Julie McDonald Commentary: Homecoming Weekend a Time for Making Memories

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Photos of beautiful young ladies dressed in silk, lace, and sparkling gowns standing beside their handsome escorts graced the pages of Facebook last weekend as high schools and colleges celebrated homecoming.

My husband and I dressed for homecoming Saturday too — in layers of long johns, T-shirts, long-sleeved shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, hats, mittens and scarves — all topped by crimson plastic ponchos that ripped within minutes of donning them.

We hunkered down on newly purchased seat pads enclosed in black garbage bags and, in pelting rain with temperatures in the mid-thirties, watched the Washington State University Cougar football team battle the University of Colorado Boulder Buffaloes in Pullman. I could see my breath as I peered through the poncho and gap in my scarf, jumping to my feet and emitting muffled cheers whenever the Cougars scored.

Soaked, with soggy socks in waterlogged shoes, I held on until halftime, but the minute the Cougar Marching Band (and my daughter) finished playing, my husband and I cold-footed it outside Martin Stadium, picked up the umbrellas we had to leave outside, and trudged to the parked car to listen to the rest of the game in the comfort of our Toyota Corolla, maximum heat of 85 degrees blasting full force to thaw frozen feet and hands.

We sat at the northeast end of Martin Stadium, and I was struck at the start of the game when nearly two dozen Cougar players ran to the end zone and dropped to one knee, heads bowed. Three huddled together in quiet prayer. I know former San Francisco 49ers player Colin Kaepernick knelt in protest during the U.S. national anthem, but I’m pretty sure these guys were praying.

After three devastating losses, the Cougars won their first Pac-12 game Saturday 41-10 with the defense back in better form.

Former Toledo High School band members at WSU also enjoyed a homecoming of sorts as they enjoyed a pizza party with the teacher who taught them beginning with the early painful off-key notes in fifth grade through accomplished musical renditions in high school. Kathy Welch, who retired last spring after 32 years (16 of them in Lewis County), returned to her college alma mater with her sister, Karen, and invited Toledo alumni — Charlie Holmes, Maria Carpenter, Tavis Waner, and my daughter — to join them for pizza. It also happened to be WSU’s Band Day, which drew hundreds of high school band students from throughout the state, including Onalaska, to practice with the Cougar Marching Band and perform on the field at halftime.

As we drove the six-plus hours home Sunday, we diverted off U.S. Highway 12 to State Route 261 to peek at Palouse Falls, where the Palouse River drops 200 feet in a narrow chute into a churning pool before joining the Snake River four miles downstream. Most people viewing the falls and using the restrooms sported crimson and gray Cougar shirts, caps, and coats.

Fresh snow lined the sides of Highway 12 through White Pass, a harbinger of the ski season to come, and aided by a breeze, trees shed leaves of red, gold and yellow along the roadway.

As we pulled into our driveway, though, I couldn’t help thinking about the true meaning of homecoming — coming home. There’s nothing better.

 



Matilda Jackson Legacy Day

Mark your calendars for 2 p.m. Saturday at the Jackson House State Park Heritage Site near Mary’s Corner south of Chehalis to honor Matilda (Glover) Koontz Jackson.

I’m excited to honor the pioneer mother of four young sons who crossed the Oregon Trail in 1847, watched her husband drown on the Snake River at Three Island Crossing in Idaho, and lost her unborn daughter the next day. Matilda and her boys stayed at the Whitman Mission and left for Oregon City only weeks before the missionary and his wife were killed. John R. Jackson, who followed the Oregon Trail west in 1844, met the handsome widow with four sons during a visit to Oregon City for supplies in early 1848. After they married in May, he brought Matilda and her sons north via the Columbia and Cowlitz rivers to his cabin on what he referred to as Highland Farm.

Matilda remained at the farm for the next half century, where she and her husband operated a hotel and hosted Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens and his family and soldiers Ulysses S. Grant, George B. McClellan, and Phillip Sheridan, who later became generals (and one a president). Her reputation for good cooking, quiet hospitality, and kindness spread throughout the region and even to Washington City, which was what the nation’s capital was called at the time.

Centralia’s John Martin, working with the Ethel Post Office, created a special postal cancellation honoring Matilda as “the first lady of Lewis County,” and Lewis County commissioners are adopting a proclamation honoring her. The event also marks the debut of my five-year labor of love, Washington Territory’s Grand Lady: The Story of Matilda (Glover) Koontz Jackson.

 

Kitty Kat Haven

After honoring Matilda, stop by the new Kitty Kat Haven at 462 N. Market Blvd. in Chehalis Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. for an open house featuring a Jack O’Lantern Contest. The organization provides adult cats with special needs — those least likely to be adopted — a second chance for a safe, loving home. Bring a donation for the pet pantry and obtain a free raffle ticket and learn more about the volunteer-run cage-free, no-kill nonprofit program for adult cats. For information, check out the Facebook page or contact kittyhavenwa@gmail.com.

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Julie McDonald, a personal historian at Toledo, may be reached at chaptersoflife1999@gmail.com.