CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

A Pacific Northwest native, I have been writing poetry over 40 years.  My poems reflect a woman’s journey through the later years, with recurring themes of loss and renewal.

Tim’s comment: Cathy’s poem THE PARTY  features another theme in her poetry.  Cathy takes what could have been an irritating event when discovering a mess guests had left behind them and turns the mess into a delightful description of mice having a good time.   Do we really know that mice don’t have fun while making a mess for us?  

I’m concluding this series of Salmon Summers posts with memories of characters and experiences from that time in my life when I worked for Nakat out of Waterfall Cannery. A  few years before the canneries became ghosts along the beach, or became resorts like Waterfall, I left the fish tenders and hired on as a deckhand on a salmon seiner.  Those stories are part of a future series on the NESTER.

You wil enjoy Dave Olson’s second story about his time working out of Waterfall on a cannery tender.  Now a first year skipper of the tender GOLDEN WEST,  what is he to do when his mate brings a puppy aboard? The story is also available in BONDED BY WATER, a memoir Dave published in 2014.  

You will enjoy my brother Dave’s two stories about his time working out of Waterfall on a cannery tender.  The stories are also available in BONDED BY WATER, a memoir Dave published in 2014.  Dave was the first of the four Olson boys to work for NAKAT from 1948 until my last season with NAKAT in 1968.  Dave’s first story is about a a grounding in a storm and the second story (Coming Post) is a fun story about dog mascot on a tender.  

After my two seasons with Severin on the Rap III, I joined the Alaska Fishermen’s Union in Seattle and during the last three years of traps, I worked on a cannery tender for Nakat Packing Corporation. I came north in the summer and picked up my wages in Seattle in the fall.  I was young, eager and working on boats became a lifelong practice that I yearned to return to every spring.

In 1957 I turned I turned 18, joined the Alaska Fishermen’s Union, and hired on as a deckhand on a power scow fish tender owned by NAKAT PACKING COMPANY. Join me on the Rolfy and in Waterfall Cannery for the final seasons of salmon traps in Southeastern Alaska.

Lorelie relishes her life as an “Old Gardener.” Daily she checks on the health of her plants, tending them with her years of experience in creating beautiful gardens. Lorelie lives the personal characteristics illustrated in Cathy’s poem.

David Zeigler, the photographer, is familiar to NESTER readers who enjoy his photos in the Artists category.  Less familiar is David the writer.  He has written mysteries, short stories, and essays.  In this post David writes a short piece about which he asked me, “Where do ideas like this come from?” and said “The creative process is really mysterious.”  David’s ever roving mind considers the question,”What’s in a person’s name?” in this selection, BEING CALLED PETER by  Peter Brent, a pseudonym.

Cathy’s poem, “The Way Back” leads me to a question: Who is going to knock at the door? Hasn’t each of us waited at one time or another for someone missing from our lives to return? Perhaps a mother, a son, a lover, a friend will suddenly appear. What will happen then?