worms.

I agreed. I didn’t much like putting wiggling things on hooks, though.

“That worm is gonna catch you a fish or die trying,” she’d laugh.

Most of mine were executed or they became attractive to carp and suckers.

That was okay with my mom, who froze them, then gave them to people planting corn in the manner her own mother once did. Hole. Dead fish. Corn. Fabulous fall food. All organic, no chemical fertilizers.

When the practice of spending more money for organic produce came into being, my mother was aging, but she scoffed. “Why spend more? What’s grown here in the Valley is mostly chemical-free, anyway.” She was thinking of back yard gardens and family farms. Grandparents on both sides loved to plant and care for “Victory Gardens.”

My mother’s death couldn’t be blamed on avoiding organic produce. It was from becoming too fond of processed tobacco.

I spent my entire childhood tearing up her cigarettes. She just bought more, then told me my “excesses” cost me the new pair of saddle oxfords I wanted.

As I drive, I think of current controversies and how many people are easily sucked into each side and stay there, no matter what. It’s sort of sad, yet it’s the same concept as my grandfather and sunflowers.

When scientists determined that chocolate and coffee are good for you, I realized that we’re all here for the ride; just where we hop on is a matter of choice.