QUIPS & QUOTES

Selected by Debra Tweedy

I was rich, if not in money, in sunny hours and summer days, and spent them lavishly.

--Henry David Thoreau, American naturalist, essayist, poet, philosopher, 1817-1862

National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.

--Wallace Stegner, American novelist, short story writer, environmentalist, 1909-1993

When I was about fifteen, I went to work at Yosemite National Park. It changed me forever. Nature had carved its own sculpture, and I was part of it, not the other way around.

--Robert Redford, American actor and filmmaker, 1936-

Everyone, sooner or later, sits down to a banquet of consequences.

--Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish novelist, poet and travel writer, 1850-1894

Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our hardnesses yield, all our irritations and resentments flit away, and a sunny spirit takes their place.

--Mark Twain, American writer and humorist, 1835-1910

Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with. Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket: and do not merely pull it out and strike it; merely to show that you have one.

--Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, British statesman and writer, 1694-1773

Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.

--Maya Angelou, American poet and civil rights activist, 1928-2014

Home is what you take with you, not what you leave behind.

--N.K. Jemisin, American science fiction and fantasy writer, 1972-

When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination.

--Thomas Sowell, American economist and author, 1930-

I’m an idealist. I don’t know where I’m going but I’m on my way.

--Carl Sandburg, American poet, 1878-1967

Longview native Debra Tweedy has lived on four continents. She and her husband decided to return to her hometown and bought a house facing Lake Sacajawea.“We came back because of the Lake and the Longview Public Library,” she says.

The Italian view

Mama mia!

By Marc Roland

Wine’s a necessity, not a luxury!

The history of wine in Washington dates back to the the mid-1800s, when the first Italian settlers came out west. The Walla Walla Valley was a perfect spot with its fertile soil and massive aquifers (Walla Walla is a native word for ’many waters’). These conditions appealed to these immigrants, who saw something special in Southeastern Washington. Fast forward to 1970 when, the wine industry would blossom — in earnest — to thousands of wineries and countless acres of planted vines.

Winemaking and drinking is a part of the Italian culture. No Italian immigrant could imagine a life without wine. Sweet onions and fruit trees may have been the cash crop, but grapes would connect them to home in the old country. The first Italian to arrive in Walla Walla was Frank Orselli. According to Rita Cipalla in an article on Italian American winemakers in Walla Walla:

“Orselli was born in Lucca in 1833. He immigrated to America while still a young man, served as an infantryman in the U.S. Army, and arrived at Fort Walla Walla in 1857. After his discharge, Orselli remained in the area, drawn by its cheap land and wide open spaces. With the arrival of gold miners from neighboring Idaho, soon, there were 30 taverns and liquor stores downtown.”

Orselli had an entrepreneurial spirit, which is a hallmark of almost all the people I know in the wine business. He had the first tasting room in the Valley, located in his California Bakery, where he sold wine along with goods grown on his 180-acre farm. Another Italian farmer, Pasquale Saturno, started growing grapes along with fresh vegetables to sell at nearby Fort Walla Walla. It was an insatiable market that his two acre farm could not supply. This led to him sourcing Zinfandel grapes from California via rail. The Zinfandel grape was familiar to Italians (called “primitivo” in Italy) and they were grown in abundance in California.

This brings me to the the fact that as Italian immigrants spread throughout the state of Washington, their passion for wine went with them. I was talking to Longview businessman Pat Sari the other day and he told me he has an old wine press that was used in his Italian family to produce wine. He hopes to restore it and display it in the future. I have heard stories of Cowlitz County residents who also received grapes from California in boxcars headed for Walla Walla.

I would like to get more information about early winemaking in our area. When I first started making wine it was with home winemakers who pooled their resources to get grapes from Eastern Washington. The early members of the club were not all Italians, but they were following a tradition passed on by generations of immigrants who saw wine as a necessity, not a luxury. How things have changed!

Longview resident and former Kelso teacher Marc Roland started making wine in 2008 in his garage. He and his wife, Nancy, now operate Roland Wines at 1106 Florida Street in Longview’s new “barrel district.” For wine tasting hours, call 360-846-7304.