I wonder how many people are left in Pacific County who remember the Pioneer Picnics that took place in Bay Center every year from 1920 to 1972. They were almost always held on the 2nd Sunday in August and they were a time when the “old-timers” of...
The long awaited (at least by me!) 2014 issue of the Sou’wester is ‘out’ at last! Once again I had the pleasure of being guest editor of the publication which means, in essence, writing it and submitting it to Pacific County Historical Society...
The other day I ran across the most interesting file folder – Photostat copies of some of the earliest business considered by our Pacific County Commissioners way back in 1857 -- back in the day when we were still Washington Territory and the only...
I often feel a bit uncomfortable when I hear myself referred to as “a historian.” It’s true that I search endlessly for information about ‘the way it was’ here on the bay in the years of early settlement and, sometimes, I even uncover a...
I woke up this morning (as in was startled into full consciousness) with an email asking me to speak at a local organization’s annual meeting in February. Immediately, my palms began to get moist and my mouth dry. I really don’t like public...
This morning early I ducked out into the laundry room to see if the clothes I had put in the dryer last night had dried completely. Nope. So I set the dial at 20 minutes and proceeded with the first order of business for the day: coffee. It...
In my blog and in my newspaper column, I have often sung the praises of the Sou’wester, the quarterly magazine issued by the Pacific County Historical Society since 1966. I have quoted liberally from its pages and made use of its photo...
A few days ago, I received an email from Nancy Hall who volunteers at the Pacific County Historical Society’s museum in South Bend. She said she had been glancing through my Ghost Stories of the Long Beach Peninsula and was especially intrigued by...
The Pacific County Historical Society has invited me to do a Ghost Story Book Signing at the Museum in South Bend – Wednesday, December 10th at 2:00. I’m so excited and I hope that lots of people from North County come, even though the book...
It had been a good many years (at least twelve) since I had been on an all-day field trip on a bus and a good many more (probably fifty) since I had not been the one in charge and could just go along for the ride. Even with all those intervening...
When my friend Sue turned around in class that day and asked me about the ferries that used to cross the bay and I so confidently replied, “Never!” it began a line of dialogue among us old-timers (ahem!) that threatens to continue for quite a...
Last night Steve and Denise Rogers joined our group of irregular Friday nighters – a first, though we’ve been urging them to ‘come on over’ for several years. We concede that it’s a bit of a trek from South Bend but we knew our friends would...