The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG - I've been in town now about 20 days. You may have noticed a young woman walking down the sidewalk on Main Street, smiling ear to ear.

For many, it's a shock that a 25-year-old would want to move to the tiny town of Waitsburg. The truth is, the moment I stepped foot on Main Street last May, I wanted to live here. And about three months later, here I am.

I am blessed to have family in Walla Walla, but I also have many family members to be living right here in Waitsburg. The Henze family has taken me in and kept me from being too lonely while waiting for my fiancé to move over from Aberdeen at the end of the month.

Not only have the Henzes helped me get settled, but my newspaper and coffee shop families has bent over backward to make sure we have a place to live, mouse traps, and plenty of fun conversations and coffee.

As if life couldn't get any better, I was recently invited to attend a small dinner hosted by Larry and Deanne Johnson at their beautiful home in town. It was at this party that I learned the every person in this town treats each other like family.

People from town and relatives from the Portland area and even California huddled at tables with big plates of food laughing and sharing stories. It was a perfect late summer evening. Kids ran around on the front lawn and a neighborhood dog was in the dessert room licking cake crumbs off the floor.

Larry and Deanne have been throwing the dinner almost annually since 2004. Deanne said it started as a way for the couple to thank their neighbors for making their move to Waitsburg so warm and welcoming.

The dinner was beautiful and delicious, with homemade gumbo and rice, corn bread muffins, potato salad, wine, soda and cakes of every kind imaginable.

"I was never going to do it again," Deanne joked about having the party this year. But, her sister Kippie Schooler wanted to come visit and have a gumbo party to celebrate a couple of birthdays. Deanne and Kippie's mother, Gladys Lund, was turning 93 on Labor Day. Kippie's husband just turned 60.

Larry made it his job to introduce me to at least 15 people at the party. One cousin from Oregon was a professor at George Fox University, a rival of my alma mater, neighboring Linfield College. He was just a visitor, but even he showed enthusiasm for my move to town.

When I was done taking photos of the food and people, I decided to try the gumbo that was making the house smell spicy and delicious. Larry dished me up a huge bowl and along with my corn bread I made my way outside to an open seat at a table on the front porch.

I had met the Petersons, Ottersons and Danforths earlier and I knew they would be great table companions. I asked them about who lived in my new house before me and tried to get some more information about my neighbors.

They had even heard of my uncle in Walla Walla and, of course, the Henzes.

These couples were a wealth of information and seemed as though they had been friends for an entire lifetime. As they left the table, the ladies promised to call one another and said they would meet up soon for already arranged plans. As I watched their exchanges, I was so happy to see the strong relationships and I hoped I could find something similar here.

Each person I meet through work or while I'm walking back and forth to the Times office, asks me I like it here in Waitsburg. smile and think in my head "are you kidding?"

My boss treats me a daughter rather than employee, Grandma Henze keeps me company listens to me ramble about wedding planning, Jan Cronkhite sits and talks with me at the home football game, it's sunny every and each person I have has seemed genuinely happy that I'm here.

But of course, this is too much information normal conversation, simply say, "I love it here."