CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

The Birthday
Twenty years ago, we were invited to Keith Biever’s 65th birthday party. Joyce and I decided to make him a card that related toys to various times and events in his life. We shopped for toys, and I composed a little verse to go with them. I was asked to read it aloud at the party. It’s the kind of rhyme that begs to be read aloud.
Keith and the partygoers listened and chuckled appreciatively. I thought that was the end of it. The next time I visited K and K, there was that birthday greeting in the bathroom, framed, and displayed with the toys. It was still there the last time I looked. Maybe it’s time to bring it out of the bathroom and share it again. I’ve added a coda without toys for the 20 years since.
For Keith, in appreciation for sixty years of friendship and adventure. –DW

Introduction to LURKING

According to Dave, much of his writing “is based in memories, often randomly strung together as they come to me.” In addition to memories, Dave’s writing is based on close observation of nature and insights coming from reflections on life’s experiences.

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.