Bette and Sid Snyder

It’s not that we have a single complaint about Nyel’s hospital stay here in Portland, but we are both looking forward to his discharge today – the earlier the better.  Then we will beat feet for home, a good night’s sleep in our own bed and then… a Saturday walk on Memory Lane.

Our first steps on Saturday’s journey will be at Bette Snyder’s service – a time for reflection and giving thanks for forty years of laughter and kindness that always surrounded our visits with her.  She and Sid were great supporters of Oysterville and were long-time friends of the Espy family.  I will miss her elegance, her wit, and her positive outlook on life.

In the afternoon we will join the assemblage at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum’s annual meeting where Keith Cox will lead speak about his current project – ”Preserving the Past: the Ilwaco Tribune Photo Project.”  We got to know Keith through his work on the video documentary series about oyster farming in Willapa Bay. He interviewed me during the filming and since then we have shared historic photos and other information of mutual interest.

Sydney and Keith

But, mostly, we think of Keith as “one of our community friends” – the grandson of Don and Marge Cox and of the late Martha and Dick Murfin. As a teacher, his mom was a colleague; his Uncle Rick was Chair of the OBSD Board when I was teaching in Ocean Park; I served on the Friends of Fort Columbia Board with his Grandpa Dick; his great-grandfather, Frank Turner was a friend of my grandfather’s.  It seems to me there have always been Turners and Murfins and Coxes in my life.

At one time. I also thought there would always be an Ilwaco Tribune in my life, too.  Along with the Chinook Observer it was a part of life on the Peninsula from my earliest memory.  They were each weeklies and came on different days – I don’t remember which for which right now.  I just know that when my grandfather was living, everything stopped on ‘paper day’ and it was read – often aloud to whoever might be listening – cover to cover.

Keith Cox

We joined in the general mourning when the Tribune presses finally stopped running back in the early 1980s.  Little did we imagine that Keith (just a kid, then) would step up years later to preserve the history that his great-grandfather’s newspaper had captured beginning more than a century ago.

All things being equal, we will be there to learn how Keith is putting his considerable digital skills and archival knowledge to the best use imaginable – at least from a local historian’s viewpoint.  We’ll be the ones front and center, clapping and cheering for his vision and energy and enthusiasm and hoping he’ll tell us how we can help.  We hope to see many community historians, actual and wannabes, right there, too.  Two o’clock tomorrow, Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum, Lake Street, Ilwaco!