Driving around

Continuing with extracts from my Oregon Journals,.......I had been in my new parish in John Day for three weeks, but since this year, 2003 was the centennial of the foundation of the Baker Diocese, each deanery organized a Convention in which the bishop will confirm all the candidates from those towns. In this deanery there were 70 confirmands gathered together in the Cathedral of Baker City. I was excited to make my first big trip out of John Day, but became extremely nervous when the forecast was going to be snowy, especially since I had to go through 2 mountain passes. In comes one of my parishioners Michael Cosgrove who volunteered to drive me there and back and I found him like an angel and I was more than relieved to be seated in the passenger seat, rather than driving on unfamiliar roads. And besides, I could enjoy the beautiful scenery and snow-capped mountains and spectacular vistas that make Route 26 and Route 7 one of the most scenic routes in the state of Oregon. On our way back we stopped at Sumpter and I was treated to a delicious dinner, myself devouring a large plate of hot and spicy Spaghetti alla Puttanesca. But my first encounter with the Cathedral was quite striking, not knowing as yet that I would spend 8 great years as the pastor there between 2005 and 2013. The banners and posters were all displayed in the parish hall, and seeing all the others, I was happy ours appeared so nice next to banners and posters of other parishes from our deanery.

But something interesting struck me while Michael was driving. Every time he saw a car coming towards us on the other side, which were actually quite few, he would wave at them. I said to myself ‘how can he possibly know every person that’s driving through Eastern Oregon between Baker City and John Day?’ So after the 6th car went by and another wave, I asked him how come he knows everyone. And his answer was just as surprising ‘well, actually I don’t know any of them, but it is a courtesy here in the country that we wave to each other, no matter who they are.’ I liked the idea and I started doing this myself, and sure enough, everyone waved back to me. This way I made friends with every driver in the state.

Now a funny story related to this. After I was in Oregon for about a year, I had some visitors, the Peters girls come to visit me from Pleasant Valley, New York, Mary the cantor at Pleasant Valley and her elderly mother Millie. So as I was driving them around, I did the same wave gesture to everyone that passed by. And sure enough Mary asked me the same question I had asked Michael Cosgrove. And I came up with an even more interesting and funny response. The first car that I waved at, she asked me ‘Oh, you know them?’ I told her ‘Oh yes, that was Bubba! Bubba was a big fat girl from the parish who everybody knows.’ Of course she believed me. So as the others car went by, I had a different response for every driver that passed by...’Oh that was Bubba’s landlord...’ ‘that was Bubba’s hairdresser....’ ‘ that was Bubba’s sister.....,’ ‘that was Bubba’s veterinarian....’ ‘that was Bubba’s gardener.....’ ‘ that was Bubba’s pedicurist.....’ After that she knew I was kidding. And we laughed, as every other driver had some kind of connection with Bubba!