General Nyel Surveys His Troops, May 30, 2022 – Photo by Michael Mathers

What a wonderful Memorial Day!  Our house was full of love and laughter — Barbara and John Canney from Cohasset, Massachusetts, and Owen, Willie, Randal, and Susan Waters-Bays from just up the way in Olympia.  And don;’t you just love it when your friends who have never met one another get along like a house afire and maybe even have more in common with one another than they do with you!  We had such fun!

The Honorary Oysterville Militia, May 30, 2022 – Photo by Barbara Canney

And then there was The Honorary Oysterville Militia gathering at high noon — to pay tribute to their friends, loved ones, and fellow-militia-members who have gone on to their final reward. It wasn’t a large gathering, but it was spectacular.  Among those assembled was Marian Lee, a really-0, truly-o veteran of WWII — a WAVE in the U.S. Navy.  Marian will be 100 on September 4th, and we asked if THOM could fire the cannon in her honor that day.  “If I’m still here,” she said, with a twinkle in her eye.  We’re counting on it!

Bays Family Irish Band – Photo by Barbara Canney

Before the formal part of the program began, the Bays Family Irish Band played a tribute to General Nyel — a tune called, “Nyel, the Canoneer” which is one of the original fiddle tunes recorded by Randal to accompany tthe book “The Hmours of Cascadia.”  (To purchase copies of the book, visit www.randalbays.com.)  And, Photographer Barbara Canney took a group picture — with the cannon, of course!

And then began the serious business of the day. First a reading by Chaplain Pat McKibbin of  the THOM members “lost in the line of duty.”  Then an anouncement by General Stevens of new commissions to Private Eugene Businius, to Lieutenant Ruth Maloney, and to Lieutenant Steven Kovach.  Only Lt. Kovach was present to claim his certificate of enlistment (suitable for framing) and his cap declaring his rank in The Honorary Oysterville Militia.

BOOM! May 30, 2022 – Photo by Barbara Canney

And finally… the big BOOM.  Doing the honors for the firing were Ron Biggs, Tucker Wachsmuth, and Sturges Dorrance.  It went off perfectly and was probably heard all the way to South Bend!  Laughing and clapping all around following by an unexpected treat of chocolate chip cookies straight from Michael and Petra Mathers’ Astoria oven and passed out by the baker, herself!  A sweet first for a militia gathering!

All-in-all it was a Memorial Day to remember!

Inside the  vhurch — Oysterville’s Meeting House

Today is Memorial-Day-Weekend-Saturday — traditionally when the people of Oysterville gather at the church, using it as a “meeting house” in the traditional sense of the expression.  The tradition began in the 1950s or 1960s when family members returned to their local “roots” to join with others in placing flowers at the cemetery in preparation for “Decoration Day” as it was called early on.

Soon it became a time for talking about town concerns in the “now that I have you altogether” sort of way.  And, as those “concerns” grew and we became more organized, the various “organizations” began to establish times and agendas and encouraged every household to send at least one representative.  Today’s meetings included:
9:00 a.m. Oysterville Water
10:00 a.m.  Oysterville Restoration Foundation
11:00 a.m.  Oysterville Cemetery Association

Some of us, but not all, attended all three meetings.  Every single one was interesting, informative, and civil — I enjoyed them all.  That has not always been the case.

Entrance, Oysterville Cemetery

Of course, we haven’t had Saturday-Go-To-Meeting-Day in Oysterville since before the onslaught of Covid.  And the last two we had before that were a bit tense — one involving a “take-over”attempt by a group of newcomers and outsiders and the next year the promise of Security (with a capital S) should things get out of control.  I doubt that I was the only one who wondered how today would go.  But it was smooth as Willapa Bay becalmed!

For the first time in quite a while, I felt a glimmer of hope for our little community —  the Historic District and our Douglas Drive Neighborhood and the folks out towards the weather beach and Leadbetter Point.  Perhaps — just perhaps — we can keep our indivduality, our sense of history and purpose, and incorporate the best parts of the future as they come along.  We can but hope…

Considering the Cannon

For the first time since the pandemic sheltering began, The Honorary Oysterville Militia (THOM) will gather at 11:30 a.m. on Memorial Day (May 30th) for their annual salute to veterans and others who have been called to serve “in the great beyond.”  The cannon will be fired at high noon and the public is cordially invited to attend.

Oysterville has a long history of celebrations marked by cannon fire.  According to my esteemed late Uncle Willard Espy’s account in Oysterville: Roads to Grandpa’s Village, in the 1870s R.H. Espy would don special black broadcloth pants, a maroon and black brocaded vest, a light linen duster, a stiff shirt with boiled bosom, a stiff collar, a bow tie, and a beaver hat and would order the discharge the cannon to begin festivities such as the Oysterville Yacht Club’s Annual Regatta.

THOM Cannon 

There are accounts that Oysterville’s original cannon was blown to bits by a rowdy group of midnight revelers, so for several generations we had to make do with only the stories about it.  Hardly satisfactory thought Nyel.  We happened to be in Gettysburg a few years before Oysterville was to observe the sesquicentennial year of its founding, and all those cannons on display prompted Nyel to make inquiries.  He learned that for a mere ten or twelve thousand dollars Oysterville, too, could once again have a cannon.

We pondered…  and on the long road trip back home we conceived the idea of forming The Honorary Oysterville Militia.  We would sell commissions to our friends and relatives and buy the cannon with the proceeds.  General Nyel was the first to invest.  The plan was successful beyond our wildest expectations and in early 2003 a replica full-sized 1841 mountain howitzer was ordered from Cannon Ltd. in Coolville, Ohio. It arrived in the spring of 2004, just in time for Oysterville’s 150^th celebration.  We’ve been celebrating ever since!

P.S.  There are still commissions available.  Apply to General Nyel in Oysterville.

Our camillia in greener, glossier days.

I really hadn’t noticed until our “Garden Girls” called it to my attention:  the leaves on our camellia bushes — especially the one on the south side of the house — have turned from glossy green to a lemony yellow.  “Have they ever done that before?” asked Glenna,  “Not that I remember.”  Which is becoming a standard answer to most questions these days (as far as I can remember!)

So they looked it up.  “Too much moisture.”  Well… there you have it!  The story of our year, so far.  Apparently, the condition is not fatal to camellias — they just have to weather through it, so to speak.  It all reminded me of a letter my Aunt Medora wrote to one of her “chums” back in  September of 1913 when she was fourteen years old.  I know I’ve blogged about it before, but Medora’s words are always worth another look:

Medora in the Garden c. 1913

We are having a regular winter storm.  Do you know what a storm is?  Not an Oysterville one.  You see, we get from both the ocean and the bay.  The wind has already knocked the remainder of our cherry tree down; the cupboard of dishes in Sue’s playhouse toppled over and consequently she will have to abandon her house till next summer; a great piece of the trimmings of our house blew off; apples and pears litter the ground.  It is a real storm.  The bay is covered with white caps; the water has covered our lower meadow and you could almost go down the lane leading from our house to the bay in a dinghy.  To cap it all, it has rained night and day since Monday evening in regular torrents.  It is not an unusual storm.  The natives merely remark, “Sort of wet today.”

Never mind that it hasn’t been stormy.  And never mind that it’s not autumn.  It’s the “Sort of wet today” that has rattled around in my head for most of 2022.  Medora would have found that some things in her beloved Oysterville had not changed much over the last hundred years!