Archive for the ‘Legendary Locals of the Long Beach Peninsula’ Category

In the eyes of the beholder…

Thursday, July 21st, 2022

Sue’s Chair… at first.

Last summer — or was it summer before last? — Nyel and I were on a garage clean-out marathon.  Among the  things we put a “For Sale” sign on was the ugliest chair in the world.  It had been in the Back Forty for as long as I could remember.  I don’t think I ever did see it in use and I’d have been happy just to haul it to the dump.

But “no” said my ever-practical husband, and he put a reasonable price on it and set it outside on the verge.  I didn’t think much about it as long as there were strangers looking at all our sad discards.  But then along came our friends, Sue and Bill Grennan, and… Yikes!  Sue was actually sitting in that ugly old chair!

And then… were they actually considering buying it???  I was truly mortified.  “But I really want it,” said Sue.  “You don’t know how hard it is for my short little legs to find a chair that’s comfortable — a chair that I can sit in and have both feet on the floor.  And, in this case, maybe even rock a bit!”

When I saw that she was serious, I tried to give her the chair.  “Just take it,” I said.  But she was having none of it.  I can’t remember what she paid, but she truly looked so pleased with herself that I wondered what I was missing.

It took a long time to find out…  and it’s still a work in progress.  The wooden frame has been stripped of it’s ugly varnish — did Bill say it was mahogany?  The back has been re-caned and, says Sue, will be done again.  “It was a learning experience,” she laughs.  “By the time I got to the seat — that ugly old upholstered seat — “I knew better what I was doing.”  And now she plans to re-do the back.

I should have known!  Sue is a prize-winning quilter.  She’s good with her hands.  She’s a perfectionist.  And, she’s obviously motivated by those needy little legs of hers, though I don’t believe that for a minute!  I have a feeling that only other quilters and caners and knitters and crocheters will truly understand.  But no one will clap louder than I!

 

You just can’t get there from here…

Saturday, April 22nd, 2017

Headed north for the bridge???

Some of the local wags probably still direct tourists to Leadbetter Point when asked about the bridge over to North Cove and Tokeland.  I must say, it is tempting advice to give.  I wish I had a nickel for all the drivers who have stopped me as I walk toward the post office to ask if this is the right road for the bridge.  Often, they have a map in hand and, usually, they argue with you when you tell them there is no bridge.  It’s hard to be polite when you know they are thinking “Dumb Yokel!” and you are thinking… well, never mind what you are thinking.

I can empathize just a tad with those insistent visitors — but in a twenty-first century way – when I get that eternal runaround by email or telephone.  It’s another one of those ‘you can’t get there from here’ deals.  It’s the game I’ve been playing the last few weeks with my publisher whose March 31st royalty check has not yet shown up. (Perhaps I should mention here that said royalty payment will cover four books with this publisher for all sales from July 20th to December 20th of last year.)

Robo Responder

After waiting a suitable time (two weeks) for my payment to show up, I emailed a polite query that got this response:   Due to the high volume of inquiries we receive on a daily basis regarding Royalties, please allow 5 business days for a response to your email sent to the Royalties Department.  So, I waited some more.  After eight business days without a peep, I called the phone number that was included in the email.

“Dial one if your inquiry concerns sales; Dial two if your inquiry concerns submissions; dial three if…”  I think my magic number might have been four.  And, guess what!  A robo-voice said to leave my call-back number but “Due to the high volume of inquiries we receive on a daily basis regarding Royalties, please allow 5 business days for a response…”           

Sydney’s Books with Arcadia Publishing/History Press

On Business Day Nine after my first email inquiry I received a snippy email response saying they had notified me on March 31st (no, they hadn’t) and on April 17th my royalty payment (which I think will come to about $272) had been directly deposited to my bank account.  So, yesterday, April 21st, I stopped at the bank and inquired.  “Sorry, Sydney.  Nothing has come in.”

