Spirited

The stout boats and unruly spirits of two and a half generations of tugboat men plow the waters of the Pacific Northwest. When I worked on the tug, Magic, her skipper Thomas "Skip" Lampman would sometimes get into a mellow storytelling mood after dinner at the change of the watch. I don't know if it was the combination of good food and strong tugboat coffee or the soft evocative luster of early evening, but he would settle into his chair behind the wheel in the pilot house, balancing his dessert on his knee and rattle off one story after another. I would prop myself against a bulkhead, sip coffee and travel back in time with him.