My Uncle Willard Espy, son of Harry and grandson of Robert Hamilton was the genealogist of our branch of the family. He spent more than sixty-five of his eighty-nine years tracing lineages and writing up his ‘discoveries’ for the edification of...
Yesterday’s mail brought the unwelcome news that my book about Willard Espy “in its current form is not one that fits the current WSU Press publishing goals.” The letter, while disappointing in the extreme, contained good news as well as bad. Or...
I grew up thinking of January as a long, dark penance between Christmas and my birthday at the end of February. These days it seems even darker and, actually, it is, given the contrast in day length between the Bay Area of California and...
Yesterday on NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday” host Rachel Martin talked with book critic Ron Charles of The Washington Post about the literary and linguistic phenomena which have sprung from the ‘romantic’ (some say “soft porn”) novel, Fifty Shades...
Until his death in 1999, my uncle Willard Espy was the go-to person in our family with regard to Espy and Richardson history. Willard had spent three-quarters of his life chasing our forebears back through time – in some cases back to the...
I can hear my mother’s admonishing voice saying, “When you speak, speak the truth but don’t always speak.” I’m quite sure that she would consider any thoughts following the words “I told you so” right up there with what should remain unsaid. But…...
This is one of those days I wish I could clone myself. No matter how hard I try, I cannot quite visualize what the audience is seeing when I am on stage and it’s me they’re looking at. Of course, in the case of this weekend and our two...
Once again, “Shoalwater Shenanigans” is all costumed and rehearsed and ready for presentation. It’s a new production of last year’s very well-received show about long dead people of the peninsula. I say “new,” not only because with live theater...
On Saturday the cast of “Shoalwater Shenanigans” gathered over at the church to begin rehearsing for our November performances. It was our first get-together and run-through of the show in almost a year. Some of us were letter-perfect in our lines;...
One of the popular features of our summer Music Vespers programs here each summer Sunday is the five minute welcome toward the beginning that has come to be called the ‘Oysterville Moment.’ It was begun by my mother when she and dad started the...
Louise Espy, my uncle Willard’s wife, outlived him by twelve years. She died last November in New York not far from where she had been born and had lived for most of her ninety-two years, Her children, Johnny and Penny, kept us informed about...
When you share your home with a ghost, Things Happen. We, of course, know that Mrs. Crouch is always nearby. She manifests herself in various ways – usually playful, seldom mean. She causes doors to open or shut, a single sock to go missing...