Inside the Pacific County Courthouse at Oysterville, c. 1890
Last week, when a former teaching colleague arrived carrying two café mochas and a double shot iced espresso for Nyel, we spent a lovely hour sipping and “catching up.” Such as we could. Since she is no longer living in the area, and Nyel and I have more-or-less confined ourselves to quarters, “catching up” didn’t really involve much. Not until we got to news of Pacific County.
There seemed to be quite a bit to tell in that arena, at least according to the most recent issues of the Chinook Observer. Most of our “reporting” centered on two items — the Commissioners’ difficulty in coming to consensus on policies relating to Covid immunizations for county employees for starters, and the ongoing resignations in the County Prosecutor’s office which could eventually involve Governor Inslee stepping in. Both situations worrisome and both with cloudy implications and many unanswered questions.
“Galloping Mediocrity at its best!” our visitor said. I whooped with laughter and THEN the coup de grâce: “You coined that phrase years ago, Sydney. Don’t you remember?”
Absolutely not. No recollection at all. “What was it in relation to?” asked I.
Pacific County Courthouse at South Bend, c. 1940
“Pacific County and its governance. That’s all I remember,” was the reply.
I’ve wracked my brain since that conversation. It’s been more than twenty-five years since she and I worked together, so what in the world could that have been about? Nothing really comes to mind, but then mediocrity is always hard to remember. Harder still to overtake, apparently.
The blog page the writer refers to was written and posted on August 16, 2014. (In case you are interested, the link to the post is http://sydneyofoysterville.com/2014/oles-nook-and-other-ocean-park-icons/). It received a fair amount of commentary when it was first posted but it was surely a surprise — and a pleasant one! — to receive yesterday’s inquiry. Perhaps one of today’s readers will have more information about the jacket and will post it here so we can all share in the fun.
The third word into the Introduction was “geezer” and I was pretty sure I was going to like the book. There’s something nostalgic — maybe even warm and fuzzy about that word — that makes me think of Clint Eastwood in “The Mule” or of Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman in “The Bucket List.” But on the third page in Chapter One came the loooong and boring description of the mining camp near Lewiston, Washington Territory, in 1861.
