68 reasons to be thankful
Published 8:00 am Wednesday, November 23, 2005
With all the doom, gloom, backbiting and backstabbing dominating the national and world news headlines, it’s refreshing at Thanksgiving to look for things for which to be thankful. There’s no better place to look than the pages of the Whidbey News-Times, which are dominated by good news stories because we live in a good news kind of place. Here are just 71 things to be thankful for as you chew your turkey.
1. Oak Harbor’s Wildcats win the Wesco North football crown, advancing to state for first time.
2. Oak Harbor police make our community safer with a few big drug busts.
3. WAIF takes care of the island’s homeless animals.
4. Creosote logs are being removed from island beaches.
5. County government is flush with money in 2006.
6. 360 new Navy homes are coming.
7. Veterans have sacrificed to keep us free.
8. Navy helicopters save imperiled civilians throughout the area.
9. Smokers are now banished from all public indoor places.
10. Help House and Gifts from the Heart feed our needy.
11. We still have farmers, despite growing regulations.
12. Our elections are conducted peacefully.
13. There were no flu shots, but less flu than ever last year.
14. Gunmen can still hunt the island’s hiking trails.
15. Myriad school bomb threats were all false.
16. We’ve still got salmon and crabs to catch.
17. Airlift Northwest keeps transporting accident victims from Whidbey to the mainland.
18. Coupeville enjoys free speech, except at the Port’s kiosk.
19. NAS Whidbey is safe from closure.
20. Dairy Valley is still going strong.
21. Whidbey General Hospital will get a new baby doctor in January.
22. Farmer Len Engle can stop a loose bull from decimating Coupeville.
23. Voters kept the swimming pool open for another six years.
24. Voters kept the schools maintained and operational for another two years.
25. Oak Harbor’s half-cat epidemic seems to have played out.
26. Our kids do as well as most on WASL tests.
27. Oak Harbor 4th of July is one of the best anywhere.
28. Oak Harbor shows respect for the arts with a new commission.
29. The hospital is not losing money.
30. Oak Harbor’s Farmers Market is vastly improved.
31. No strippers in downtown Oak Harbor.
32. A better waterfront is in our future.
33. The giant post office oak is being saved.
34. Gas has plummeted below $3 a gallon.
35. No roundabouts yet, and the traffic circle is gone.
36. You can now legally get tattooed in Oak Harbor.
37. The construction boom continues.
38. With its new columbarium, Maple Leaf can bury’em in columns.
39. The island has so many sex offenders that nobody is careless with their children.
40. Christmas in July pumped up Help House.
41. The Catman from Ripley’s Believe-it-or-Not moved to Whidbey.
42. Islanders produced another fine class of OHHS and CVHS graduates.
43. Junk food is banished from schools, kids turn into smugglers.
44. The new Cornet Bay boat ramp is finally installed.
45. We have great new neighbors with VAQ-2 from Rota, Spain.
46. An effort to ban fireworks failed.
47. State-employed Johnny Oysterseeds are oysterizing Puget Sound beaches.
48. The meth crisis will end soon now that we have to show ID to buy running nose cures.
49. Deer still wander the residential streets of Oak Harbor and Coupeville.
50. Oak Harbor is safer now that giant pandas have been banned.
51. Eagles still sit in the trees on Whidbey Island and whistle.
52. Native Americans return to Whidbey to race their canoes in the Penn Cove Water Festival.
53. When a Whidbey Island family suffers a tragic loss, friends and neighbors always come to their aid.
54. Habitat for Humanity keeps hammering out new houses.
55. Home Depot temporarily quenches our lust for box stores.
56. Crescent Harbor Elementary students get the orca named the official state marine mammal.
57. The Oak Harbor pier has its permits, now all it needs is money.
58. Ebey’s Reserve grew by 325 acres thanks to The Nature Conservancy.
59. The F/A-18G “Growler†will follow the Prowler at NAS Whidbey.
60. Peace demonstrators in Coupeville didn’t get attacked all year long.
61. NAS Whidbey personnel deployed in the War on Terror have all returned home safely.
62. We’ll soon have our own juvenile jail.
63. Kidney dialysis is now available in Oak Harbor.
64. Despite warning forums, we weren’t hit by any tsunamis.
65. The city council actually agreed that the downtown redevelopment plan is a good idea.
66. With Marjie’s House, North Whidbey women have an emergency shelter.
67. When the feds start handing out money, Island Transit is always there to take it.
68. Thanks to Stadium Bond approval, a new Memorial Stadium will arrive in 2007.
The list could go on almost endlessly but it’s time for dinner. Have a happy Thanksgiving.
