“Sid Snyder: Friendly Grocer – Gentleman Legislator” has just a few more days on exhibit at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum so we hied ourselves around and went to see it.  It was Nyel’s first outing since his surgery five weeks ago – not counting all those pesky doctor’s appointments and hospital procedures which surely don’t come under the “outing” category.

We were so pleased when we learned that CPHM was doing this tribute to Senator Sid.  Like everyone else at the beach, and probably in Pacific County and throughout most of the state as well, we were proud to know him.  He and Bette came to many functions here is Oysterville, especially those in support of the Oysterville Restoration Foundation and the Oysterville Community Club.

But, besides his very personable ‘public face,’ we felt a bond with Sid that few others shared.  That connection was not through any doing of our own; it was only because my grandfather, Harry Espy, had also served in the Washington State Senate in the early part of the twentieth century.  Sid never failed to make mention of their “shared” service to Pacific County and he was especially attentive to my mother as long as she was living.   He often brought her copies of documents about her father – things he ran across in the course of his own duties at the legislature.

He was lovely to me, too, as he was to all of us Ocean Beach School District teachers – making special arrangements for our classes to visit the capitol and making a suitable fuss over the kids when they visited his office.  Beyond that, during his retirement years, he generously spent explaining the ins and outs of the political process to me for various magazine or newspaper articles I was writing.  I loved talking with him, especially his humorous slant on many of the behind-the-scenes situations in Olympia.

The museum’s exhibit was perfect.  It captured the Sid we knew and the Sid we only ‘knew about.’  Somehow, whether he and Bette were pictured here at the beach with their kids or in the hallowed halls of government with various presidents and other dignitaries, his character came shining through:  “Sid Snyder: Friendly Grocer – Gentleman Legislator.”

And, while we were at the museum, we bought a copy of the just-out book about Sid, Across the Aisles.  I look forward to reading it to see if author Jeff Burlingame also caught the Senator Sid we all remember…