Special Delivery

Greg-of-the-Oysterville-Store popped his head in our door last evening and called out, “Is there anything you need from town? I’m heading that way.”

“A couple of cans of frozen orange juice,” I said. “Thanks.”

“I’m asking Gail and Susan, too. Isn’t this the way the Oysterville Store got started?” he laughed.

And indeed it is. Back in the 1920s era when Bert Andrews was carrying mail back and forth to meet the train in Nahcotta, he often asked his neighbors if they needed anything while he was “in town.” It got so people would give him their grocery lists and he would deliver the goods when he returned. He began to think that perhaps there was enough need that he should open a grocery store alongside the post office and ‘the rest is history’ as they say.

Andrews Store, Post Office, Gas Station, c 1930

I had just been catching up with Facebook and had spent some time looking at all of Greg’s photos on his Oysterville Store site. “They are so joyful!” I told him. “They make me want to buy something or to celebrate or have a conversation with you!”

That thought made me wonder about Bert. Was he upbeat and positive and fun-loving like Greg is? Maybe. The old photograph titled “Joy Riding on the Beach” would certainly indicate that he was full of fun. And, I’m pretty sure that, like Greg, Bert was a people person.

Joy Riding in Bert’s 1911 Winton

Many are the stories about Bert sitting on his front porch entertaining Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas who often came to the beach on vacation. It seems unlikely that Douglas would seek out Bert if they didn’t have a good time together.

Unfortunately, my little girl memories of Bert don’t go much further than ‘he was a nice old man,’ though he was a decade or so younger than my grandfather. I don’t really remember his personality traits and, sadly, those details of one’s character aren’t often recorded for posterity.

So, I’m here to say about the present-day store owner: “He’s upbeat, quirky, with a gazillion innovative ideas – in addition to being thoughtful enough to ask what we need from town.” Maybe that would have described Bert, as well.