Ready! Set! Bloom!

     Even though I’ve lived almost half my life here in the Northwest – more than, counting childhood visits – there are certain things I can’t seem to get used to.  One is the unwritten rule “Sun Out; Shorts On” no matter if the thermometer says it’s below freezing.  Where I came from, we wore shorts when it was hot, as in 80° Fahrenheit or more.  Period.
     Not that it’s a problem – more of a curiosity.  My shorts-wearing days are pretty much over, anyway.  But, another weather-connected phenomenon up here above the 45^th Parallel North is how folks do things ‘in the moment.’  It the sun shines, it’s drop everything and go on a picnic or work in the garden or paint the barn.  No planning ahead required.
     Conversely, if it has been necessary to plan something – like a school field trip, say – it’s go anyway, weather be damned.  And it goes without saying that fishermen, oystermen, farmers,  loggers, and all the other workers who must spend most of their days outdoors, pull on their raingear with little regard for that ‘liquid sunshine’ pelting down on them.
     I thought about these peculiarities of Northwest living yesterday when I took a break from my writing and went for a short walk.  There was my neighbor Bradley – he of the beautiful garden – on hands and knees in the dirt cleaning up his flower beds.
     “You should be out in your garden, too,” he told me cheerfully.
     I didn’t even feel guilty or remorseful.  Well, maybe a tad remorseful.  I’ve been on a roll, writing-wise, for several weeks – nose-to-keyboard you might say – and I’ve taken very little notice of the world beyond my office door.  Until yesterday, I hadn’t realized that the daffodils in front of Oysterville’s picket fences are already showing color.  Nor had I seen that the rhodies in our south garden are festooned with fat pink buds on the verge of bursting forth.
     While I’ve been tap-tapping away the hours, the sun has been shining out there and Mother Nature has been trying on her spring hat.  I’m just a teensy bit sorry that I missed most of it but, on examining my priorities, I think my choice was the right one.  When it’s either roll up my shirtsleeves to forge ahead with a writing project or change into shorts to goosebump in the sunshine and ocean breezes… no contest.  I guess I won’t ever acclimate to life in the Northwest…

In the Moment is a post from: Sydney of Oysterville

LaRee Johnson

     I was delighted to read in my recent Pacific County Historical Society newsletter that our friend LaRee Johnson will be the presenter at the PCHS Annual Meeting on February 12^th.  I wouldn’t miss it for the world.  LaRee is one of those admirable and amazing women who is not only beautiful and talented, but is an expert in her field – women’s vintage accessories and clothing.
     I first saw her do one of her programs years (maybe two decades?) ago at The Ark.  In those days I was an active member of the Daughters of the Pioneers and LaRee was the guest speaker at one of our luncheon events.  “Speaker” is a misnomer to-the-max, however.  She was a fashion show, a history lesson, and an entertainer wrapped in one gorgeous costume after another!
     Subsequently, I saw other presentations.  One I especially remember was at the Golden Sands Assisted Living Center and it involved hats.  My mother was a resident there at that time and somehow LaRue knew about her hat collection.  At LaRee’s suggestion, Mom and her friends all wore hats to the show and then were allowed to try on some of the vintage hats as well.  How the ladies (and the men!) all enjoyed it.
     Still later, when we owned the Bookvendor in Long Beach, we asked LaRee in to do an author’s signing for her book, Ladies’ Vintage Accessories (now in its 4^th printing).   And when I was writing my own book, Dear Medora, I appealed to LaRee more than once for clarification on terms such as ‘pongee’ and ‘challis’ and ‘grimps.’  She was a storehouse of information and, if she didn’t know off the top of her head, she knew where to find out.
     I’m pleased to say that over the years we have become friends.  For that reason, if no other, I would attend her presentation next Sunday.  But there are so many other reasons… The program, “Fashion before Freedom,” will highlight fashions before women had the right to vote and will include a little history of the suffrage movement in Washington and Oregon.
     Two years ago Washington celebrated women’s 100^th year of suffrage this year marks the centennial for the women’s vote in Oregon, as well. I’m looking forward to hearing LaRee’s insights on how those events affected women’s fashions.  Judging from ‘before and after getting-the-vote’ pictures of my grandmother and other female relatives, the changes were fast and furious.
     The event takes place at 1:30 next Sunday afternoon at the Naselle School and is open to the public.  It will be well worth the journey up river to see what LaRee has up her sleeve – or in her reticule – on this occasion!

