Betty MacDonald fan club fans,
let's celebrate Betty MacDonald's and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's birthday on March 26 th.
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Darsie Beck is Darsie in Betty MacDonald's book Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's magic.
Of course we are going to share an outstanding recipe for a delightful Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and Betty MacDonald birthday cinnamon roll!
Our first Betty MacDonald fan club honor member, late Monica Sone, author of Nisei Daughter - described in Betty MacDonald's book The Plague and I as very witty and intelligent Kimi -sent unique birthday greetings some years ago.
We are going to share them with you.
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Darsie Beck, Betty MacDonald's favourite nephew and son of Betty MacDonald's unique sister Alison Bard Burnett shares his unique childhood memories of Vashon Island on his beloved aunt's birthday.
Betty MacDonald fan club fans from 5 continents are going to celebreate a huge Betty MacDonald birthday party.
There will be a special Betty MacDonald birthday DVD available with new info on Wolfgang Hampel's updated Betty MacDonald biography and many more info and interviews.
You can see all the international book editions of Betty MacDonald and her sister Mary Bard Jensen.
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel and Betty MacDonald fan club research team share their new outstanding research results for new updated Betty MacDonald biography and Betty MacDonald fan club letter collection.
There are several Betty MacDonald fan club contests and it seems that most Betty MacDonald fan club are able to answer the contest question regarding Betty MacDonald's favourite flower.
Don't miss the great chance to win unique Betty MacDonald - and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle fan club birthday items.
Good luck!
There are several Betty MacDonald - and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle fans club contests.
Send us your most beautiful photo of Betty MacDonald's favourite flowers, please.
Mats and Betty MacDonald fan club birthday team are working on a very special Betty MacDonald and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle birthday cake.
Betty MacDonald Gallery by unique Betty MacDonald fan club honor member - artist and author Letizia Mancino is outstanding.
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli will send some very special Betty MacDonald - and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle birthday greetings.
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli will send some very special Betty MacDonald - and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle birthday greetings.
Great Betty MacDonald fan club news!
You can join
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Thank you so much in advance for your support and interest.
If you join Betty MacDonald fan club blog as a follower during March you'll receive a very special Betty MacDonald fan club Welcome gift.
Send your email-address to our contact address, please.
Great news!
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli is back and his fans are delighted.
Happy Birthday dear Betty MacDonald and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle!
Yours,
Hendrik
you can join
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Vita Magica Betty MacDonald event with Wolfgang Hampel, Thomas Bödigheimer and Friedrich von Hoheneichen
Vita Magica
Betty MacDonald
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Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( English ) - The Egg and I
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( Polski)
Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( German )
Wolfgang Hampel - LinkFang ( German ) Wolfgang Hampel - Academic ( German )
Wolfgang Hampel - cyclopaedia.net ( German )
Wolfgang Hampel - DBpedia ( English / German )
Wolfgang Hampel - people check ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Memim ( English )
Vashon Island - Wikipedia ( German )
Wolfgang Hampel - Monica Sone - Wikipedia ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Ma and Pa Kettle - Wikipedia ( English )
Wolfgang Hampel - Ma and Pa Kettle - Wikipedia ( French )
Wolfgang Hampel - Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle - Wikipedia ( English)
Wolfgang Hampel in Florida State University
Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel
Betty MacDonald fan club interviews on CD/DVD
Betty MacDonald fan club items
Betty MacDonald fan club items - comments
Betty MacDonald fan club - The Stove and I
Betty MacDonald fan club groups
Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Linde Lund
Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Greta Larson
We are so grateful and happy because of having such outstanding Betty MacDonald Fan Club Honour Members.
Darsie Beck is Alison Bard Burnett' s son, Betty MacDonald's and Mary Bard Jensen's nephew.
It's not a surprise at all that Darsie Beck's Auntie Betty MacDonald was crazy about him.
You only have to read Darsie Beck's childhood memories on Vashon Island, published on Betty MacDonald Fan Club blog.
What a gifted personality!
An outstanding writer and artist!
After you' ve read Darsie Beck's book you know what really important in life is.
Thank you so much, dear Darsie Beck!
Betty MacDonald got a very good taste.
