One of the pleasures of being a small-town newspaper editor is receiving and publishing letters on a wide array of topics. Long-time readers will know my distinct preference for letters about local topics — I see arguing about national controversies as an empty and divisive waste of my precious space. Our letters tend to be about topics unique to this place — just like our news.

Letters this week are centered on the proposed bond to make major upgrades in the physical facilities of Ocean Beach School District. I hope you’ll read and appreciate the effort private citizens put into exploring this crucial topic.

One of my favorite letters of all time was by Oysterville native son Willard Espy, who was sort of a celebrity in south Pacific County — our tenuous connection to the literati of Manhattan, where he spent most of his time as an author of books that playfully caress the English language.

Here are some excerpts for your enjoyment:

“Far be it from me to heed any of those dastardly stories about hanky-panky on the peninsula during Prohibition days. A still in the woods maybe for home use — perhaps a little blackberry or cranberry wine down in the basement — who needed anything more?

“I do recall Saturday night dances at Long Beach,” Willard continued, “When I was still in my early teens, at which the custom was for the young bucks to hide their bottles of lightning in the sand and go out to take a swig between swings around the floor.

“Roy Kemmer and I once spied on them, dug up their bottles, and managed to dispose of enough whiskey so that we were able to drive unscathed through a forest fire and then bump into a buried log on the ocean beach on the way home. Nobody hurt.

“Of course the mainland was less law-abiding. You doubtless know the story … about the esteemed South Bend editor who became a high Prohibition official but didn’t have much luck apprehending rum runners because he talked too much in bed to his mistress about what he was up to and she always told her husband, who was the chief rum runner. I don’t believe a word of it.”

Beyond letters, this coming March 30 issue of the Observer will include:

Continuing coverage of the closure of Naselle Youth Camp. Closure will seriously hollow out the economy of the rural area surrounding Naselle and will set off a cascade of “reduction in force” moves by the Naselle-Grays River Valley School District, as camp staff are reabsorbed into the public-school system.

We’ll have a wide variety of other news this coming week, including an exploration of the latest release of data from the U.S. Census Bureau showing that Pacific County continued to be among Washington’s fastest-growing counties in percentage terms, even as covid caused a heavy imbalance in the disparity between deaths and births. Growth is entirely due to in-migration.

If you don’t yet subscribe to the Observer, I hope you will. Your support is vital to our ongoing 121-year mission of covering news and culture in wonderful Pacific County