Sullishak Beach cabin - Lincoln Beach, Oregon

Squeaky Bunny at Sullishak

Squeaky Bunny at Sullishak

Every family has a story it tells at bedtime. Ours is about the summer of 1947, when my parents built a cabin on the sand at Lincoln Beach out of old army-camp boards, and about a small pink rabbit who arrived in a box from Salem and took the top step.

Here it is as a picture booklet you can read on a phone or a tablet, and as four songs to sing along with. They were made for grandchildren, for everyone who has ever slept upstairs at Sullishak, and for grown-ups who like a steep roof and a short step. The booklet is seventeen pages, and the story is true; the last page tells what really happened.

Two versions of the book

  • The Short Top Step is the short picture book: seventeen pages about the summer of 1947. You can read it on this page, listen to its songs, and download it.
  • Squeaky Bunny at Sullishak: Seven Summers and Two Winters is a longer book that follows the cabin and the family from 1947 to now, in eighty-five pages, ending with a new true chapter about Sully, a pink bunny Mary sewed a squeaker into in October 2026. It is a prepublication beta edition, October 2026, for family review; it may change before any publication. Read about the longer book and download it.

Read the booklet · Listen to the songs · Take the booklet with you

Who is in the story

  • Dad is Wes Sullivan, home from the war.
  • Mom is Elsie.
  • Grandma Orma is Wes's mother, who bought the sandy lots in 1942.
  • Steve is little. Nancy is littler.
  • Aunt Vera and Uncle Jewell are building next door.
  • Squeaky Bunny is a small pink rabbit who came in a box from Salem. Nobody knows who packed him.

Read the booklet

Turn the pages with the buttons or by swiping, or with the arrow keys on a keyboard. Tap a page to see it full screen. On a phone the pages are small, so turn the phone sideways for the full-screen view, or open the phone copy of the booklet below.

  1. Page 1 of 17. Cover: Squeaky Bunny at Sullishak — The Short Top Step. A Family Story from 1947.
  2. Page 2 of 17. Title page. Family share copy, October 2026, not for sale. For everyone who has ever slept upstairs at Sullishak.
  3. Page 3 of 17. In 1947, Sullishak was not a cabin yet. It was salal, sand and wind. Steve was little and Nancy was littler, and the ocean breathed in, and out, and in.
  4. Page 4 of 17. Everyone had a job. Dad chopped, Mom pulled, Grandma Orma pointed, and Steve dragged one stick bigger than he was.
  5. Page 5 of 17. A bulldozer — rumble, clank, ROAR — cleared the brush in half an hour for twenty-five dollars.
  6. Page 6 of 17. Old boards from the army camp. Mom and Dad straightened the bent nails, and Steve's job was the can.
  7. Page 7 of 17. They laid the gray foundation blocks. Nancy slept in the car, and Steve played in the sand.
  8. Page 8 of 17. The walls went up. Aunt Vera and Uncle Jewell were building next door.
  9. Page 9 of 17. A box from Salem held a small pink rabbit whose belly button went squeak!
  10. Page 10 of 17. Steve sat Bunny where he could watch.
  11. Page 11 of 17. Rain, sun, sawdust. Seventeen weekends.
  12. Page 12 of 17. Dad only knew one slant, so the roof was steep. Grandma Orma held on to her hat:
  13. Page 13 of 17. The stairs were steep too, and the last step was a short one.
  14. Page 14 of 17. By the end of summer the cabin was not finished and not pretty. It was theirs.
  15. Page 15 of 17. A night at the auto court: the wind, the WHOOSH, and a squeak by the pillow. It wasn't a monster. It was keeping time.
  16. Page 16 of 17. Bunny sat on the short top step, facing the sea.
  17. Page 17 of 17. This Really Happened: the 1947 photograph of Wes and Elsie laying the blocks, Steve playing and Nancy asleep in the Mercury; the true history of the build; the Siletz land history; the real Squeaky Bunny; and a note on Sully, the new pink bunny Mary Lowd sewed a squeaker into in October 2026. Read more in Sullishak History.

Listen to the songs

All four songs are together on one page, in the order of the day: Grandma Orma Had Some Sand for the morning, The Short Top Step for bedtime, and two lullabies for the night, In, and Out, and In and Ears Down, Sully. Two of them, the Grandma Orma song and the Sully lullaby, also have sing-along videos where the words light up as you sing.

Listen to all four songs →

Take the booklet with you

The phone copy is small and the words stay sharp. The print copy is the full-quality original.

Booklet for phones (PDF, 5.0 MB) Booklet for printing (PDF, 16.7 MB)

How it was made

  • The story is the Sullivan family's own: how Wes and Elsie, with Grandma Orma, Steve and Nancy, built Sullishak in the summer of 1947. Dave Sullivan wrote it down.
  • The squeak is made from two public-domain recordings on Freesound, "Squeeky Toy" by sentryx86 and "Huff 3" by _stubb, mixed into the songs afterwards.
  • The photographs, including the 1947 picture on the last page, are from the Sullivan family albums.

Squeaky Bunny at Sullishak is family history and children's entertainment. It is not for sale, and it never will be. The text, the photographs and the family history are © the Sullivan family. Please enjoy it and pass the link to family and friends, but don't sell it, repost it, or reuse the pictures, words or songs.

The true story

The last page of the booklet says "Read more in Sullishak History." That book is where this story comes from, mistakes and all.

The Books · Read the history chapter by chapter · Read Wes's own account