Double Picket Style – W.D. Taylor House, 1980s
Oysterville has long been known for its picket fences. Not so much that it has them. Lots of places do. The commentary on our fences over the years has been upon their variety more than upon their actual existence. I wonder if that’s because property owners mostly made their own pickets in the “olden days” — those days I think of as belonging to my grandfather and great-grandfather.
Churchyard Fence – Photo by Deirdre Purcell, 2015
With regard to fences, anyway, those “olden days” were before 1925, during the years my great grandfather had a “ranch,” purchased in 1902 by my grandfather and on which he raised dairy cows. On November 12, 1925, my grandfather’s ranch foreman, B.G. Gove, wrote to my grandfather who, apparently, was out of town. I quote part of Mr. Gove’s charming and informative letter here, leaving his spelling and punctuation “as is”:
A man run into a Cow some where neare Chinook some time back and smashed his car of corse, no one oned the cow so his Layer toald him that as long as the Officers wasent trying to put the herd law in force, the County was responssal for the car so they broat suit agenst the county and the county comishenrs to clear their skirts sent the sherife to round up everyone that had stock running out. They arrested Looes Loumes and Will Shagran so now Looes and Will are working to get the Herd Law squashed and it is surprising how many friends Looes can find to fite for him and he poses as a disinterested one working for the good of the Poor Widdow… Nelsons Boy was over the other night with a paper for the Herd Law that is the only one I have heard of for the Law. They Sure Mis you here. Nelson was telling me that you had a herd Law passed (a State Law) when you were in the Senet if that is so, why all this fus to get it a county law the county can’t make Laws to conflick with the State can they….
Nyel Makes Pickets, 2012
At a meeting about another matter entirely at our schoolhouse the other day, Kathleen Sayce mentioned the picket fences that were once “typical” around the oldest homes in Oysterville. She mentioned that, traditionally, the fences of Oysterville were placed around homes and gardens (of the vegetable, flower and orchard types) to keep out wandering livestock. That was surely back in those free range days that Mr. Gove was writing about.
And, for those who want “distinctive” looking pickets like those of the “olden days,” making them yourself is a necessity. I think Nyel has made scores, if not hundreds, over the past thirty years. So far, we haven’t had a single cow in the yard. The deer, however, are another matter entirely.
“Believe me my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats,” said Ratty to Mole in Kenneth Grahame’s classic 1908 novel The Wind in the Willows.
