Whistlepunks and Geoducks: Oral Histories from the Pacific Northwest

by Ron Strickland

Book by Strickland, Ron

Genres: History, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1990

Reviews

[Nat Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lively firsthand accounts from Washingtonians recorded in the late 1980s, with most of the interviewees born between the late 1890s and mid-1910s. The stories are both captivating and a nice corrective to the hazy "good old days" view of Washington's past. For example:

When he approached, Mother said, "There he is! Old Moses is coming!"

So Dad took his rifle and put it by the door. "Frank," Moses hollered. "Frank, come out. I'm going to kill you. You took my wife!"

My dad says, "She's not your wife. I'm married to her. Married by the justice of the peace."

"Not in the Indian way! She's my wife. I'm going to kill you!" He was getting out his gun.

"Go ahead. Shoot me!" my dad said. He had his gun. "Go ahead and shoot."

Instead of that, Moses just turned around with all of his ponies an left. He was so mad! But there wasn't anything he could do.

That's how my mother married my dad.

—Isabelle Arcasa, Nepelem, WA, born 1889

Harry Lavin was pretty well drunk up and he thought these people were stealing his meat. So he went out trying to protect his stuff. Ann Bush and Big Agnes Seymour knocked him down out in the yard and took clubs and just beat him till he was almost coal black. Then they ran in the house and got the kerosene lamp and poured the kerosene on him and set him afire. So he had scars that were over an inch thick on his neck. It took him a long time to get healed up from that.

—Bill Hottell, Republic, WA, born 1916

Well, we were working in [a coal mine, as a child] and the mouth of the place caved in. [...] It was an hour and a half until we got out, but it seemed longer than that. You can think of a lot of things in a short time. Other mines had had cave-ins. I thought of that. I thought of everything. I thought of how nice it would be to see the sun shining. [...]

My father was running the hoist that day and he pulled us up. When we got out on the top I told him that was my last shift down in the mine. It felt like the end of the world to me. It was really scary.

The boss gave us a job sorting ore on top. I never went back down in the mine.

—Dennis Sullivan, Port Townsend, WA, born 1897

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

While some parts of this book didn't age great, they are first-person accounts that capture the language and culture of the time. I loved reading through to learn about early Washington experiences from loggers, fishermen, priests, and nearly anyone else you can think of. Lots of little gems in this book.