Every year the Oregon Ducks, and Duck fans, welcome visitors from around the country to our beautiful state, wax their sub-par teams, and send them on their way. Not very neighborly. In light of that I offer the following visitor’s guide to help folks understand, and perhaps appreciate, what is special about Oregon.
Our sense of style: It rains quite a lot in Oregon, or at least it does on the west side where most of us live. The rain keeps the state green and beautiful. After all Eugene without rain is Bakersfield and who wants that?
Bakersfield Swimming and Aquatics Park
That said, the rain can get a little tiresome. That’s why some Oregonians choose to pretend that they live in Hawaii.
“Navigators”-Eugene Airport
Eugene itself is well known for its festivals and celebrations. As a vibrant and young thinking small city, the home of the Ducks is a great place to live, work, and play. A little known gathering happens in the forests of Hendricks Park where participants take part in the annual “Gumbyfest.”
2012 Gumbyfest Champion!
While it may be true that Oregon doesn’t have the sun that bathes Arizona, the towering Rocky Mountains that shadow Utah and Colorado, or the crushing mediocrity that dogs the Dawgs, Oregon has
Touchdown Oregon!
and,
Miss Oregon, Anna Prosser
and they don’t.
Quick personal note before I go. I always appreciate the emails and such that I receive as a result of what I write. In response to “Dawgfan91:”
Here is a picture of the horse I rode in on. Good luck.
Come and get me Dawgfan91— Love, Whinny
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Kim Hastings is a 1984 graduate of Northwest Christian College. He cut his journalistic teeth as sports editor of a paper in his home town of Fortuna, CA, and, later as a columnist for the Longview Daily News in Longview, WA.
He saw his first Oregon game in 1977 and never missed a home game from 1981 until a bout with pneumonia cut his streak short in 1997. He was one of the proud 3200 on a bitterly cold night in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1989 for the Independence Bowl, and continues to be big supporter of Oregon sports. He is an active participant on the various Oregon Ducks messageboards as “TacomaDuck.”