NOSTALGIC DAY

Yesterday was a nostalgic day.  First off, Mom and I went to Stan Pocock’s memorial service.  Dad would have wanted us to go.

If there was something along the lines of ‘Seattle Royalty’, many of them were there at the service.  Jim Whittaker, the first American to Climb Mt Everest, was there as were many accomplished rowers.  Jim Dimetre was there.  I knew Jim from work, but in the early 50’s he both rowed and coxed for the UW.  Jim  once told me much of his studying was done in George Pocock’s workshop.  Jim also coxed Guy Harper and Buzz Birkeland at the UW.  In later life Buzz and my father would collaborate in building ‘Cambria’. Now in his 80’s Jim still owns a Pocock single.  After the service he said he keeps it in his garage.  The last time he went rowing was 10 years ago.  When he looks at it, he pauses and thinks that he should give it a go again, then pauses and thinks ‘maybe next time…’.

Jamie McCurdy came with his father, who is a touch over 90 years old.  I had never met the now senior McCurdy, but we sat next to each other and he told me of his father, H.W. McCurdy, and how we had known the McMillins up at Roche Harbor and related a few childhood memories of going up to Roche in either the late 20’s or early ’30s.

The service started and it was a good memorial service.  Mr. Pocock had coached world class rowers as well as a few Olympic gold medal teams.  He took over his father’s boat building business and made the first fiberglass rowing shell.  He rowed throughout his life and he and my father rowed together with the ‘Ancient Mariners’.

In what was a nice personal touch, Guy Harper had written of a vision he had (allegedly under medication).  The opening speaker at the service incorporated the vision into his remarks at the service.   In the vision, Stan Pocock is rowing through the pearly gates.  Mist is swirling around an old dock and an elderly gentlemen gently holds the port oar and helps brings the scull to the dock.  It’s his father, George Pocock and he says “welcome home Stanley”.  In Guy Harper’s vision, there’s a group of rowers behind the senior Pocock, each welcoming him home.  Charlie McIntyre, Lyman Hull, John Aberle, and several more.

It was surprising to hear dad’s name at the service, but there were a group of old rowers, all in their 60’s and 70’s that loved to row together and they did so for many years.  Several of them have passed on and it was that group in Guy’s medicinal vision.

There were several speakers but a consistent theme.  Mr Pocock was revered for not only his knowledge of rowing, but his gentle way of imparting knowledge.  In addition to coaching world class rowers, he did coach master’s rowing.  At the same time my mom and her friends were being introduced to rowing through Dick Erickson (Team name “Dick’s Chicks”), there was an Eastside group of Mom’s (Known as Martha’s Moms) being coached by Stan Pocock.  One of the first rowers relayed how this group of Moms trained and then rowed their first race.  Flush with excitement, they rowed back to their coach to get his view of their efforts.

Mr Pocock started by saying “Let’s begin with the positive. You were all facing the same direction and wearing the same uniform”.  He then went on to dissect their efforts pointing out that the main goal is to get all the oars in the water at the same time.  Both Martha’s Moms and Dicks Chicks spawned a renewal of masters rowing and from those modest beginnings hundreds of older rowers now ply Lake Union, Lake Washington and the cut.

The final speaker was his granddaughter and it was clear that above all, Mr Pocock was an accomplished family man.

After the service we went to the Montlake cut and by request his ashes were spread on the finish line.  In a fitting move, it was his grand daughters, rowing a Pocock shell, who spread his ashes  from the shell.

Diane Roberts, Jim Whitakker's wife, rowed in the memorial row

Kari.  Dad rowed around Shaw Island with her -- probably in  1987

Spreading flowers in the Cut

After the service, Mom and I went to MOHAI (Museum of History and Industry).  We toured the various exhibits and wound up at the top of museum at the nautical exhibit.  Mom was feeling rather old as she looked at pictures of the Foss Family remembering her childhood (her mother started working for Foss back in 1918 or so).  “Oh there’s Art” she’d say, looking at Arthur Foss.  She looked at a painting of the ‘Patricia Foss’ and a model of the ‘Thea Foss’ and remembers being on the “Thea Foss” as Patricia (the woman) was working on her captains license practicing docking. The Thea had (and I think still has) a direct drive diesel engine.  The engine must be stopped and then started in reverse to back up.  During the practice with Mom on board Patricia smashed the port rail and took out a portion of some remote Alaskan dock in the process.

Unmistakable profile of little si on the left and Mount Si on the right

Model of a Lake Union Dreamboat

Mosquito Fleet model of 'Dix' on the bottom and the real life Virginia V out the window

Model of the 'Thea Foss".  Used to be John Barrymore's yacht 'Infanta'.

To bring things full circle, the nautical exhibit was sponsored by the McCurdy family, presided by the elderly gentleman I had been sitting next to hours earlier, and many of the items came from the families treasure trove of pictures and nautical artifacts from early Seattle.

It was a day touched with nostalgia from earlier times in the Northwest.