Learning How

     When I was a kid in school, history was not on my list of favorite subjects – not by a long shot.  In fact, until recently when I began seeing references to myself as a “historian,” the thought of ‘history’ (as in dates and places and battle names) had no appeal at all.  Still doesn’t.
     It’s the stories that interest me – the quirky, the humorous, the poignant stories about people.  It must have begun on those chilly evenings around the library fireplace here in Oysterville when the grown-ups would gather and reminisce. 
     I loved being “the mouse in the corner” listening quietly.  I’m sure there was much I didn’t understand but, in those days when children were still to be “seen and not heard,” it would never have occurred to me to ask.
     Now, I ask.  Not only that, but I often write about those stories and lo and behold I’m called a historian.  I’m sure “real” historians – you know, those with lots of degrees and initials after their names – are laughing up their sleeves.
     What brought all this to mind just now is a story about Bert Andrews that I may use in one of the Jail Book articles I’m writing for the paper.  (Not that Bert ever had anything to do with jail, I hasten to point out!) Bert lived here in Oysterville – some of his descendents do, still – and, according to my family, he was a “mechanical genius.”
     Bert provided Oysterville with many “firsts” including, years before Roosevelt’s “rural electrification program” arrived, electricity supplied by a Delco electrical system he rigged up in his barn.  The power was enough to supply a single light bulb or two to most houses in town but it was “lights out” each night at ten o’clock when Bert and his wife, Minnie, went to bed. 
     Bert’s first car, a 1911 Winton, arrived in Oysterville by barge from Raymond.  To learn how it operated, he took it completely apart and then rebuilt it, piece by piece.  He quickly became the recognized authority on automobile mechanisms and, as more cars began to arrive on the peninsula, Bert was the person car owners turned to when they had difficulties.
     I remember Bert well and I remember lots of ‘Bert stories.’  Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that re-telling those stories (and lots more like them) would make me a “historian” in the eyes of others!  As I often say, “Go figure!”