Where I'm From
I am from cool saltwater breezes, from shells, starfish & clams, from a Voit wetsuit for skiing over the sound, long sunny days & cold winter nights.
I am from a home built by my parents & added onto when I was born, from beautiful “mother-tended” gardens, from a shop full of tools & smells of creativity.
I am from wild blackberries, thimbleberries, nettles, elderberry trees, Fireweed, Indian Paint Brush & from the sweet scent of Sweet Peas & colorful, sweet blossoms of Nasturtiums.
I am from family gatherings reuniting souls each summer & loving, caring, closely knit kin, from George & Ruth, from Andrews & Loomis.
I am from the honest & hard-working, music lovers & the curious, from the artistic & creative.
From wait ½ hour after lunch before you can go swimming & is your homework done.
I am from solid & quiet Presbyterians, from the huge brick building & a Sunday School teacher I loved. I am from red-doored Episcopalians & a small church in Port Townsend.
I am from the Pacific NW, third generation, from pioneer stock. The ocean, sound, lakes & rivers run through my veins. From grilled & smoked salmon, butter clams, shrimp, Dungeness crab, sweet corn from grandpa’s garden.
From hardy Yankee stock in Maine who came west in the 1840s, returned to the east to fight in the Civil War, & came west again to homestead in Washington Territory, from a guitar playing dairy farmer & an Irish lass turned school teacher. From a dairy farmer’s son & a brick mason’s daughter – country & city united, strong, dedicated, hard-working men & women.
I am from photos lovingly scrapped from the 1800s to today, from a genealogy written in 1700s Ireland, tatted lace, crewel pictures, hand-made dresses, a hand-hewn shingle from a barn long gone, silver from a generation that lived in a castle & were landed gentry, my paternal grandfather’s guitar that I never heard him play, the letters from cousins in England during WWII, & the stories passed down from generation to generation to those who still love to hear them.
I am from a home built by my parents & added onto when I was born, from beautiful “mother-tended” gardens, from a shop full of tools & smells of creativity.
I am from wild blackberries, thimbleberries, nettles, elderberry trees, Fireweed, Indian Paint Brush & from the sweet scent of Sweet Peas & colorful, sweet blossoms of Nasturtiums.
I am from family gatherings reuniting souls each summer & loving, caring, closely knit kin, from George & Ruth, from Andrews & Loomis.
I am from the honest & hard-working, music lovers & the curious, from the artistic & creative.
From wait ½ hour after lunch before you can go swimming & is your homework done.
I am from solid & quiet Presbyterians, from the huge brick building & a Sunday School teacher I loved. I am from red-doored Episcopalians & a small church in Port Townsend.
I am from the Pacific NW, third generation, from pioneer stock. The ocean, sound, lakes & rivers run through my veins. From grilled & smoked salmon, butter clams, shrimp, Dungeness crab, sweet corn from grandpa’s garden.
From hardy Yankee stock in Maine who came west in the 1840s, returned to the east to fight in the Civil War, & came west again to homestead in Washington Territory, from a guitar playing dairy farmer & an Irish lass turned school teacher. From a dairy farmer’s son & a brick mason’s daughter – country & city united, strong, dedicated, hard-working men & women.
I am from photos lovingly scrapped from the 1800s to today, from a genealogy written in 1700s Ireland, tatted lace, crewel pictures, hand-made dresses, a hand-hewn shingle from a barn long gone, silver from a generation that lived in a castle & were landed gentry, my paternal grandfather’s guitar that I never heard him play, the letters from cousins in England during WWII, & the stories passed down from generation to generation to those who still love to hear them.
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