I can’t decide whether to continue looking for the bridge on this road or just to write it off as a bad trip all the way around…

Remembering Pearl Harbor and Alan Lane

Monday, December 7th, 2015
Pete "Alan Lane" Hanner c. 1941

Pete “Alan Lane” Hanner c. 1941

This morning, when Nyel brought me a cup of coffee with the news that “It’s Pearl Harbor Day,” my thoughts immediately flew to our friend Pete Hanner. We had learned yesterday that Pete died on Friday. He hadn’t felt well and thought he’d just lie down for a bit… What a wonderful way to make your exit, especially when you are 99 years old!

Pete was one of our most beloved and familiar ‘characters’ here at the beach. He was tall and slim, always looked like he had stepped out of that proverbial ‘band box,’ and had a lovely tenor singing voice. There was hardly a gathering that involved music where Pete didn’t sing – sometimes as part of the program and sometimes absolutely spontaneously. Pete had a song for every occasion and most of them hearkened back to the thirties and forties and the days of the Big Bands.   That’s how Pete got his start – with Duke Daley and his Orchestra. Pete was both lead singer and the baritone sax man.

Pete Serenades Sydney at "Legendary Locals" event, 2013

Pete Serenades Sydney at “Legendary Locals” event, 2013

“They called me a crooner,” he once told me, “and I used the stage name Alan Lane.” I’m not sure whether that was the name he used later when he had his own radio show at KMPC in Beverly Hills. He was “on the air” there when the show was interrupted on December 7, 1941 with the announcement that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. Soon, Alan Housel “Pete” Hanner was off to war and his life, like that of most of us who remember that day of infamy, changed forever.

I’m certain this is just many of the special days when I’ll be remembering Pete. I’ll be thinking of him on Valentine’s Day and on my birthday, at every House Concert and at every Vespers service – on all the noteworthy occasions and at all the venues when he would sing, sometimes for someone in particular, and sometimes… just to sing. And I’m sure I’ll never hear “I’ll Be Seeing You” again without remembering Pete… and Pearl Harbor.

“Naked Joe” Larger than Life in Ilwaco!

Friday, November 22nd, 2013
Portrait of An Artist as Nature Man

Portrait of an Artist as Nature Man?

Last night after our Chinook Culture class we, along with most of our fellow-students, headed a few blocks west to the Sea Hag Bar and Grill for an eight o’clock showing of “Naked Joe.”  It was one of those rare ‘all about Ilwaco’ gatherings – several dozen people assembled to see friend and neighbor Aaron Webster on the Big Screen talking about historic resident Joe Knowles and his ‘presence’ at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum.

The Big Screen at the Sea Hag is a white-painted brick wall, probably eight by ten or twelve feet in size — maybe bigger.  Aaron is the Chief Interpreter at Cape Disappointment State Park.  “Naked Joe” refers to a “charcoal portrait of a scantily clad man” housed at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum which, of course, was a short two blocks away from us at the Sea Hag.  And the show was an episode of the Travel Channel’s “Mysteries at the Museum” which had been filmed in Ilwaco some time ago.

Aaron, the Star

Aaron Webster, the Star

Aaron was the ‘expert’ tapped by the show’s mucky-mucks to ‘testify’ to the identity of the man in the portrait – ‘our own’ Joe Knowles.  As I wrote in Legendary Locals of the Long Beach Peninsula:

            Peninsula folks still remember artist Joe Knowles as a “character” of the first order.  He had made his name as ‘The Nature Man’ in the Maine Woods by surviving without clothing, food, or equipment except for a knife.  He parlayed his adventure into a vaudeville career and wound up on the Seaview beach living in a “shack” built of driftwood.  He frequently drove his touring car, top down, with his big white dog, Wolf, in the front passenger seat, his wife and young woman art student in the back.  His paintings and etchings became collectible, but his twelve-by-three foot oil “North Beach Peninsula,” displayed prominently in the Washington State Exhibit at the Chicago’s 1933 Century of Progress Exposition, was never paid for.  The city fathers of Long Beach who commissioned it refused, claiming it was incorrectly named.