The Amazing LaRee! is a post from: Sydney of Oysterville

     The Willapa Hills – the band, not the geologic formation – will be in Oysterville two weeks from tomorrow and I can hardly wait.  I’m not sure at what point you can call something “an annual event” but I’m pretty sure their house concerts in our living room qualify.
     They were first here in 2005 – same six talented musicians, different group name – and they’ve been here most years since.  For those who don’t know, they are Andrew Emlen, Jessica and Sunrise Fletcher, Kerrie McNally, Fern Fey, and Jennifer Hanigan.  They are folk musicians “known for their vocal harmonies and varied instrumentations” says their publicity.
     And that would be more than enough for me, but their appeal and importance goes far beyond that.  For the past three years they have been developing a body of folk music about our very area – Pacific and Wahkiakum counties.  They have been interviewing old-timers, reading personal histories and accounts, and transforming those stories into a musical lexicon specific to us.
     Their songs are about fishermen and loggers, oysterwomen (yes! women!) and boat captains, shipwrecks and salmon and, in some cases about people we know.  They speak about our relationship to the land and the river and the bay.  Fittingly, their recent album is called “Portrait of Place” and sample songs can be heard or CDs purchased at www.cdbaby.com/cd/willapahills .  They have a Facebook presence as well.
     For this year’s concert, Andrew says:  We have decided to prepare new songs on the same theme – the people of the Columbia-Pacific region. There will be at least six original songs ready by show time. Sunrise, Kerrie and I each have contributed a couple songs.
     One of mine is an instrumental. The other is called “What the Women Left Behind”, based on a lecture of the same title by historian Irene Martin. The title has a few different meanings. When you travel the unroaded sections of the Columbia, one way to find the former river town sites is to go in February or March and look for the daffodils. Though the buildings have long rotted away, the daffodils continue to bloom. Once you are there, you notice the other durable traces, mostly broken dishes … in short, what the women left behind – their gardens and housewares that made these places home. Their story isn’t as visible as that of the men of the same era, but they helped run fishing boats and managed home and business affairs. A second meaning of the title is what they left behind to come here – often famine in Europe.
     One of Kerrie’s songs I’m going to leave as a surprise for you; the other is “Silent Paddles”, her tribute to the Cathlamet.
     Sunrise said that we needed a dairy song to represent Skamokawa; later that evening he took out his ukulele and expressed his desire to play it on at least one song in the show. I suggested that the dairy song should be on the ukulele. He wrote one the next day.
     Also, as we did in Portrait of Place, we are making our own arrangements of local songs by other songwriters, including “Astoria’s Bar” by Mary Garvey and Kate Wolf’s “The Wind Blows Wild”, and we have learned songs representative of immigrant groups – Jennifer will be singing one in Danish! We will throw in a couple tunes from Portrait of Place as well, and are willing to do a couple more if we get a request.
     Did I mention that besides Sunrise’s ukulele, instruments played by various members of the group include cello, fiddle, Jew’s harp, piano, rainstick, autoharp, banjo, guitar and probably others I’ve forgotten?  And did I mention that I can hardly wait?

Coming to Oysterville: The Willapa Hills is a post from: Sydney of Oysterville

User-friendly? Not!

     It’s curious to me how February has transformed itself from the exciting birthday month of my childhood into days and days of doctoring.  Somehow, every medical/dental appointment of the year has landed on my February calendar – the annual check-ups, the semi-annual check-ups, the referrals to new specialists, the follow-ups, the consultations.  All in this twenty-eight or twenty-nine day period.
     Yesterday it was a trip into Portland for my once-a-year visit to Oregon Health Sciences University.  Not only does that highly respected institution have the least memorable name in the world (OHSU?  OSHU?  What???) but it is the least user-friendly of any medical facility ever.  So many buildings.  So many corridors.  Elevators that only go to some of the floors.  Doctors that are in this pavilion today, that pavilion tomorrow.
     And god forbid you should need to call them ahead of time or between visits!  I was standing at the nurse’s station in our own friendly little Ocean Beach Hospital a few years back, and a doctor was standing there with a telephone to his ear, obviously on hold.  Minutes went by and he remarked to one of the nurses, “At least when you are waiting for someone at OHSU, there’s good classical music to listen to.”  Yep.  Been there!
     Predictably, we got lost and, also predictably there was no one at the Information Desk.  Minutes ticked by and we finally forged ahead anyway and asked the first person with a big OHSU Personnel Nametag for directions.  She was very accommodating, but five walking minutes later, we were more lost than ever.  And so it went.
      By the time I found my doctor, I felt like I had been following the yellow brick road forever.  And, like the Wizard of Oz, she really didn’t have any definitive answers for me.  “Our best guess is…”   Where were my ruby slippers?  Where was Glinda the Good Witch?  Where the hell was the exit?
     I have five more pesky appointments this month in various places – Ilwaco, Astoria, Longview and Vancouver.  Thank goodness none in Oz.  Once a year is more than plenty!

Off To See The Wizards or… you’re not in Oysterville anymore, Sydney! is a post from: Sydney of Oysterville

Backlit in My Spring Hat

     Yesterday morning, a blintz and coffee at the Full Circle Cafe with my writer friend Ruth.  At noon, a burger at the Shelburne Pub with Steve and Denise of the Pacific County Historical Society. We talked about writing projects and the vagaries of history — my idea of the perfect way to while away the time.  The sun was shining.  I wore my new spring hat and life was good.
     At the bottom of the pub menu, I noticed that it says The Shelburne Inn is the oldest operating hotel and inn in Washington State… and I pointed that out to the table-at-large.  We thought about it…
     “What about Dayton?  Or LaConner?  Don’t they have old hotels?”
     “Or what about the Tokeland Hotel?  It’s pretty old.”
     “Maybe,” I said, “it’s one of those ‘oldest continuously operating’ deals.  Like the Oysterville Post Office is the oldest continuously operating post office under the same name in the State.  Those qualifiers make all the difference.”
     “But I think it was closed in the fifties,” someone said.
     My curiosity was peaked.  The possibility of recidivist history is always challenging.   So later in the day I looked up the Shelburne’s website and found that the hotel has operated continuously since 1896.   There it was!  That word ‘continuously!’
     On the other hand, the Tokeland Hotel’s website says In 1889 the Kindreds expanded their farmhouse and opened the Kindred Inn.  Okay.  Earlier date.  But no ‘continuously’ and the name was different in the beginning.
     So… what’s the truth?  And, at the end of the day, it probably doesn’t much matter to anyone but me.  As long as the food is good and beds comfortable, feeling that they are staying at the “oldest” may give some satisfaction to visitors.  Now if only they could say Washington slept here…  Or maybe Lewis and Clark…

Thoughts on a Spring Hat Day is a post from: Sydney of Oysterville