Astoria's Bar

By the great Mary Garvey, about fishing the Columbia River. Lyrics below (I have changed a word or two by accident; these are the original words):

It’s not very far to Astoria’s bar
But a very long journey it can be
It can start at the mouth of the mighty blue river
And end at the bottom of the sea.

And the river still shines and shimmers in the light
As it did in my grandfather’s day
When they rowed all night and fished in the morning
And lived in Willapa Bay.

When the tide is rough, so very, very rough,
So rough that you cannot stand;
It drives the little fish right into the nets,
And the boats right into the sand.

In the mist and the rain, the labor and the pain
We know what the fishing here is worth
It is worth more than gold as we suck ’em from the hold;
It is worth all the treasures of the earth.