Oysterville Words, Page One

When I arrived in the kitchen yesterday morning (not very early due to blogging and other stuff), I found our houseguests deep into a family activity. They were seeing how many words they could make out of the word “Oysterville.” They were up to 146.

We are enjoying the annual summer visit of the Randal Bays/Susan Waters Family. They came to play Irish music at Vespers and are staying here for a mini-vacation at the beach. We’ve known them as a family from the very beginning; Willie is now 12, Owen is 9. They are all arms, legs, and activity – music, baseball, books, robots (Not playing with. Building!) and appetites.

In Our Living Room

While Chef Nyel scrambled eggs and hash-browned the potatoes, the rest of us divided our attention between pouring orange juice and setting the table and adding words to the growing list. The rest of us, that is, with the exception of Willie who dashed in and out occasionally, suggested yet another word and then rushed out of sight (but apparently not out of hearing) again.

At Vespers

By breakfast time, there were 184 words. We were playing by ‘standard rules’ – we could only use a letter as many times as it appeared in the word; no made-up words; no proper names. We did have a little list of well-known proper names on the side because we couldn’t resist but they didn’t count in the total. (It just occurs to me that we didn’t think of levis – but I’m not sure Randal-the Stickler would count it since it is based on a man’s name.)

There are probably more that escaped us at the moment, but the breakfast table talk went in some other direction and we left the list for another day. It did make me wonder, though, if people in Ocean Park or Long Beach or Chinook could do as well with their town’s name.  Seaview?  Nahcotta?  Ilwaco?   I doubt it.  Maybe Klipsan Beach, though…  Anyone want to take the challenge?