Feelings: All night last night I was talking with my husband and family about this writing assignment and how I have just enjoyed every minute of it. I had my husband read what I have written so far and he said he laughed when he read some parts because he remembered me telling the story or remembered being there for it. Today I am going to look back on my list of things I said I wanted to write about and start from there.
I love thinking back to the school I attended in Alaska. My dad was stationed at the local Air Force base, Eielson AFB, outside of Fairbanks and I went to school on the base at Anderson/Pennell Elementary. I believe the name changed the year before I moved to California and then it was just Anderson. I had the most wonderful teachers and the most wonderful memories from that school. I think back to my experience there and want to incorporate those things I did then into my classroom now. I have not yet been successful in these endeavors but I hope to one day be able to do so. I remember we had this huge, empty room that we would use all the time for special events, special talks, and for grade meetings. We used that room to create the Amazonian Jungle, reenact pioneer days, and to vote for the President [back when Clinton was elected president]. I loved how we would get together as a class and each have a section of that big room to fill with whatever we wanted. I remember we chose an anteater to go into our Amazonian jungle and I got to trace it using the overhead projector. At one time we got to do a dinosaur dig. Someone had come and pressurized a whole bunch of stuff into clay and we got to go up to this “site” as a class and excavate. We found all kinds of artifacts, including pens, scissors, and even a bone. It was fun to get to use the tools that real excavators use on the dig site.
Another favorite memory of mine was my PE teacher. I distinctly remember him because he was the only male teacher I ever had and he always seemed grumpy, except when we did something truly excellent and he would light up with the biggest smile on his face. He would do some really neat things in his classroom. I remember he invited this dancer to our class who did lots of neat things and taught us some moves ourselves. Every year we also got to take part of the Eskimo games and we would invite a local tribe to come and show us how to play all the “games” that the Eskimos would do during this time of the year. I loved getting to see them all dressed up in the garb and all the crazy games they took part of. One that I remember the most seems simple enough but is really difficult. There is a sack suspended from the ceiling. The Eskimos have to kick it by only using their feet. They have to leave the ground from their feet and then land again, after kicking the sack, back on their feet. The sack is moved up higher and higher into the air until there is only one person left. They are the winner of this game. I remember that sack getting very high and being in awe of how high they could jump.
One of the most memorable parts of school was . . . playing outside in the snow. I remember that we used to spend a lot of time outside. Not only that, just thinking about how long it took for 20+ kids to put their snow gear on with only one teacher to help . . . we had a long time to play. And boy did we love it. I remember having huge swings, these big cars made out of wood and metal tubing, some tall towers that we could climb, and lots of other equipment to play with. We loved playing in the snow and playing tag. A lot of people ask me if I ever stuck my tongue to a pole while it was cold outside and I would have to say no, that I don’t remember ever doing that. Namely because I remember when a boy in my class did do that and it was a big issue that took forever to take care of. It was actually quite comical how I remember it. That poor boy was so embarrassed and those teachers were working frantically so that he wouldn’t lose his tongue entirely. Talk about some training that you don’t receive in Texas. I also loved to play tag with my classmates. Remember I was a tom boy so when we played tag, boys versus girls, I would just decide what team I was on and go from there. Looking back I wonder, why didn’t a teacher ever say something to my dad? I was so rough but I guess that is just how some kids grow up like in Alaska. It tended to be a rough and tumble lifestyle.
I don’t remember playing any sports in Alaska but my dad has told me that he played a game called “Snow Ball”. After he told me how they played this game I was totally jealous and wish that I could have had the chance to do so. Hopefully in the future I can play. Obviously, as you can tell by the name, this game is played when there is snow on the ground. It’s just like slow pitch softball only with a bright orange ball. I could just imagine how much fun it would be to play, slipping and sliding around on the snow. I guess you would have to play this game towards the middle of the day because during the winter months there is not much light in Alaska. On the other side of the coin, during the summer it is sunny and bright for most of the day with the sun going down for little time. At one point there is no light all during the day in winter and no darkness all during the day in summer. During the summer solstice there are baseball games that go on during the wee hours of the night, just because it is bright as day during this time. This is actually a tradition that many come out and take part of. I don’t remember there being any specific event for the winter time, though.
