PORT TOWNSEND — “Dear 2020: You had a lot of hard and loss. But! There was also growth and change.
“We moved to PT this year, and found a welcoming community.
“You were here and soon you’ll be gone.
“But the beat goes on.”
So reads one of the just-received postcards, handwritten to this multifaceted year.
The Letters to 2020 project — open now through the end of January — is an invitation to tell these past 365 days what we think and feel, and the Jefferson County Historical Society has papered the county, including the western part of the county, with free, stamped postcards to make it possible.
“We’d love to hear from folks of all ages,” said Tara McCauley, the society’s director of public programs.
“Drop a note, or draw a picture,” she said — and colleague Ellie DiPietro did both.
Jefferson County Historical Society archivist Ellie DiPietro put a fiery drawing onto her Letters to 2020 postcard. The society invites people of all ages to send their letters in by the end of January. (Diane Urbani de la Paz/Peninsula Daily News)
“I draw your face!” DiPietro wrote above her Sharpie sketch of a Dumpster fire.
“Get lost!”
DiPietro, the historical society’s archivist and Research Center director, smiled as she finished her card — “have fun with it,” she tells letter writers across Jefferson County.
Free postcards, stamped and addressed to the Jefferson County Historical Society, have been placed at numerous locations, including the Food Co-op, Quimper Mercantile, Aldrich’s Market and Seal Dog Coffee in Port Townsend, Hadlock Building Supply in Port Hadlock, Chimacum Corner Farmstand, the post offices in Quilcene, Brinnon, Port Hadlock and Port Ludlow, and even Kalaloch Lodge on the county’s western edge.
To send a letter directly, write to Jefferson County Museum, 540 Water St., Port Townsend, WA 98368.
These Letters to 2020 will become part of the Jefferson Museum of Art & Culture’s collection, McCauley said, adding that a show is also possible.
The museum will be closed at least through March, “but we love the idea of having an exhibit sometime in 2021,” she said.
Soon after New Year’s Day, she’ll start posting letter excerpts on the society’s social media pages.
“Future generations will really be looking to places like museums to understand what this year was like,” McCauley said. “We’d love to have as many stories and reflections” as people are inspired to write.
“So often, the best kind of history is the personal, the local,” McCauley said.
“Maybe it’s a recipe you mastered, a daily walk you took; whatever you think of when you look back on 2020.”
Ellie DiPietro drops off her Letters to 2020 postcard at the Jefferson Museum of Art & History. (Diane Urbani de la Paz/Peninsula Daily News)
The letters project is a way, she added, to engage with people while the historical society’s sites — the museum, the Rothschild House and Commanding Officer’s Quarters and the Research Center in Port Townsend — are closed.
McCauley noted too this is a way to create something with your hands: a good old-fashioned greeting.
The society staff designed the postcards and had Printery Communications in Port Townsend produce them.
People are writing about the difficult, the heartening, the sad and the funny parts — putting down words and pictures to bid the year goodbye.
All of it can be cathartic, DiPietro said.
“Maybe you had more time with family. Or maybe you had a horrible year.
“Everybody’s experience matters.”
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Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.
