Through New Eyes by B ill Wickland Oyster Eater Ville fondly recalled Regretably, 1 recently learned that we here on the central coast have lost a neat little tradition. “ OysterEaterVille” was a party thrown twice a year in Winchester Bay by Cindy & Veme at Umpqua Aquaculture. It wasn’ t a really big do, but it was huge fo r fun. M y first experience o f it, last December, was the first ‘event’ fo r me in my new location, but it turned out to be curtains for the bash. Here’s how much fun it was: I showed up at Umpqua Aquaculture at about noon forty- five. It was already happening since noon. I'd have been there on time, but I was listening to Car Talk and didn't want to use m y Magnavox corrrecting selectric or whatever to shave with, and make noise in my ear, so I used a throw-away blade and sliced o ff a piece o f my ear instead, and bled like a donor. So I got to sit and read Robert Owen Butler's "Mr. Spaceman" until my ear healed. That is a very funny weird book, the first I'd read with a 2000 print date. I recommend it. Under the tarp at Umpqua Agriculture it was cool. Actually, pleasant. The day was a sort o f humid 50, and that was heightened by the steaming oyster kegs and the chowder pot, and about th irty people who hadn’t sliced their ears, and so hat showed up on time. Veme told me that last year, things started more slowly. Not this year. And he told me that he and Hoj had been up at five ayem in order to get the second o f the big grey-blue tarps secured, the one over the band. pitched pup tent when I was a Cub Scout. But we are grown­ ups now. We have no leaders. Now Veme (Around Umpqua Aquaculture, I think his first name shudbe Jules) comes back, and we grab these long two-by-fours with carpet bits attached, and we use them to push up the tarp until the water in the water pockets goes over the edge. DUEBLB’S SANI )l ’ll ’IB SQUARE Things quiet a little. A t this moment, Hoj is happy to be serving as maitre 'de. T o restore my equ ilibrium (give me librium or give me meth!) I get a Tomaselli garlic and onion baguette and order a bowl o f oyster chowder, - and gel 'no' for an answer. Gotta wait a minute for the chowder. A Gift Store fo r the Entire Family SANDPIPER SQUARE 436-2271 436-1718 Women's Boutique N.W. Shorël W ith that huge bright smile, Veme allows as how he is going to go get some dry clothes on, and a light goes o ff in my mind. I've enjoyed one double teekie gold straight up with a touch o f lime, but I ain't rich, and 1 am wet, and soon to be cold. And alter that little 'sailing in a storm' scenario, I have probably burned up that double teekie. Eoq ÜÁRE Finest Shell Co So I'm outta there. On the way home, since 1 have prepared my gullet w ith the good stuff, I deign to purchase an $8 bottle o f Tequila, or a bottle o f $8 Tequila, and I zip home and microwave some Stagg turkey chili enhanced by a Thome Apple Valley Polish sausage, and I'm fat on a m ild December Saturday. in the Northwest S A N D P IP E R S Q U A R E Earlier, I had noticed pussy w illo w bursting along Scolfield Creek, and had brought home a bud o f that, and at the OysterEaterVille, I had been adorned with a lei. Hey. Cheap teekie, pussy w illow , and a lei at my new place in Reedsport. It is a start. Comfortable, Classy Clothing fo r Men & Women SANDPIPER SQUARE 436-2366 436-2723 Home Gift Boutique DUEBER FAMILY STORES B ill Wickland is a life-long wordo enjoying semi-retirement in Reedsport A Little Bit o f the Best o f Everything They didn't need a fire after all, so they stuck two tall yard flamingos on the rim , and about a dozen plastic fish in the ground, in the middle o f a ring o f rocks, and that was the pond. One old fart my age told me w ith a huge grin that he might be able to catch a fish in that pond. And Hoj is busy now. He has been tasked (do I actually know enough new-age and