Part One: A Visit to Bay Center
Vivian: The time that you were at school. Oh, Colt . . . yeah the horse, that had the spike in his foot.
Nina: Oh yes. I remember. I told this story about seven years ago, down Kindred’s Hotel and one man remembered, one old man remembered. He says, “I remember.”
Vivian: Wonderful.
Nina: Oh yes. I remember. I told this story about seven years ago, down Kindred’s Hotel and one man remembered, one old man remembered. He says, “I remember.”
Vivian: Now, you were at school, right? Can you start from the very beginning.
Nina: I came home from school, but I was on a vacation.
Vivian: Oh, I thought they sent a message for you down at school.
Nina: No, I was, I was home and on a vacation. I said I’d visit my sister, she lived in Bay Center, she’s married to Johnson George, my sister Elizabeth. And she said, “I’d like to have you come over and spend a few, few days with me.” And, so I went over there . . . fifty cents to go, they had a boat they called Shamrock.
Pictured above is the steamer Shamrock mentioned by the young Nina Charley who traveled from Tokeland to Bay Center before being called back to help Kindred’s Arabian colt. In the years before formal roads were constructed the steamer traveled on the bay delivering mail, freight, and passengers to various towns and settlements such as South Bend, North Cove, Bay Center and Tokeland.
Vivian: I’ve heard of it.
Nina: And we used to get in the boat and go to Bay Center for 50 cents. They lived way up on the hill. Finally, I was there for just two days. Finally, there was a little boy come over, he said, uh, “I come over from Tom Olson.” Tom Olson had a store. “You had a phone call, ”he says. They called it an emergency call. I said, “well, what in the heck is an emergency?” “Ah, is it bad news?” He said, “no . . . he didn’t say what? He said, “it’s an emergency. And so we read the, we read the, Tom Olsen’s handwriting, great big old, ugly handwriting. He’s a big Swede. And, it had, EMERGENCY. I don’t know how he had it spelled, whether it was right or it was wrong. But emergency, “from your DAD.”
Okay. Well, I said my dad wouldn’t send for me unless it was an emergency. And my sister said, “well we better hurry up, they said that, that boat gets here at noon and here it is, 1130.” Well, we rushed around, so, we rushed down . . . There was an old man they called Captain Reed he was a captain of the boat. He said, “your fare is all paid. Mr. Kindred paid your fare.” I said, “well, I can’t understand.” He said, “well, they want you home, that’s all I know. I couldn’t tell you anything that’s all I know. They want you at home.” I said, “well, it must have been an emergency. I said, “because I’ve been here for only two days and they sent for me back.”
Shoalwater Bay Heritage 