Casey, The Singing Postmaster

     Long-time friend and once-upon-a-time Oysterville postmaster, Casey Killingsworth, was the featured musician at yesterday’s afternoon vesper service at the church.  It’s the nineteenth consecutive year that Casey has played at vespers – never mind that he moved away from the peninsula years ago and now lives in the Portland area.
     Sometimes other Killingsworth family members play and sing with him, but yesterday he had the ‘spotlight’ all to himself.  He treated us to a program of his own compositions from the years that he and his brother Monte made their living doing gigs as “The Killingsworth Brothers.”  The songs were personal, nostalgic, and left us with much to think about.
     The minister was René Devantier of the United Methodist Church in Ocean Park.  His subject was joy and his message involved a number of great jokes – all with a Christian theme and all really funny.  Seldom has our little church rocked with so much laughter!
     Later in the afternoon I asked our houseguest (Tucker’s cousin from Germany) what she thought of the service.  “I’ve never seen a minister with tattoos!” she laughed.  “I think if he were at our church in Germany, we would have more young people in our congregation,”
     She and I had talked earlier about the difficulties churches are having both here and in Germany and probably in many other places.  Diminishing congregations, mostly gray-headed – difficulties in maintaining the buildings – all familiar themes to us both.
     But our historic little church was filled just about to capacity yesterday.  It’s the third summer in a row that Casey and René have paired up by their own request.  I think of them as ‘the dynamic duo.’  They certainly give the service a flavor all their own – probably a far cry from the staid Baptist services of 100 years ago.  On the other hand, I doubt that those long-ago services had larger or more appreciative congregations and, to me, that’s a huge plus.