I'm trying to clean out, consolidate and, in general, make sense of my files. However, I've all but given up after just two days. The problem is, I saved these "gems" because they are just that and I'm just not ruthless enough to pitch and...
We* are gearing up for the first session of the History Forum here in Oysterville and hope those of you interested in SW Washington history will be among our participants! We begin at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, September 6th at the Oysterville...
*As in Pacific County -- not as in politically correct (although it could be.) I don't think today was a "launch" exactly, but when Community Historians gathered for a little reunion prior to the CPHM Annual Meeting, I was given an opportunity to...
Perhaps you have seen the sign on the west side of the Taylor Hotel that identifies it as the Shoalwater Bay Yacht Club. Or perhaps you have visited the Shoalwater Bay Yacht Club website which says, among other things: Established 1877....
I don't know if it's the 39 years of teaching in me or the life-long interest in our local history or the fact that I majored in journalism back in the day when there were proof-readers and copy-editors. Probably a combination of all the foregoing,...
If there had been space, the title of today's blog should have been: ATTENTION ALL HISTORY BUFFS -- ESPECIALLY LOVERS OF COMMUNITY HISTORY AND OF AUTHOR LOUISE PENNY!! And, although the passage I will quote below is from her latest book, A World...
My friend Stephanie wrote yesterday, "All of Sydney Stevens' blogs are interesting, but I particularly like the ones about Oysterville history." I appreciated that comment for several reasons but mostly because I've been thinking about gathering...
In the on-going discussion about the closure of Nahcotta's Post Office, someone wrote to me: ... It’s pretty hard to make the argument that the community will lose service, which is the case with some of these contract offices in extremely...
When I was a kid I went through what I think of as my "Treasure Island" stage -- looking for old maps that might lead to buried treasure, or even drawing my own maps for the neighbor kids to find. That shivery old skull-and-crossbones feeling...
Yesterday I received a note from my Australian friend Rosemary Peeler. I think of her as a blog/community historian connection. We actually "met" on the internet through some blogs I had written about Judge Briscoe and Michael Lemeshko's...
I've just finished reading (or probably re-reading, though it surely didn't seem familiar) Dick Francis's book The Edge. Written in 1988, it dealt with the fictional "Great Transcontinental Mystery Race Train" and, though I've never traveled by...
Infamy: evil reputation brought about by something grossly criminal, shocking, or brutal "December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy…" It was the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed and I remember listening to the radio as President...