government people that I now use 'tasked' as a verb form?) w ith w riting down oyster orders and Tomaselli Bakery bread buys, and screaming out the names o f the oyster-orderers when their time has come. "V inny! Six o f 'em here! Get 'em now !; Here ya go!; There ya go, buddy, scarf 'em! Get yer bread!" In her oyster biz gear, Cindy is going around draping party leis on folkses' shoulders, and the folkses are beaming behind Patrice Til Integrative Massai CranioSacral Therapy Reiki Master * Yoga Aromatherapy • Reflexology Certified Herbalist Nutritional Consultation it And the band shows up. They get their gear into the back side o f the 'tent,' and start hooking up. I watch fascinated. It is by now second nature to them, but I am amazed at how many things get jammed into how many other things before they are ready. It must be a precursor. And they must have forty instruments fo r a five-piece outfit. I swear that one o f the guitars ('axes' i f you be cool) was made in one o f those roadside tourist redwood bars by a former hippie on an hallucinogen most o f us can't remember - which I guess was the point, anyway. W ell, they get plugged in and hooked up, and they start jammin'. Folkses are diggin' it, man. We had been warned o f showers. M y dawn in Reedsport, three miles east, had been one o f almost clear skies. The noon starting time sky had been covered, as much by clouds as by tarps, but it was nice out. I'm pleased to see quite a few folks about my age, laughing and dancing and dressed funny. I'm adorned in my hard Rock Cafe collared sweatshirt from Rota, "Spain" (they spell it 'España' at home) and just in case, my "Desert Shield" t-shirt under. Digging into my shirts I had found, but didn't wear to this particular party, my 60's Z ig Zag Man and my "Thank God I'm an Atheist" shirts. Good to run across them again, in 1 1 years o f Service T ionizing Body-Mind-Spirit Cannon Beach 4 4 0 -1 4 9 0 Visa * MC Gift Certificate« WHERE TO GET AN EDGE -4*'. k t -te i » 41 in A my own closet. W ith the music are dreams o f Jimmy Buffett, Kenny Loggins and Jim Mesina. Veme chooses this moment fo r a tiny, well-deserved, break. Ever been sailing? Drop your guard fo r a moment? Whoosh! One o f the new super-strong, many-grommet tarps gets ripped o ff like a cheap lingerie label and starts flapping io what a moment ago had been just a mild breeze, and I go "W ow !" Another guy, who was sort o f a band roadie, I think, wearing a hooded sweatshirt from Sause Brothers (not a rock band, but a tugboat o utfit which sometimes acts like a rock band and bashes into bridges and piers on the Oregon Coast) leaped to the crux and started fighting the tarp. I was drawn, don't know diddley from sheets and lines, but I was able to get a grip on sheets a little so the real hero could knot some o f those lines one-handed in the driving wind and rain, while 1 observed that yes, God damn it, when you are messing with canvas or tarps in the rain and wind, water w ill naturally run right down your sleeves and remind you o f your elbows, your pit hairs, and your nipples. W ell, hey - it was certainly a rush, like we used to have at hippie festivals. But it isn't over. I notice that it must be raining pretty hard, 'cause the tarp is sagging like a mis- F in e A r t G a l l e r y D o w n t o w n C a n n o n B e a c h 231 ¡j Tei- N H e m l o c k , S u ite 2 0 2 (U p s t a ir s ) 5 0 3 . 4 3 6 . 9 3 7 7 , T o l l F r e e I . 8 7 7 . 5 5 2 . 