
Photo by Marta LaRue
I was dismayed to learn from one of my facebook friends that this message has been on the Music in the Gardens Tour FB page for the last few days:
Special News Flash! A select few tickets for the Oysterville Garden Tour VIP Experience have opened up! The very special private tour of the gardens — along with a catered and wonderful dinner in the gardens — is an incredible experience! Proceeds go towards Music Programs in the schools and also supporting the Oysterville School. Tickets are $1.000 each and this elegant evening is not to be missed. As you can imagine — it will be a VIP Experience worthy of the Rock Star that you are — while supporting these community nonprofits. If you want to join an elite group of garden lovers (and foodies) join us Friday, May 20, in Oysterville. Please send a private message and we will answer questions and arrange for you to join us! #vipexperience #gardentour #dinner #finedining #taxdeductible

Just Beyond The Garden Gate
OMG! I fully expect to go up to the cemetery next week to place flowers on the graves of my ancestors and find that the ground is rockin’ and rollin’ as they toss and turn in their graves. If there is anything that this town was NOT founded on it was elitism. Everyone was welcome in 1854– as opposed to the exclusivity of the Bruce Boys in Bruceport just across the bay. RH Espy and Alonzo Clark were of one mind on that point — there would be no exclusivity or elitism here. The Oysterville desribed on the Water Music FB page is certainly not MY Oysterville or one my forebears would recognize!

South Garden in Summer 2013
And in more recent times, or at least for the last 80 years (which is about all of my 86 that I can clearly remember) Oysterville has continued to be a welcoming place. Friendliness, sincerity, and a willingness to help are the defining charactertistics that Oysterville residents have considered important. How much money you have, how Very Important you are in your own eyes, or whether or not you have Rock Star characterists don’t really hold much cachet. Foodies? Elite group of garden lovers? I’m not sure the people who lived and loved, worked and played here and cherished Oysterville were all that interested in those aspects of life. I am happy that this is not MY Oysterville. Shame on you, if it is yours!