Sad to see industry, culture fade away

I read the feature “Seems Like Yesterday” on Tuesday and there under “50 years ago” I was surprised to see the mention about my father, Bill Gans, and my uncle, Frank Zuanich, working on the drag-seiner Voyaguer.

In 1958, I was 7 years old and can fondly remember when my mother would load four rowdy kids in the back of the station wagon and head down to the 14th Street dock to meet our father coming home from a fishing trip. I can still see my burly father walking down the dock with two huge salmon in his hands. Sunday drives meant a trip to the waterfront where we’d go aboard the boats and visit with my uncle or sit in the web houses and watch the fishermen repair their nets. Years later, both my brothers, Ray and Johnny Gans, would also salmon fish, like our father and uncle and cousin, Frank Zuanich Jr.

It saddens me to think those days are gone forever, along with our fishing industry in Everett. The fishing boats are gone and now the web houses have been torn down along with the culture that the local fishing families shared for generations. In the near future I imagine the whole waterfront in Everett will change but not necessarily for the better, in my opinion.

Big business has replaced our heritage, but one thing is certain: My memories of what Everett used to be will remain in my heart forever.

Alisa Gans Becker