November 26, 2020
Hi, All, and Happy Thanksgiving!
For many, it might be difficult to feel very thankful on this, one of our most historic national holidays. It has been a year of such turmoil and such devastating personal loss for the hundreds of thousands of families who have suffered the death of a loved one due to the pandemic. But in that very sentence is the key word to finding solace and no small amount of gratitude this Thanksgiving. That word is “families.”
During my nearly three quarters of a century, my family has been the rock at which the ship of Fred always finds safe harbor. For strength, support, friendship, and fun, my family - to which, my dear friends, you all are now honorary members - has never failed me.
This holiday, dating back to the first intrusion by white “invaders” to this continent, is not without undertones of the systemic racism that we today are challenged to correct. But, if we look at the intent of Thanksgiving - to pause for a moment and give thanks - nothing could be symbolically or literally more appropriate for today.
My ancestors were among those who came to that first table of gratitude four centuries ago. The history of these ancient branches on the Bassett family tree and the lessons their trials and tribulations have taught us are cherished around family tables today.
Recently, I was gifted a packet of letters - not from my Plymouth grandparents (wouldn’t that be fun?) - but from my great-great aunts and uncles, my great grandparents, and grandparents in the mid-1910s, and my then young parents and their siblings near the end of WWII. Each and every one of these letters expresses deep love of family.
The authors not only knew of the whereabouts, comings and goings of their own parents, siblings, and children, they knew about the lives of their aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins. As close as my extended family has always been, I have, until recently lost track of many of my first cousins. Through the recent passing of my aunt - the last of my parents’ siblings and the source of these letters - I have been able to reconnect with lost kin.
My cousins were childhood playmates, and I am so thankful to get reacquainted with them. I’m writing this note on Wednesday, Nov. 25, and just yesterday I learned that my cousin JR (he was always Jimmie to me) passed away Tuesday. It was his daughter, who I met for the first time at my aunt’s memorial, that informed me of his passing with the words “Hello Sweet Cousin.” Her loving salutation was the result of a brief conversation we shared - the first of many, I hope - talking about her interest in our family heritage. I am so grateful for this new and exciting connection, and I vow to be the crazy old relative who keeps sending pictures and notes about our family history.
One of the letters in my historic packet - dated June 15, 1945 - was from my Grandma’s cousin Harriet in Oakland, CA, to Grandma, on her rural farm near Lyons, OR. Like all of these treasured letters, Cousin Harriet asked about nearly everyone in Grandma’s family and shared information about her own.
Toward the end of the letter, and the reason I’m relating this to you now, Harriet mentions the benefits of Grandma’s garden, during a time of dramatic price increases at city grocery stores. She then says she’d heard a rumor that might diminish these benefits of farm life. “I understand however,” Harriet wrote, ”that you farm people have your headaches in the general shortage of grains and seeds for stock and chickens - is that rumor based on fact?”
That simple query literally jumped off the page for me as I was transcribing Harriet’s letter into my digital files. Here I am, in the middle of arguably the most deceitful period in our history, when every news item and announcement has to be fact and/or source checked, reading a letter that is literally two years older than me, in which my distant cousin is fact checking.
So, friends and relatives - remember I made you an official Bassett in my opening paragraphs - this is my verbose way of saying that we have much to be thankful for. Despite the tumultuous times we live in, despite the impacts on our safety, livelihoods and lifestyles from the most serious health threat our country has ever faced, despite the fact that we must fact check every single news story we read, and despite the incredible challenges we face as a nation, we can be thankful that we are all in this together.
Isn’t that, my “Sweet Cousins,” what families are for?
Fred Bassett
Chair, Tillamook County Democrats