On the Big Screen

On the Big Screen

The Nature Man’s adventure has long been considered a hoax and, of course, that’s what the ‘mystery’ was all about.  The show was sensational journalism at its best (or worst?) and all of us in the audience cheered and clapped in all right places – when they showed Jessie’s and the boats at the Port, when they showed Cape Disappointment, when they showed the Heritage Museum, and every time Aaron came on the screen three times larger than life!

Great fun!  And for me is was sort of a preview of what to expect when the Travel Channel’s new program about historic hotels appears and my son Charlie is on the screen.  I doubt that he’ll make the big time at the Sea Hag, however.  That was definitely an Ilwaco bonus

Summer Kids: Barry, Bart, and Me

Sunday, July 7th, 2013
Guy Allison

Barry’s Grandpa, Guy Allison

As far as I know, my book signing at Bailey’s Bakery and Café yesterday is the last that I’ll be doing for Legendary Locals of the Long Beach Peninsula.  Not that I won’t sign more books at the drop of a hat.  I will and gladly!  But yesterday’s signing was the final ‘scheduled event’ for this particular Arcadia book and I’m a bit sorry about that.

One of the most enjoyable parts about the five signing events that I’ve participated in for this book has been the people I’ve met – people heretofore unknown to me who have a connection to someone in the book.  Every time that has happened, I’m at once delighted and dismayed.  Oh how helpful it would have been had I known these folks during the writing process!  The information that I’d have gleaned!  And the possibility of more or different photos – consistently the most difficult aspect of any book for Arcadia Publications.

Take Barry Bartron and Bart Bartlett, for instance.  Both were gentlemen ‘of a certain age’ – my age, actually, give or take a few years.  Both have grandparents featured in Legendary Locals (as do I), and both were summer kids on the Peninsula (as was I.)  I doubt that our paths crossed then but I feel enriched that I’ve met both men now.

Margaret Russell

Bart’s Grandma. Margaret Russell

Barry introduced himself to me at my Oysterville Store signing –the May 25th “Sneak a Peek” event.  He is the grandson of Guy Allison who was famous for his Ocean Park beach cabin, “The Wreckage.”  It was built completely of lumber salvaged from two maritime accidents which occurred during the winter of 1911 – one involving dozens of fir logs that washed onto the beach and the other, a helpful load of tongue-and-groove lumber.

One of Barry’s fondest summertime memories involved reading the books of Elizabeth Lambert Woods, a local children’s author and another of the Legendary Locals.   He told me that on one occasion he was permitted to share an excerpt from one of his favorites at a meeting of the Chatter Club – a gathering of his grandfather’s cronies who periodically talked about the books they were reading.  It was an event that Barry has savored in memory for more than sixty years.

Granny, Papa, Sydney 1939

My Grandparents, Helen and Harry Espy (and me)

Then, yesterday at Bailey’s Bart introduced himself to me.  His grandmother was Margaret Russell of the Moby Dick Hotel fame.  Bart was able to fill in for me ‘the rest of the story’ concerning her three pet raccoons – Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  (Only one lived to maturity…)  Bart also said that he has a great deal of memorabilia from the early days of the Moby Dick, including some of the guest registers!  I hope he makes good on his promise to share some of that information with me.

Though there are age differences among us, I can’t help but wonder if we were ever on the Peninsula during the same summer visiting our respective grsndparents – me in Oysterville, Barry in Ocean Park, and Bart in Nahcotta.  For sure, our grandparents knew one another.  There are letters from Guy Allison to my grandfather in our family archive and my grandparents celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary at the Moby Dick in 1947.  I was twelve and well remember Mrs. Russell.

