Author/entrepreneur/community weaver Judy Lynn recently celebrated the addition of 70 new stories to the hundred originally published in 2015 in her book, “Front Street, Coupeville: An Oral History.”
“Corralling history has been a passion of mine,” said Lynn in a previous interview. Recently she noted: “I’m done. Happily done. I was on it for 20 years. Although the original interviews were by voice or video, they have been transferred to a readable version. It’s been an amazing journey, and I am grateful to the folks who agreed to have their memories stored with our Island County Historical Society, and to the awesome museum staff who keep our artifacts organized and safe.”
“Very exciting—we finally got access to all the correct accounts, and I was able to get the book published on Amazon and Apple Books,”wrote Morgan White, administrator at the Island County Museum in Coupeville in a May 4th email.
What makes the stories interesting and relevant is the conversational style Lynn cultivates, inviting those interviewed to be candid and authentic. She recalled some recent interviews that come to mind.
One is Vin Sherman, born in 1943 to the historic Sherman family. Vin Sherman’s interview recalls his family home, where he now lives in on Ebey Road—and to which he returned after being gone some 50 years. Before his birth, the home had no indoor plumbing. His mother insisted new water pipes be installed.
“They would carry the water from the cistern for cooking, bathing and washing,” Sherman recalled of his farmer parents’ lifestyle before he was born. Later, Sherman ran for class president at Coupeville High School in his senior year. “In my campaign speech I promised that if I was elected, I would bring in lots of graft and corruption. Of course, I won. That was my political progression. I didn’t run for office until many years later when I ran for Cemetery Commissioner unopposed.”
Sherman recalled bringing his shotgun to school and storing it in his locker after hunting pheasant in the late 1950s, early 1960s. “I remember walking down the hallway in the morning with my shot gun and passed the superintendent of schools: ‘Good morning Mr. Hanson.’ ‘Good morning, Vin,’ No comment. Now days, if you were within a half mile of a school with a shot gun you’d be in jail. In those days, people didn’t shoot each other.”
Lynn mentioned her high regard for Rick Castellano, a story teller and executive director-emeritus of the Island County Historical Society Museum. Interviewed in Nov. 2021, Lynn asked him to speak about Native Americans, because of his deep interest in promoting their culture, and all he and his wife Carol have done over the years to honor the first people to live on Whidbey. He helped with creating an homage to the history of the Pacific Northwest’s Native Americans in the museum’s basement, including restoration of eight canoes, originally from Whidbey Island.
Castellano, born in 1955, grew up in Port Townsend. His family passed through Whidbey Island when visiting his maternal grandparents in Point Roberts, requiring entry through Canada.
“We would drive our old ’56 Ford Station wagon, come across the Keystone (now Coupeville) Ferry, which I still call the Keystone Ferry and drive down Madrona Way, because that was the highway,” recalled Castellano. Every time we came to the island, since time immemorial—my time, immemorial, I always wanted to live here.” He moved to Whidbey Island, settling in Greenbank with his wife Carol, following the passing of his mom in 2004.
Castellano’s interest in Native Americans dates back to the days of Westerns, having a fascination with Cowboys and Indians. His awareness expanded in high school where he played French horn and was invited to perform in an operetta, a “musical exchange” of students with the Makah Nation on the Olympic Peninsula. He was one of three students selected, and sent to visit the Makah people on Neah Bay.
“I got to live with a family for about a week,” recalled Castellano. “We got to know the kids who were our age. They took us around and showed us around and it really opened my eyes. And, you know, this wasn’t Cowboys and Indians. These are real people—they’re still here.”
One experience from then when he was 17 stayed with him years after the visit. It involved visiting an overlook high above the sea that tested his great fear of heights.
“It came to a very very sharp point that was less than three feet wide,” recalled Castellano. “…one of the native kids…said, this is where Sasquatch lives. He pointed to the cliffs…and said, in all those caves. And being the typical white kid we thought he was having fun. He was dead serious. And then he talked about how at night, on a clear night, they would go out to this point and lie on their backs with their arms extended out over each side of the point and stare up in the sky and have visions and all sorts of wonderful things.”
Castellano’s take away from that short visit was “…that this is a completely different culture. And I really, really wanted to get to know it better.”
The Salish Sea people have lived here “since time immemorial,” Castellano said, “because we haven’t figured it out yet. And I don’t know if we ever will. Their descendants are still here. We’re really lucky to have these contacts.”
Other favorite interviews Lynn mentioned include, Ken Pickard—who was instrumental in creating Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve; Kristi O’Donnell—a musician/artist, who once ran Meerkerk Gardens in Greenbank; Madelyn van der Hoogt, founder of the Weaver’s School in Coupeville; John Stone of the Captain Whidbey Inn; and, Laura Blankenship—“who saved Greenbank Farm.”
Lynn recalled the past two decades spent recording people’s stories: “I’ve been thinking about what this experience has been for me. It’s a gift to me to have people open their minds with their stories. I learned a lot from each person. I learned how much pleasure it gave me to interview them, hear their stories, and get to know them, mostly as friends.”
The ebook sells for $9.99 and offers a look at the 170 people who told the stories that make Coupeville what it is today. It is available on Amazon, through Apple Books, and as book to view at the Coupeville Library.