Whidbey Island was put on the global map this summer, and it wasn’t accomplished with a sales pitch, expensive visitor information campaigns or pricey renovations of public facilities.
It was done with good old-fashioned hard work and American ingenuity. A bit of community assistance helped pave the way, but the success of three young South Whidbey entrepreneurs at an international robotics competition in Romania this summer is really theirs and theirs alone.
Compromise. As proposed in The Record’s recent editorial, what could be fairer? But does compromise always work for everyone? Consider the wild native prairies with their carpets of wildflowers found nowhere else. At the time of Euro-American settlement of Whidbey Island, there were about 7,800 acres of this rare habitat on Central Whidbey. That’s about 7 percent of the island.
Grumbling about the economy, taxes and the ever increasing cost of gummy bears is a pastime common the globe over. Whether home is the South of France, Beijing, a hut in the Sahara or Whidbey Island, people just love to complain about finances.
When I was a military pilot, occasionally an unidentified aircraft would pop up on radar that was not in contact with an air traffic controller and didn’t have its transponder turned on. This would cause consternation to controllers and was certainly a source of piqued interest for other pilots flying in the area and in radar contact.
A farmer digs an irrigation ditch for a nearby field. It begins as nothing more than a dirt trench, but it doesn’t take long for grass to line its banks. Later that greenery is joined by shrubs, blackberry bushes and eventually trees. At some point, fish or even beaver may move in and call it home.
“Set the hook, set the hook,” yelled my maddened grandfather.
Well, there was no third-time’s-a-charm in this case. I couldn’t have been more than 6, my pole was bent in half, the reel screaming and my feeble yanks to “set the hook” proved too much for him. With a mumbled “Here, let me help,” I was relieved of my burden and looked down to find my pole replaced with a net.