Here on the Peninsula it seems to be ‘six degrees of separation and shrinking…’

a gathering of community… a gamut of emotions…

Sunday, June 30th, 2013

A Signing Event I guess it happens to all of us – yesterday afternoon was so so SO fun that it is really all a big wonderful blur.  It was a celebration of Legendary Locals at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum and not only was every one of the 75 chairs taken, it was Standing Room Only.

There were “Legendaries” and their friends and families and other community members.  Everybody knew somebody and there were greetings and hugs and laughter and even some tears.  People brought or bought copies of the book and mixed and mingled as they asked one another to sign photographs in their books – just like back in high school!  I heard so many people say “page 111” or “page 72” as they directed others to the proper page.  So so SO fun!

Name Tags, June 29, 2013Nyel and I arrived early and, as we entered the main room, Museum Director Betsy Millard presented each of us with a name tag.  A pre-printed name tag!  Wow!  Very classy.  Already there was a large screen showing a continuous loop of photographs from the book and the cookies and punch were being arranged on a large table in the back.  Chairs at white-clothed tables dotted the room, placed so guests could easily sit or wander and, as the afternoon progressed, they did lots of both.

Soon the other ‘speakers’ arrived –  Singer/songwriter Mary Garvey, Fisher/poet Geno Leech, Emcee Bill Garvin – and people began to line up asking one another for signatures!  I managed to introduce the youngest of the Legendary Locals, Danielle Wachsmuth (almost six), to 97-year-old Pete Hanner who was the oldest Legendary at the event.  (Betty Paxton, 98, was off in Mt,. Vernon at a family “do”.)  And then it was show time!

Pete Hanner Serenades SydneyBill was eloquent, as always – the perfect host and spokesman for any special occasion.  I rambled on about the process of writing a book for Arcadia Publications and then in a totally unplanned surprise, Pete Hanner stepped to the mic and actually serenaded me in his lovely tenor voice with “You’ll Never Know How Much ‘We’ Love You!”  I, of course, blushed — also just like high school.  (Nyel took a photo during Pete’s song and there, above him on the screen, was the photo of my beloved grandfather Harry Espy, ‘Papa’ looking down.  So, of course, when I saw it this morning, I cried.)

Next Mary sang, beginning with her tribute to Luke Jensen, “The Lady Cecelia.”  There wasn’t a dry eye in the room – a powerful community moment.  Luke’s parents, Chris and Dave were sitting near me and I resisted the urge to get up and hold them close.  I think many people felt the same way.

June 29, 2013Geno wound up the formal program with three of his poems – including a new one, “Popeye’s House” about our Nahcotta neighbor, Cap’n Phil.  Only those at last winter’s Fisher Poets gathering in Astoria had heard it before and like all of Geno’s poems, it was a big slice of reality filled with both humor and pathos.

And then we were back to signing one another’s books and visiting and continuing the party.  It was a wonderful time.  Over and over people asked when we were going to do it again.  When indeed?

…and tomorrow I get to do it again!

Tuesday, May 14th, 2013

Book SigningI’m surprised at the number of people who have asked me how my book signing at Adelaide’s went on Saturday.  It never occurred to me to ‘report’ about it afterwards but, for all of my kind friends who have inquired, I will say, “It was great!”

Katie and Joel had rearranged things in the bookstore end of the building to accommodate a couple of dozen folding chairs and had even provided me with a ‘lectern’ of sorts for my notes.  (I loved it that it was a music stand.  Did you know that Joel is a musician with his own band in Portland?)  The chairs filled up – except for the three directly in front!  Why is it that people hesitate about front row seats? – and a number of people stood in the back.  Nyel counted “at least 26” which seemed the perfect number for the space.

There was a nice mix of ‘legendary locals’ and other people from the community who I know or who have familiar faces, as well as a sprinkling of complete strangers.  Many of them had bought books previously and had come in to hear me talk and to get my signature.  Some told me they had come to get additional copies.  It was definitely a feel-good sort of crowd!

