Life, Leadership & Stories From The Vineyard

Susan Sokol Blosser shares reflections from a recent acceptance speech after receiving the Ambassador Award from the Oregon Consular Corps at this year’s Celebration Trade Gala. In her remarks, she looks back on the bold beginnings of Oregon’s wine industry, the cultural significance of wine around the world, and the legacy of family wineries that helped shape Oregon agriculture into what it is today.

What’s happening now is long overdue. Women are getting attention now which was denied them in the past because the playing field is changing. Women who made names for themselves when young are leading the way. Age has made them wiser, more confident, more influential. 

Twenty years ago, stepping into what felt like “elderhood,” I saw only what time had taken, gray hair, wrinkles, tired eyes. But a small book placed in my hands shifted everything.

Out of curiosity, I started collecting sayings that involve chickens. When I got past 50, I stopped. I had no idea chickens were so much a part of  our everyday speech.

What did people who kept hens for eggs, do when their hens got too old to lay? Welcome to Henrietta’s Hillside Retreat for Mature Hens (Henrietta is the brown and cream colored one in the front).

My mother made sure I knew how to sew, embroider, and knit. I have done all three extensively over the years, but my favorite is knitting. When her church group was knitting squares to make blankets for soldiers from the Korean War, it looked like fun and I wanted to do it too. I was seven years old.