2 2 3 3 fin ely selected women's (S/clotiiinq Portland (503) 239-4605 6 ' Cannon Beach (503) 436-1572 work hard dress easy Teddy Roosevelt said this in Kansas on Aug. 31, 1910: Cannon Beach: Jupiter's Rare and Used Books. Osburn’s Grocery, The Cookie Co.. Coffee CabaAa. Bill's Tavern, Cannon Beach Book Co., Hane s Bakerie, The Bistro. Midtown Café, Once Upon a Breeze. Copies A Fax. Haystack Video, Mariner M arket, Espresso Bean, Ecola Square A Cleanline S u rf M anxanita. Mother N ature’s Juice Bar. Cassandra 'a, Manzanita News A Espresso, A Nehalem Bay Video Rockaway: Neptune’s Used Books T illa m o o k : Rainy Day Books A Tillamook Library Bay City: Art Space Yachats: By-the-Sea Books Pacific City: The River House. Oceanside Ocean Side Espresso Lincoln C ity . Trillium N atural Foods. Driftwood Library. A Lighthouse Brewpub Newport: Oceana Natural Foods. Ocean Pulse Surf Shop. Sylvia Beach Hotel. A Canyon Way Books Eugene Book Mark. Café Navarra. Eugene Public Library. Friendly St. M arket, Happy Trails. Keystone Café, Kiva Foods, Lane C.C.. Light For Music, New Frontier M arket. Nineteenth Street Brew Pub. Oasis M arket. Perry's, Red Bam Grocery, Sundance Natural Foods. U oí O. A WOW Hall Corvallis: The Environm ental Center. OSU Salem : Heliotrope. Salem Library. A The Peace Store A storia KM UN. Columbian Café, The Community Store. The Wet Dog Cafe. Astoria Coffee Company. Café Uniontown. A The River Seaside: Buck's Book B am . Universal Video. A Café Espresso Portland: Artichoke M u s k . Laughing Horse Bookstore. Act III. Barnes A Noble, Belmonts Inn. Bibelot Art Gallery. Bijou Café, Borders. Bridgeport Brew Pub. Capt n Beans (two locations). Center for the Healing Light, Coffee People (three locations). Common Grounds Coffee, ELast Avenue Tavern. Food Front. Gooae Hollow Inn. Hot Lips Pizza, Java Bay Café, Key Largo, La Pattlsserie. Lewis A Clark College. Locals Only. Marco's Pizza. Marylhurst College. Mt. Hood CC. M u s k Millenium. Nature's (two locations), NW N atural Gas, OHSU M edkal School. Old Wives Tales. Ozone Records. Papa Haydn. PCC (four locations). PSU (two locations), Reed College. Third Eye. Multnom a Central Library, and most branches A the YWCA. Ashland Caro s Java House. The Black Sheep. Blue Mt. Café. A Rogue River Brewery Cave Junction: Coffee Heaven A Kerby Community M arket Grants Pass: The Book Shop (Out of Oregon) Vancouver. WA: The Den Longview. WA. The Broadway Gallery Naselle, WA Rainy Day Artistry N ahcotta. WA. Moby D k k Hotel Duvall, WA. Duvall Books Bainbridge Island. WA; Eagle Harbor Book Co. Seattle, WA Elliot Bay Book Co.. Honey Bear Bakery. New Orleans Restaurant. Still Life In Fremont. Allegro Coffeehouse. The Last Exit Coffee House. A Bulldog News San F rancisco. CA: City Lights Bookstore D enver. Co: Denver Folklore Cente Washington. D .C .i Hotel Tabard Inn (Out of U .S A ) Paris. France: Shakespeare A Cle Brighton. England: The Publk House Bookstore “A small paper for a small planet■" C om forts & D an gers, a one-wom an show by S u san P lanalp w ill open at the Cannon Beach G alley S atu rd ay O ctob er 7th with a reception at 6PM . D ick W eissm an (the artist’s husband) and G ary K eiski (our Dr. Karkeys) will play music at the reception. 'Will the highways on the Internet becom e more few?" —Concord, N.H., Jan. 29, 2000 "Our government, national and state, must be freed from the sinister influence or control o f special interests. Exactly as the special interests o f cotton and slavery threatened our political integrity before the Civil War, so now the great special business interests to often control and corrupt the men and methods o f government for their own profit. W e must drive the special interests out o f politics. That is one o f our tasks today...The citizens o f the United States must effectively control the m ighty commercial forces which they havethemselves called into being. There can be no effective control o f corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done." "I think w e agree, the past is over." —On his meeting with John McCain, Dallas Morning N ew s, M ay 1 0 ,2 0 0 0 "Reading is the basics for all learning —Announcing his "Reading First" initiative in Reston, Va., March 28, UPPER LEFT EDGE OCTO&EÄ 2000 3