Yours,
Francesca
Artist and author Darsie Beck gave us the permission to share a special gift with you, his childhood memories of Vashon Island.
It's beautifully written and a real treasure.
Childhood memories of Vashon Island 1943-53
Copyright by Darsie Beck
All rights reserved
I've always been fascinated by the ferry boats that serve the island and Olympic Peninsula communities of Puget Sound. I feel particularly fortunate to have spent my first ten years and the last thirty years here on Vashon Island and the in between years living in water front homes near the Fauntleroy ferry dock and on the north end of Mercer Island near the old ferry landing that once served that island community.
I have many fond memories of the ferry boats but one in particular remains as clear to me today as when it occurred many years ago.
At the time I was born, my parents lived with my grandparents in a small house on Judkins street just east of 23rd, a few blocks south of the Lake Washington floating bridge tunnels. This area, at the time, was the northern most end of what was called, "Garlic Gulch", the original Italian community in Seattle. With a new baby in the house things got pretty crowded and before long my parents moved to Vashon Island where they purchased their first home on the bluff above Dolphin Point on the north end of the island. My mother's sister Betty MacDonald, her husband Don and her two daughters Anne and Joan had moved to the island a couple years before prompting my parents to follow their lead to this island community.
In the 1940's as now, we reached the island by ferry boat. I can't tell you what that first ferry ride was like in the fall of 1943 or which boat we rode on but I do know, the boats were privately operated by Puget Sound Navigation (PSN), doing business as the Black Ball Line.
Black Ball provided service between Vashon Island, Harper (on the Olympic Peninsula) and Fauntleroy (West Seattle). During the 1940's the wooden ferries Vashon and Kehloken and the steel electric Quinault saw regular service on this run. The Quinault carried 100 cars compared to the 45 car capacity of the smaller wooden ferries and was considered a super ferry at the time. Most of the ferries flying the Black Ball burgee were former San Francisco Bay boats purchased by PSN after the completion of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges.
In early 1948, a proposed rate increase by PSN resulted in Vashon Island suspending its service contract with Black Ball. Undeterred by Vashon's action, Black Ball continued service between Harper and Fauntleroy and to Vashon on an "as needed only" basis. With the help of sympathetic state and local government agencies Vashon began developing its own ferry service utilizing former Lake Washington and Tacoma boats out of service since the opening of the Lake Washington floating bridge and the Tacoma Narrows bridge. The Lincoln, Washington, City of Tacoma and Crosline became the backbone of the new fleet.
My first ferry boat recollection is from the summer of 1948. I was five years old, my mother was pregnant with my sister, and we were sitting in the family car on the Vashon ferry dock on a very foggy July morning waiting for the boat to Fauntleroy to take my mother to the hospital.
The fog had created a stillness over the dock broken every few minutes by the sounding of fog horns and the occasional car driving on and off the wood planked ferry dock. Soon I heard the sound of an approaching ferry, its engines reversing, its prop wash splashing noisily between the pilings, the shrill screech of the ferries wood side rails rubbing against creosote dolphins and apron wing walls as the boat nudged itself into the slip. Chains clattered as deck hands removed car barriers in preparation of off loading. I don't remember which of the old ferries landed at the Vashon dock that foggy morning but I do remember, once our car was loaded onto the boat, sitting on the car deck, looking out the port into the fog when suddenly out of the mist a large ferry appeared. Its propellers furiously reversing, deck hands and passengers on both boats bracing for an impending collision. My eyes grew big and my body grew tense as the huge ferry cleared the fog revealing her black hull, white superstructure and the black ball painted near the top of her red stack. It was the Quinault, Puget Sound's first super ferry heading directly for our boat. The prop wash of the huge ferry was buffeting the side of our boat, causing it to rock back and forth in its slip. The Quinault was now within a car's length of our boat when its forward motion finally came to rest and her reversing action began to move the boat out of harms way. As stealthy as she had appeared, she now disappeared back into the fog sending a collective and audible sigh of relief through passengers and crew of both boats.
The Quinault, now considered a medium sized boat compared to today's super ferries, still ply's the waters of Puget Sound and still holds a place in my childhood memories as the most enormous boat ever seen by a five year old.
