Today was the day that could I have cloned myself, I surely would have done so. Maggie was having a book party to celebrate some of those who “starred” in her latest book, The Container Victory Garden — especially the artists and the storytellers. Nyel had been one of those whose story of a WWII Victory Garden memory she had chosen and she asked me if I would read his story aloud at the party. I was delighted to accept.
Meanwhile, however, our February History Forum had featured logging and among those who attended was the amazing Roy Nott whose forty years (and counting) career had been spent in that industry — much of it in Pacific County. My cousin David and Roy are longtime friends and David urged Roy to come all the way from Aberdeen to participate in the Forum. The result was 1) Roy’s very interesting contribution to our knowledge base; 2) an invitation to Roy from Steve Rogers, Pacific County Historical Society President, to speak at the PCHS Annual Meeting on… TODAY! Plus, the PCHS quarterly Magazine will be devoted to the History of Logging in Pacific County from 1850 to the present — an account that Roy put together initially for the History Forum!
I was SO torn — stay at the beach for Maggie’s party at 2:00 or go to the PCHS Annual Meeting at the Riverwoods Golf Course in Raymond at 1;00.. It took the convergence of two things to make up my mind. First, Fred Carter agreed to read Nyel’s story as well as to wear his Panama Hat (in which Nyel is pictured in Maggie’s book) AND it fit perfectly and he looked terrific in it! And then Tucker said he and Carol thought I should really go to clap and cheer for Roy since I was responsible for his being “drafted” as the Annual Meeting Speaker. When Tucker offered to drive us, I figured the decision was totally out of my hands.
With Maggie’s blessing, off we went and what a good time we had! For Roy, it was like “old home week” — loggers he had worked with years ago showed up and the entire talk could have been one of our Forums — lots of interaction between the audience and Roy and a whole lot of history beginning with pre-1850 when the Chinooks were the “loggers” and their main interest was in the cedar trees. He told how they managed to fell those huge trees by charring, how their trading economy was based on cedar… well, you’ll have to read the Sou’wester when it comes out. He talked about the various big changing points in the industry — one of the biggest game-changers was the Columbus Day Storm because.. well, it’ll all be in the Sou’wester so stay tuned.