Five years again, we three ...
You adored her.
Your light was she,
and mine.
Alaska, long your dream,
you went there first to fight a fire,
and then to take us there, a team ...
That monumental move would seem
a microcosm of your life,
with elements in constant strife,
skirting the law,
conserving money,
wheeling, dealing,
saying "Honey,
I gotta have you ... "
Meager resources,
only five hours sunny ...
That was you then, my adoring, returning,
resourcefully learning, purple gas burning
Alcan Man.
Explanation: We moved when Rachel was
four months old, leaving San Diego hauling a
40-ft. mobile home 4400 miles to Anchorage,
Alaska. We left San Diego November 12, 1969,
and finally the trailer arrived in Anchorage
January 4, 1970. In the Yukon Territory of
Canada the temperature was seventy degrees
below zero. The little heater in the old truck
could barely keep the ice off the heater itself
much less the windows, which we had to
scrape from the inside while driving...
We had not realized how difficult it is to haul
a very long and heavily loaded trailer over the
1200 miles of iced over gravel road that was
the winter Alcan (Alaskan-Canadian
Highway) in those days.
We bought gas in L.A. at a bulk plant for
$.21/gallon. In Canada we bought “farm”
gas at a bulk plant for $.50/litre. It had
purple dye in it so they could fine people
if they caught them using it on the highway.
He didn’t get caught.
In the future I will post the account of that
trip that I wrote back in those days when
my memories were fresher... Meanwhile,
see My First Airplane Ride...
Joined by brothers one and one,
with families, not to be outdone,
'Twas our house where they came for fun,
or fix the water, make it run ...
You were the hub of family
though you were youngest of the three.
With Uncle Dave, the place to be…
You were their favorite. And see?
See what care you took of me,
and all of us? Thru snow or sun,
you kept the water running, Hon.
Yes, that was you then,
my favorite, funny, fixing-it man.
Dave’s brothers Ed and Don came to Alaska
during the second year we lived there,
and their teenage children as well.
Ed’s family lived in a trailer behind
our house and shared the utilities.
We had a lot of trouble with the water
We had a lot of trouble with the water
lines freezing. Ed was running a postal
route, working twelve to fifteen hours a
day and everyone depended on Dave
to thaw the frozen pipes so we could
cook, eat, bathe... None of us ever
had to deal with that problem before...
Another little baby, coming too soon,
lost in a whirl of pain and blood ...
You held me close,
told me we would
keep trying. Then I found I could
not function well without you when
you left to work in that barren land
of Unalaska Isle,
to work awhile, a little while ...
I need you to hold me, my working man.
"Gotta have you, too," said your letters, "Can
you wait until this job is done?
Awhile, a little while?
This job in Unalaska Isle?
We'll have more money then."
Come home, my heart, my making-money man.
It's you I need to have again ...
I had a miscarriage in March, 1972.
Dave worked on the island of Unalaska
on a school near Dutch Harbor. The
wind blew there constantly with such
force that straps were fastened to car
doors and house doors to keep the wind
from ripping them off the hinges.
Mail service was not good, often requiring
10 days to 2 weeks for mail delivery.This is a long poem, as I warned you it would be... We have quite a way to go yet. Pretty soon Jon was born... But that is another story...
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