Apparently, Big Brother is alive and well in Pacific County. In fact, he has been reading my blog. Not only that, he has referred to my website and even used cut-and-paste portions of at least one Oysterville Daybook entry in an Official Departmental Memo. My words are now a part of the public record.
This intriguing bit of information was pointed out to me by a neighbor who then sent me a copy of the memo. “Verrry interrresting” as Laugh In ‘s Arte Johnson used to say. The memo included an excerpt from a blog I had written more than a year ago in praise of a local happening. Unfortunately, my words were lifted and used for another purpose altogether – a rather nefarious purpose from my point of view.
Interestingly, even though no one asked to use the paragraphs from my blog, I was given full credit for having written them and my website address was cited as a reference. If I try to find a positive side to the situation, I guess I can think of this as evidence that someone out there takes my words seriously. On the other hand, it is disheartening to feel that my thoughts are taken out of context and used without my knowledge in a way that could potentially injure a friend and neighbor.
To give the County its due, the memo writer – a County employee who was passing the information to his superiors – said “Got a complaint this morning…” I guess I can assume from that phrase that the County is continuing to do their business ‘as directed by citizen complaint’ and that they probably weren’t culling my blogs directly to find matters of “high importance” that might show up on the web. (That’s how the memo was labled: “Importance: High.”)
On the other hand, it means that at least one of my ‘faithful readers’ follows my blog with less-than-righteous intent. Not a good feeling. But, hey! Although our community is small, it is peopled with folks of every stripe. It’s not all ‘sweetness and light’ even in Oysterville!
being unescorted did not mean I was alone. In fact, I was surprised at how many mutual friends and acquaintances Martha and I had.
Mostly, though, we knew Martha as a faithful attendee at our house concerts – she and George, always smiling, always together, always enjoying whatever was going on. I can’t think how it happened that we first invited them. Maybe George remembers. Over the years, they became ‘regulars,’ often sitting on the blue velvet couch in the living room and always bringing a wonderful addition for our potluck supper.
’m excited about the book-signing in all the usual ways. It’s kind of like holding an open house. Will anyone come? What should I wear? Will there be familiar faces? I go through the same angst each time a new book comes out and I always wonder if other authors do, too.
Yesterday I ran into Jimmy Kemmer in Ocean Park. “I hear I’m on a Wanted Poster at Jack’s!” he laughed. He was referring, of course, to his picture on the cover of my just-out book, Legendary Locals of the Long Beach Peninsula. The cover has been reproduced as a poster of various sizes and this end of the Peninsula seems to be papered with them! Hooray!!
We’ve all watched enough re-runs of “Frasier” to know that ‘dead air’ is a no-no of the first order when it comes to radio broadcasting. That certainly was a rule well-followed last night at the KMUN 30th Birthday Bash. Just the opposite, in fact.
Nevertheless, members of The Willapa Hills smiled throughout, as did everyone in the hall. The party-mood was a fabulous tribute to KMUN and to all the folks who have worked tirelessly over the years to inform and entertain us. Programmers from way back in the beginning came to honor and to be honored. I was sorry Carlos and Sharon Welsh couldn’t have been there. In the early days, Carlos had a jazz program at KMUN. Several people asked if they might be coming, but they are now living not in Oysterville but in Mexico – out of KMUN party range, unfortunately.
one of the Monterrey Cypress trees in front of the ‘bottle house’ had given way and fallen into the street.
The line-up of huge Cypress trees between Merchant and Division Streets is one of the distinctive features of Oysterville. They were planted by Tom Andrews back in the early twentieth century. According to Andrews Family descendants, Tom brought the seedlings back with him after a trip to California.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of being the keynote speaker at an awards ceremony honoring twenty-six students from our two local school districts – Ocean Beach and Naselle-Grays River Valley. The event is an annual one sponsored by the Masons. The students, two from each fourth through eighth grade class in our area, were chosen by their teachers and principals for consistently demonstrating “Excellence in Citizenship.”
So I talked a bit about Medora – the kind of girl she was. And I talked about how she influenced me, not just in my behavior, but in very concrete ways. She had wanted to go to Stanford and to become a teacher. She never had the opportunity to carry out those dreams but, though I didn’t consciously connect my choices to Medora, it was I who went to Stanford and it was I who became the teacher.
The last guest had left and we had just settled down to catch a part of “Jeopardy” and perhaps an episode of “Downton Abbey” when the doorbell rang. It was too late for any of our usual Friday-nighters and, mysteriously, by the time I got to the door, no one was there. At my feet, though, was a small package from Arcadia Publishing… Books!