I talked about the Arcadia Publications phenomenon – how they have 8,000 titles in print with more coming every day and how Legendary Locals of the Long Beach Peninsula differed from the other books I’ve done for them.  I told about my research struggles and the difficulties in getting acceptable (to Arcadia) photographs, especially of the Chinooks,  of the pioneers and early settlers and of the Chinese cannery workers.  I talked a little about Arcadia’s stringent writing requirements and how my listeners, too, could become Arcadia authors.

Afterwards I asked, in good teacherly fashion, if there were any questions.  I was surprised at how many great questions about my writing process there were and was somewhat amazed (and pleased!) that I was asked what I was working on now.  Never mind that one person asked how my Willard book was ‘selling’ – as in I’m quite sure she knew the manuscript had recently been rejected by WSU Press.  I think she meant it as a kindly encouragment and had no idea that it’s a sensitive subject just now…

One man held up a copy of The Long Beach Peninsula’s I R &N (the first book I wrote for Arcadia) and told a cute story about the train that ran through his town when he was a kid.  (And speaking of the ‘teacher mode, I had to bite my tongue not to say, as I would have to first graders, “Are you asking something?  Or are you telling?”)  But, he actually bought that railroad book and had me sign it.  He had come in late and I don’t think he had a clue that I was actually talking about another book entirely!

I lost count of how many books I signed afterwards.  There were several people who said they would see me Wednesday (that’s tomorrow!) at the Picture Attic in Long Beach where they intend to buy more!  Wow!  That gathering is from 2:00 to 4:00 and, in case you need another incentive to attend, Picture Attic owner Jean Nitzel is planning to serve refreshments!  See you there.

At Long Last… OUT!

Monday, April 29th, 2013

Book CoverToday, April 29th, is the day that Legendary Locals of the Long Beach Peninsula is available for sale.  I know that our local bookstores, as well as a number of other local businesses, will be carrying the book and I encourage potential buyers to buy locally if at all possible.

The sticking point at this very minute is that I’m not sure if books have arrived at all their retail destinations.  Even I ordered a few but they have yet to show up.  I counsel myself and my readers (I’ve already had several phone calls) to be patient.  UPS is no doubt on the way!

Meanwhile, here is a list of Book Signings and Events that are scheduled up down the Peninsula over the next weeks:

Saturday, May 11th, 1:00-3:00 p.m. – a signing and book talk at Adelaide’s Coffee and Books in Ocean Park

Wednesday. May 15th, 2:00-4:00 p.m. – a signing and book talk at The Picture Attic in Long Beach

Saturday, May 25th, 1:00–3:00 p.m. – a signing at the Grand Re-Opening of the Oysterville Store

Saturday, June 29th, 2:00-4:00 p.m. – “Meet and Read with the Legendary Locals” at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum in Ilwaco

Saturday, July 6th, 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. – a signing at Bailey’s Bakery and Café in Nahcotta

Lately, I’ve heard some great ideas from people planning to get the book.  One person said they intend to get a copy at the first place they see it offered, read through it, make a list of people they want to buy copies for, go to one or mire book signings to buy for their list and then get them all signed.  (Great idea!  Keep the receipt for the first book so you can bring it to be signed, too.)

Someone else said that they are going to collect signatures of as many “legendary locals” as they can – sort of like we did for our high school yearbooks!  I’m definitely going to do that (if I can remember) with my own copy at each of the signings.  I’m thinking that’s where we’ll be able to ‘catch’ many of the subjects of the book all in one ‘swell foop.’

Bottom line:  I hope the book is well received and I hope that I get lots of feed-back about it.  People are already asking if there will be a Legendary Locals of the Long Beach Peninsula – Part Two.  I have no idea if Arcadia would go for such an idea.  I’m pretty sure it would depend on how sales go on this one.  But, for sure I know that we have enough legendary locals here at the beach to make a follow-up possible!