Share the bounty this Thanksgiving

WET & BREEZY--The weather forecasters said we might get some nasty weather and by golly, it did get quite blustery wet, so it was a good weekend to sit by the fire for sure. I'm not sure if you had the thunder at your house, but in the wee hours of Sunday morning, it absolutely roared, crashed and banged out here in West Valley.

It looks to be a soggy Thanksgiving holiday as well, so I hope all of you that are traveling the roadways are turning those lights on, slowing down in the rain and arriving at your destination all safe and sound! As a matter of fact, it wouldn't hurt to do a walk around your car before heading out to make sure all those headlights, tail lights and brake lights are working properly as they will make it easier for others to see you in all this rain and gloom, besides eliminating the need for an officer to pull you over, so take just a minute and do it today.

SPECIAL DAYS--Those celebrating birthdays from November 21-28 are Danny Silverman, Dana Montgomery, Cole Claussen, Mike Brown, Toni Below, Cheryl Parker, Linda Ostervold, Sharon Deaton, Sandy Everman, Robert Kyle, Harvey Good, Nancy Good Garcia and Hank Ferguson. Those celebrating anniversaries this coming week are Mark and Sherry McCormack, and Mr. and Mrs. Russ Poppe. Here's hoping all of your special days are memorable.

NEW BIRTHDAY--I'm told that a very precious baby was born on November 1 at 6:29 p.m. in Longview and she was named Miley Brooke Montgomery. The little miss wasn't so little as she weighed in at a nice eight pounds seven ounces and was 21 and a half inches long, so she was a nice big baby. Her parents are Ricky Montgomery and Alecia Mosteller and she joins three brothers at home, Johnny, Jeremiah and Jacob. The very excited grandparents are Bob and Marrieta Montgomery of Skamokawa, and Terry Slape of Coos Bay and Vance Mosteller of Cathlamet. The beaming and ever-so-proud great-grandmas are Mary Nettles, Blanche Mosteller and Marlene Petterson. A hearty congratulations to all those family members as they welcome this latest addition to the Montgomery family!

SENDING CONGRATULATIONS--Aaliyah and Alyssa Montgomery are not only excited about this latest addition to the family but they are wanting to shout out a very hearty congratulations to their Aunt Char in Spokane. It seems she passed her National Board Certification for Early Adolescence in Mathematics recently, so that was a very big deal. Aaliyah said they always knew she could do it, so they are very proud of their aunt, so congrats to her for a job well done.

ENJOYED THE BEACH--I talked to Sherry McCormack and she said she and husband Mark celebrated 24 years of marriage by going to Seaside earlier this month. With their kids and grandkids there with them and the beach just out the door of the place they stayed, they all had a great time!

GOOD TIME--We certainly had a good time up at the Turkey Bingo this past Friday night; this annual fund raiser put on by the Wahkiakum County Fair Board is always real popular. I'll let you read about all the winners in Fair Manager Becky Ledtke's column but suffice it to say, there were some happy winners with two of them getting full meal deals so that was a nice surprise for them. If you missed this round of turkey and ham giveaways, then keep watch for the Easter Bingo in March and you'll be able to take part in a real fun evening and possibly win a great raffle item or one of the many prizes being given away as well.

I had put a suggestion box out for those who might want to share their ideas on what they would like to see for prizes, food, etc. but nobody put anything in the box, so either everything went so well that nobody had anything to add to make it better or they missed seeing the box. If the latter was the case, give me a call if you have a suggestion and I'll share it with the planning committee. How about suggestions for the grand prize? What item could we get that would make you want to buy a lot of tickets to try and win? Call me!

BUSY HOLIDAY WEEKEND--Well, along with Thanksgiving on Thursday, we've got the annual Black Friday shopping craze, which actually started up on Thursday night this year, which I thought was a real shame, but we'll see how many people actually show up for the big deals that night and make those retailers happy. I guess I'm on the side of the workers who feel they had to give up family time in order to keep their jobs and go to work that night, so it's a bummer for those folks for sure.

At any rate, our area has plenty going on this weekend with the holiday doings at Redmen Hall beginning Friday at 10 a.m., Gribskov Glass on Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the Holiday Bazaar at the Methodist Church on Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. all here in Skamokawa, so that should keep you busy during the day. Then you could head to Cathlamet for the Festival of Trees in the Hotel Cathlamet, tree lighting at the courthouse, and the Tsuga Gallery is having refreshments after the tree lighting and has a great raffle for a darling bear table with lit wooden trees atop it made by Frank Loomans, so there's lots to do and lots of great local shopping opportunities. We ask a lot of our local merchants when it comes to donating for various fund raisers, so I hope you'll think of them as you begin your holiday shopping. Most merchants have gift certificates if you want to let your gift recipient choose their own item or put it towards a larger purchase and that's always a great item to receive.

COUPLE OF WEEKS--The Skamokawa Grange will be giving that $300 gift basket away, along with the beautiful wooden footstool, made by John Gustafson real soon, so I hope you're going to come to the dinner on December 8 and buy some tickets so you could go home a big winner! The spaghetti dinner is being served up from 6 to 8 p.m., with an appearance by Santa expected around 6:45 p.m. if all goes as planned, and the drawing will take place around 7:30 p.m. or so. You do not have to be present to win. I will be selling tickets at the Methodist Church on November 24 if you'd like to catch me there, or you can contact me at home if you're interested. Time is flying by and Christmas will be here before you know it, so winning this basket, footstool or one of the other door prizes might come in real handy.

Make sure you save some time to stop by the Collupy Glass display in the meeting room by the Skamokawa Resort on December 7-8 as there will be a wide array of ornaments and other things, with part of the proceeds going to help St. James. A great deal for everyone!

MEETING CHANGED--The Skamokawa Grangers cancelled their last meeting, which was going to be held this past Monday, due to the miserable and worsening weather conditions, so their next meeting will be November 26; potluck at 6:30 p.m. with the meeting to follow at 7 p.m.

GOOD DOES GOOD--Well, my grandson Bryce Good had a nice ribbon around his neck on Saturday as he took first place in the hoop shoot contest in Kelso, so his dad Brian Good and Kelly, and his mom Felicitie Knight and Tracy were very proud of him, and so were G'ma Kay, G'pa Bill, and his Nana Kim! Way to go Bryce!

OWNER PASSES--I have just learned of the passing of Skamokawa Landing Inc. owner, Arnold Andersen in Seattle; he was 91. His rebuilding and remodeling of the Skamokawa Landing was a huge asset to our community and he will be sorely missed by all who knew him. I have no other details of services at this time, however we wanted to send our deepest sympathies to Arnold's family.

HAPPY DAY--Well, I hope all of you out there have a very Happy Thanksgiving and that, if you are able, you share some bounty with others so that they too might have a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas as well.

The IGA store in Cathlamet is having a "donate 10 and they'll donate 20" to our area's food banks, so that's a great deal and one in which I hope you'd be able to participate as well. Here's to you and yours this Thanksgiving holiday. Enjoy!