2014 Memorial Day, Oysterville Cemetery

Not too long ago, I ran across an article in which somebody or other mentioned how he wanted to be remembered by posterity. I thought about that for a while. I do want to be remembered but I don’t quite know how. Not that we get to choose. Except maybe on our tombstones if we buy them in advance.

So now fast forward to last Friday. I was back in the archives at the Columbia Heritage Museum taking a quick look at some historic photographs.  I had asked Collections Manager Barbara Minard for some help with a power point program I’m putting together for a Community Historian class. “I’d like a few early photos of our river and bay settlements – McGowan, Chinook, Ilwaco, Nahcotta. (I probably have enough of Oysterville),” I told her.

We sat at a computer and Barbara went through several dozen photos with me. She had them ready for me on a thumb drive but wanted to run through them quickly to see if we were on the same wave length. We definitely were, and image after wonderful image came up on the screen in quick succession. Sometimes she paused to explain, but many she knew I would be familiar with so she didn’t linger. That was especially true of early Ilwaco (We had worked together on images for North Beach Peninsula’s IR&N which included many classic Ilwaco train photos.)

Shoalwater Storytellers c. 1982

So, as the images flashed by, I was surprised to see a familiar face. Was that really Lawrence Lessard, my old Shoalwater Storytellers partner? “Could you go back?” I asked. And sure enough, there was Lawrence, script in hand,  talking to a crowd at the Port of Ilwaco. And there I was, too! In a ‘historic’ photograph no less! Barbara had chosen it, not to show us – I don’t think she’d even noticed – but because it was a great shot of a Salmon Charter sign and illustrates an important aspect of Ilwaco’s development.

Apparently, Lawrence and I were doing a Storyteller’s performance down at the Port. There is quite an audience – some seated in folding chairs, some standing. It looks as though it was a planned gig (the chairs are definitely a clue), not a spontaneous street performance. In those years, probably the early 1980s, we did lots of both. Maybe we were even being paid!

I have absolutely no recollection of that particular event, although I do have vague memories of being in costume at the Port and freezing my tush off in the wind. Judging from the way the audience is dressed, this may depict one of those times. The dark-haired (ahem!) woman standing back ‘offstage’ doesn’t look cold. But, after all… she was an actress!

Is this how I’ll be remembered? Not all bad, I guess. Especially the hair part.