Tucker with His ‘Show and Tell’

Even though last night was Halloween, we had a good turn-out for Friday Night – eleven during the course of the evening, all more-or-less ‘regulars.’ I say “more-or-less” because some have been attending our gatherings since the get-go twelve or thirteen years ago, though not every Friday, and some have been coming for almost that long whenever they are in town.

I’m always amused at how people refer to these gatherings. “Are you doing your soirée tonight?” someone might ask me. Or “salon” or “open house.” We just call it “Friday Night.”  “Soirée” sounds much too elegant, as if formal attire is expected, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Clean shirt and clean Levis is about it – for us anyway.

Cranguyma Farms Box Top, c 1940

“Salon” is defined in Webster’s as a periodic gathering of persons noted in literature, philosophy, the fine arts, or similar areas, held at one person’s home and the implication is that the discussion will be on a highly intellectual plane. I think the people who call our Friday Nights by that name are wishful thinkers. Our guests, though they may well qualify as ‘notable,’ are more inclined to talk about what’s happening here in the ‘hood (which is understood to be the Peninsula or Pacific County. Mostly.)

And we are definitely not an open house – not ‘open’ in the sense that anyone off the street can come on in. Not at all. Friday Nights are by invitation, albeit long-standing ones, and, among our friends, the invitation is not so much explicit as implicit. Once a person has attended a Friday Night Gathering here, it’s more-or-less understood that they’ll return. Friday Nights, though they have taken on a sort of life of their own, were begun as a way for friends and neighbors (with otherwise busy lives) to get together informally and regularly – something that we felt was missing in the usual day-to-day scheme of things.

Inside the Cranguyma Box Top

The topics of conversation last night covered the gamut – the upcoming election, a new source of great yarn (for the knitters), how Cranguyma Farms got its name (prompted by a 1940s cardboard box brought by Tucker), Halloween at the Ocean Park Fire Hall… you name it. But to me the most interesting exchange was between village neighbors Tucker (now a full-time resident) and Steve (a relatively new part-timer) who, it turns out, are both serious Pinball collectors. I’m talking here about collections numbering over a hundred with all the attendant, serious concerns regarding repairs, access, storage, etc.

From FB Site “Pin Rescue”

Tucker’s interest we knew about. We’ve even seen a big part of his collection. But we were unaware that Steve, too, is a serious collector. Although they may have had an inkling about one another’s interest, this was the first real exchange they’d had about Pinballs. Their conversation was spirited and, though it held the interest of the rest of us, one person likened it to a discussion by alien beings. But their excitement was palpable and prompted several side conversations about establishing an Oysterville Pinball Museum and Arcade…

All I could think was that I had lived almost three-quarters of a century before I ever knew one Pinball collector (Tucker) and here we had two of them right in our living room! In Oysterville! And they both live here! What are the odds?