In the news

Some of you may have noticed that Long Beach was mentioned in the national news in the July/August time frame. The first item sort of goes along with my remarks on overtourism a couple weeks ago. First, in the July 15 Time magazine (Melinda French Gates is on the cover) there is a photo of the Long Beach Peninsula, post-fireworks, captioned “The Fourth of July, Long Beach, Wash., 2018.” It’s not a flattering photo. It shows a forlorn looking patch of sand, complete with left over furniture, piles of litter, and a couple bent over picking up garbage. It does nothing to encourage anyone to visit our spectacularly long, walkable ocean beach front.

This photo is part of an article on the political polarization of our nation. (Ironically, it follows an article about the global waste problem of plastic, which is “Designed to last forever but cheap enough to be thrown away.” Unfortunately, the photo of our beach cannot record the thousands of plastic particles left after fireworks are exploded; these kill our seabirds and other marine animals when they wash out to sea.)

Then in the Aug. 5 Time, there is a map with “The World’s Greatest Places,” and, lo and behold, there is a tiny little #3, smack dab where we live, identified as Snow Peak Long Beach Campfield — designed by local architect/builder Erik Fagerland. We share the limelight with such other entries as the Sarasota, Florida, Botanical Gardens; the Fashion District in Stockholm, Sweden; and the Moroccan Culinary Arts Museum in Marrakech! Pretty great company I’d say. This is surely more in line with the kind of tourism I think we should be encouraging on the Peninsula. As the subtitle says, this is Time’s “annual list of the globe’s most desirable destinations.” Woohoo.

But the first mention, the desolate and much trampled-beach photo with discarded cardboard boxes, abandoned lawn chairs, and other detritus, is certainly not in keeping with the up and coming tourism trends that attract more dollars, families, and travelers seeking to broaden their minds, spirits, and palates.

The fleeting ‘now’

Alas, there will not be an Oysterville Regatta this year.

I spoke with chief regatta champion and organizer, Tucker Wachsmuth, a couple weeks ago, and we spoke about his decision to simply end the summer with a family Wiffle Ball tournament instead.

I was one of 20 or so people who always enjoyed watching the regatta from the shore. We brought lawn chairs, munchies, hats, dogs, and binoculars, and spent a pleasant time chatting on the grassy banks of Willapa Bay. Tucker used to participate on the water, but in the last couple years he was the trusty narrator of the happenings for those of us, mostly landlubbers, not quite sure what was going on. “Is that the last turn?” “Where is that buoy again?” “Who seems to be ahead now?”

In the evening there was always a potluck dinner afterwards at the Wachsmuth’s and an awards ceremony, sometimes with a commemorative song that went along with it all. Tucker and Carol’s dedication to the regatta spanned 20 years of the 30 years it was in existence.

I‘ll surely miss the old-fashioned, slow-paced afternoon where conversation was easy and there was nothing else to do but sit and enjoy the company, the fresh air, and the view. As Tucker has said, “I just worried too much … about the weather — would there be enough wind or too much wind — the tides, and it was a lot of work getting the boats down to the bay and back.”

Hats off to you Tucker and Carol, or paddle salute, or whatever is appropriate, for keeping the tradition going for so long. It’s another reminder not to take anything for granted. The moment of “now” is precious and becomes the past all too quickly. Why, even the thousands of white daisies on Oysterville Road between Main and Territorial Road are bending their heads and fading after weeks of glory. Carpe diem.

Eats, shoots, and leaves

Lately the comma — risen in prominence on T-shirts reminding people how to pronounce the name of the new Democratic candidate for president, Kamala Harris — has been flourishing. When Harris brought Gov. Tim Walz onto her ticket as the vice presidential candidate, suddenly there was another punctuation problem some have been riffing on.

I’ve always been accused of being slapdash with punctuation (and I continue to be a terrible speller). When, just out of grad school, I applied for my first job as an English teacher at the Hawaii Prep Academy on the Big Island, someone on the hiring committee mentioned my “wild-ass punctuation.” I thought it looked perfectly fine to me. I flung commas, semicolons, colons, m— and n-dashes hither and yon in my writing. It wasn’t until I started teaching grammar that I studied it more assiduously. I think I finally conquered it, or at least I developed my own style, and that seemed good enough for me.

Now a quintessentially American punctuation puzzle has arisen: where to put the apostrophes for the possessives of either Harris or Walz. I know this is of burning concern in the midst of this crazy political climate, so let me set the record straight. The possessive for Harris is simply to add an apostrophe at the end of her name, as in “Harris’ joyful warrior message.” And the correct possessive for Walz is “apostrophe s,” as in, I would love to see Coach Walz’s play book. So there you have it — one major dilemma solved.

Enjoy the rest of the summer! The days are already starting to shorten.