Sunday, May 12, 2019

Happy Birthday dearest Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Darsie Beck


Darsie obediently got up, took the sugar bowl and went out to the kitchen. After a long long time he came back to the breakfast table with a plate of cinnamon rolls.
"What are these for?" his father said. "And where is the sugar?"
"Sugar?" said Darsie. "What about sugar?"
"I told you to fill the sugar bowl," said Mrs. Burbank.
"Oh," said Darsie, "I thought you said, 'Get the cinnamon roll.'"
from Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Magic by Betty MacDonald


  Darsie Beck



Betty MacDonald fan club fans,
Happy Birthday dearest Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Darsie Beck! 

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 Website.

What a gifted personality! 

An outstanding writer and artist! 


Thank you so much, dear Darsie Beck! 

Betty MacDonald got a very good taste. 
We wish you the most wonderful birthday ever. 



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.


We have a very special Betty MacDonald fan club surprise for you.

Tell us your favourite satirical text of Wolfgang Hampel's book Satire ist mein Lieblingstier, please and you'll get several fascinating Betty MacDonald fan club items for free.

Wolfgang Hampel's very successful book is available in many countries around the world. ( see links below )


Don't miss this unique Betty MacDonald fan club offer, please.


Wolfgang Hampel's very witty book 'Satire ist mein Lieblingstier' ( Satire is my favourite animal ) is No 1 Buecher de TOP List.

Wolfgang Hampels sehr witziges Buch ' Satire ist mein Lieblingstier' ( Satire is my favourite animal ) ist No 1 Buecher de TOP Liste.


Many greetings - viele Grüße

Mats 

buecher.de - Schnell, Günstig, Versandkostenfrei



Ich habe dieses Buch gekauft, weil Krimi-Königin Ingrid Noll Wolfgang ... sehr, daß wir die monatliche literarische Veranstaltung Vita Magica von Wolfgang Hampel bald einmal besuchen können.


Wolfgang Hampel's Satire ist mein Lieblingstier in Buecher de TOP list 








Satire ist mein Lieblingstier - Satirische Gedichte - Wolfgang Hampel
Informationen über die Kultveranstaltung "Vita Magica" der Akademie für Ältere in Heidelberg  

Wolfgang Hampel - Satire ist mein Lieblingstier ( Satire is my favourite animal ) 





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Roger Cicero - ESC winner 2007  

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Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel sings  'Try to remember' especially for Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Linde Lund at Vita Magica September

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