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GUEST OPINION
I had coffee with the publisher of The Miner last week. I try to do that at least every other month or so. I enjoy the company of talented people, and she is one. I have been contributing to papers in the inland northwest for over 25 years, and my wife agrees that The Miner is one of the best. You are fortunate to have it serve the Pend Oreille Valley. You actually have several reasons to feel fortunate to live here. After a pleasant visit over coffee, my wife and I drove to Super One to pick up some essentials then stopped at Tractor Supply to get some food for the squirrels who play outside my window. I found the bag of wild animal food my squirrels like and started to the front of the store when the floor started to move under me. By the time I got to the check-out, I was in the throes of a full-blown vertigo attack. I told the cashier, I think her name was Jenny, that I needed to sit down. She immediately told the other clerk, her name was Taylor, to get a chair out of the break room. If you have ever had a major vertigo attack, you know that not only can you not stand up but you can’t sit either. Taylor saw that I was in danger of pitching out of the chair onto the floor, so she held on to me. Meanwhile, Jenny told the third clerk to call the EMTs and went out in the parking lot to get my wife.
When the EMTs took over, the excitement subsided. I heard Jenny and Taylor talking to my wife, who can’t drive, as I was loaded into the ambulance for the three-minute drive to the Emergency room. They took my wife and my truck to the hospital so it would be there when the doctors finished with me. The medical staff found that I was dehydrated, filled me with fluids, let me rest for a couple hours, then I was allowed to go home.
I am glad I had my little problem where I did. I can only imagine what would have happened if I had been in a big city. I saw an old man get bumped and fall on a crowded sidewalk in New York once. People stepped over him and went on their way. I was chastised for blocking foot traffic when I stopped to help him up. Small towns are special. Neighbors help neighbors. I also have roots in the Palouse, and if a farmer is sick or hurt, his neighbors do his fieldwork until he recovers. I lived in Alaska for a few years where it was against the state law to bypass a stranded motorist. We don’t need that law in the Pend Oreille Valley because neighbors take care of neighbors. Those two ladies didn’t have to disrupt their day to help me, but they did. We look out for each other here. This is a great place to live.
FRANK WATSON IS A RETIRED AIR FORCE COLONEL AND LONG-TIME RESIDENT OF EASTERN WASHINGTON. HE HAS BEEN A FREE-LANCE COLUMNIST FOR OVER 20 YEARS.
