Lady on the Beach [S0003]

2007 PB in nice clean condition. The Lady is Norah Berg who, with her husband the Old Sarge, found a new life of contentment and adventure far from the civilization they eagerly left behind. Norah learned many things from the beach - about the weather, with moods of tranquility and tempest she had never known before, about the sand and its tide-borne treasures and, above all, about the fascinating people who took their living from a strip of land beside the sea.

The Beach is on the coast of Washington State, miles of it, looking westward over the Pacific Ocean. Its oldest and most noted resident is the razor clam, a citizen of the beach from time immemorial and a delicacy prized by the Indians long before white men came to know and appreciate it. Comparative newcomers are the beachcombers who take an annual harvest from the sea and sands. Among them were Norah and Old Sarge Berg. This is their story.

From Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "This book is full of fascinating characters, sharp humor, and beautiful descriptions of scenery. We follow Norah as she and her partner, "Sarge," navigate alcoholism and poverty in 1940s Washington State. This is not a tale of woe, though. Norah make it feel like a fantasy or an adventure as she approaches each situation with a good-natured lens. The story is a loosely tied together series of anecdotes and character sketches of the people she encounters in Seattle and Ocean City, Washington. She describes how she and Sarge built a shack on the beach and learn to harvest razor clams, start a small library, and grow a garden. The stakes are at once impossibly low and life-or-death. Norah makes you wish YOU were living in a dirt-floored shack on the wide flat beaches of Ocean City, or Moclips, or Copalis, digging clams, finding treasures floating in on driftwood and walking on the beach with nothing left to do today."; "GREAT, fascinating read for anyone interested in the history of Ocean City/Moclips area in the 1940's and 50's. Charming, endearing and interesting"; "This was a fascinating look at a way of life that possibly no longer exists, surely is less likely to exist in this day. I loved reading her descriptions of the way Norah and her husband lived off the gifts of the sea which provided not only much of their food but also lumber for building their shack and firewood for heating, odds and ends for trading or selling. Having spent time on her beach and dug for clams myself, I was able to relate to the beauty of her way of life."