Along the Verge on Oysterville Road

Since there aren’t any sidewalks in Oysterville – heck, I can remember when there wasn’t any pavement, period, in Oysterville – when we are traveling on foot, we make our way from place to place along the verges.  Usually we remember to walk on the left, facing traffic, which is more important in the summer when there actually might be visitors driving through town.

The rest of the year, if a car is going by, it is invariably one we recognize and usually the driver stops, rolls down a window, and we have a little chat.  We call that an “Oysterville Meeting” and, very often, problems are solved and plans are made right there in the street.  Other cars, if any, get waved around us.  Or, if they are Oysterville people, they might stop and come to the meeting.

Sometimes, of course, an Oysterville Meeting can occur between two sets of walkers, though with our tiny population the chances of that happening are slimmer.  Yesterday Nyel and I were on our way back from the post office (walking) and we met Tucker and Carol walking the other way.  We stopped to chat and were so busy that we hardly noticed the Volkswagen bus that pulled up next to us.

New Cousins in Town

The window rolled down and a pleasant looking woman said, “Hi, cousin!”  I turned to look at Carol, thinking she was the cousin being addressed, and the woman in the car said, “No, you, Sydney!”  It turned out to be the Espy/Gwinn  connection – Dorothy Gwinn Ross and Judy Gwinn Lyons who are third-cousins-once-removed (maybe) and the son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren of one of them.  They had been to the house, hadn’t found us, so went looking.

By the time we had made introductions, Carol N. had come along in her car and couldn’t get by, so we adjourned the meeting until we cousins could reconvene back at the house.  We were pleased to learn that Dorothy’s son, Ken Ross, is a newly assigned ranger up at Cape Disappointment, that he and family are just moving into the little house at Loomis Lake State Park  and that they are looking forward to a long assignment here.

Cuzzins living full-time on the Peninsula!  Good to know and a pretty good outcome for ‘just another’ Oysterville Meeting!