A week ago Sunday while we were enjoying a pre-birthday celebration for Nyel in Tokeland, there was a bit of drama going on in Oysterville.  Suddenly, at the eleventh hour (actually at 1:00, just two hours before Vespers is set to begin) the presiding minister was called away on an emergency and the rest of the participants were left to fend for themselves.  They handled it seamlessly and we were blissfully ignorant of the entire situation until we returned home the next day.

Yesterday’s service also went seamlessly.  Father Don Maddux was there in his beautifully official-looking Episcopalian vestments.  The Bays Family presented their Irish music to an appreciative toe-tapping almost-full house.  Organist Suzanne Knutzen pumped the organ through three hymns while we raised our voices in song.  And, all-in-all, it was an uplifting afternoon.

For a few minutes at the beginning, though, we weren’t so sure about the organ.  The lid started to come up as intended and the got stuck halfway.  Suzanne couldn’t budge it.  Several other people tried.  It seemed determined to stay where it was, completely incapacitating the organ

Suzanne, unflappable as always, said, “I’ll get Doug,” her husband, who was parking the car.  Doug, of course, is well-known on the peninsula for his many surf and cliff rescues and, somehow, an organ rescue seemed right up his alley.  He quickly found a way to remove the offending lid completely and, after the service, returned it to its rightful place.  Obviously, he knew a guild secret that the rest of us are not privy to.

The program began and I loved it when the music portion arrived and Randal introduced his wife, Susan Waters and his son Willy Bays who were performing with him, and “Owen Bays, who won’t be performing today.  He is our manager.”  This elicited giggles from eight-year-old Owen and chuckles from the rest of us.

The only other incident of hardly any note at all was that Owen whispered to me halfway through his father’s solo portion of the afternoon, “Do you have a band-aid?” and showed me an index finger with a bit of blood on it.  We snuck out – later Nyel asked the question that undoubtedly crossed other minds: “bathroom problem?”  Yes, but of the hangnail variety.

It was certainly another Oysterville Sunday afternoon to remember…  and a toe-tapping one at that!