“The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins”

One of the things we pride ourselves upon here at the beach is knowing everyone – or just about everyone.  Sometimes it’s a burden.  There is no way, for instance, to go out and do a ‘few quick errands.’  Quick ain’t in it, as they say.  Whether you’re going to the bank or the pharmacy, to the grocery store or the gas station, there is no way in this community to accomplish anything quickly.

It’s a given that you will see someone you know at every turn.  And the frustrating part is that you actually want to see them.  You want to know how their mother is doing or if they’ve had a chance to try that recipe or whether they need a ride to the Grange tomorrow night.  For me, every foray out the door is another opportunity to ‘network’ – or at least that’s what we call it these days.  I’m always gathering information for a story or checking up on a fact that didn’t sit right and, invariably, I run into just the person who can help me out.

It happens everywhere – not just when you’re doing errands.  At concerts and school plays, at car shows and even at funerals, we are always visiting with people we know.  But then comes the question:  How well, exactly, do we know them?  Often, it seems, we wear only one hat per person and we don’t really know all that much about them beyond a certain role.  Seldom do we realize how many other hats a person wears – perhaps like Dr. Suess’s character Bartholomew Cubbins, we each wear 500 hats.

Lecture Series Poster

Diane Buttrell, who has lived on the Peninsula on and off for five or six years, has found this quality one of the outstanding attributes of her friends and neighbors here.  And she wants everyone to know more about some of the folks she thinks are amazing and special.  In typical Diane fashion, she is doing something about that desire.  She has organized a series of “Town Meetings and Lectures” which she says are not really town meetings or lectures.

They are opportunities for some of the “amazing” people she has met here to tell the rest of us a little more about themselves – about their interests, their background, their areas of expertise.  The first of such gatherings will be held tomorrow at 10 a.m. at the Oysterville School House.  The speaker will be Clay Nichols – a soft-spoken man you may know through his work with the Friends of the Willapa Bay Wildlife Refuge, or maybe as a performer/singer with PAPA and the Bayside Singers.

But did you know he’s been an adviser to Al Gore regarding climate change?  Or did you know that he serves as Chairman of the National Academy of Science Committee on Earth Resources?  Pretty heady stuff.  And now, thanks to Diane, we have an opportunity to learn more about Clay (Geoscientist/engineer Dr. Clayton Ralph Nichols, that is!) and maybe get the inside scoop on some of the news that’s making headlines these days.

And, chances are we’ll see a whole lot of other folks there wearing their Town Meeting Hats…