Going back to school, one of my favorite teachers, who I actually never had as a teacher, was my neighbor, Mr. Smith who taught 4th grade. Yes, that was really his name. He was married to Mrs. McMorrow-Smith and I actually had her in 3rd grade. But I loved Mr. Smith. He was such a neat person. Every once and a while when dad, my sister, and I were watching the news we would see him pop up and give part of the nightly news. He was a “fill-in” anchor and I loved seeming him on there. Another thing I loved about him was his rabbit. They had one, HUGE black and white rabbit. Whenever they went away out of town they would let me take care of this huge thing. I remember it would make my cat, Smokey, so mad because he wanted to pounce on it but it was too big and he could take it down alone. He would try sometimes though. Poor rabbit. Watching that rabbit got me into rabbit fever. So my dad, who tended to give my sister and I everything we wanted, went and bought us two rabbits, a boy and a girl. Well if you know anything about rabbits they tend to multiply rapidly. Within no time, those two rabbits who I had grown to love turned into four rabbits. I remember helping my dad build the cage for them and it was beautiful. Soon, though, that cage was too small for our rabbits and we had about 16 of them. So dad built another cage. This one was huge and it laid on the ground. So periodically we would just move the cage and let the rabbits do our mowing for us. A pretty sweet deal if you think about it. Well, then that cage got too small so we dedicated a whole section of our yard just to the rabbits. Dad build this big room that was for them to nest in. It had heat lamps and little cubbies for the rabbits to go into. Outside of that house was a huge, fenced in area where the rabbits were free to just run around and have an enjoyable life. I remember the trees inside the fenced area always having white trunks about 3 feet up the trees from the rabbits enjoying the bark. I loved those rabbits and spent a lot of time out there with them. We would take some out periodically and “play” with them. I remember one time we took them a couple out and tried to see if they could swim. Those poor rabbits. Just in case you ever wanted to know, yes rabbits can swim. They swim just like a dog, paddling through the water. I was so sad when my dad was re-stationed to California and we had to leave those rabbits behind. I heard from a friend of mine that the people who bought our house let their dog go in there and he ate up all the rabbits. I was so upset out it. I cried for days.
We had other animals for pets, including ducks and hamsters. It was fun watching the ducks grow up. We were able to relocate them so they could grow up in the wild. Then the hamsters were pretty fun, except that 30 minutes after bringing them home my sister squeezed the life out of hers while hugging it. She still feels horrible for that. But my favorite pet that we ever had in Alaska was Smokey, my cat. I loved that cat. He had a brother named Rocky but we lost him when I was about three when he ate some anti-freeze. So after we lost Rocky, we had Smokey. Smokey was a large cat, black with some yellowish stripes, kinda like a tabby. He was so fun. He would let me carry him around the house and when I wasn’t carrying him, he would follow me. He was my companion. He used to go out and catch mice and birds for me. He would bring them back to the house and lay them out on our railroad ties for all to see. He was such a good cat. He survived the move from Alaska to California in the middle of the cold winter trek through Canada, and then again from California to Michigan in the middle of the hot summer. By the time we reached Michigan he was 11 years old and arguably the biggest cat I have ever seen in person. Almost as large as my 50-lb dog that I currently have. I loved that cat dearly. I missed him so much when I decided to move to Texas with my mom when I was 12. I loved seeing him during the summer and just holding him. I was so sad when my dad called one day when I was 16 to tell me the news that Smokey had died. I was devastated. I remember just hanging on to my mom and crying. I miss that cat. Hopefully when I have kids one day they can have a relationship with our family pets like I had with Smokey.
Now that we are leaving a sad note, maybe I should continue on talking about something that is more cheerful: Alaskan ice cream. Now, I don’t know if there is anything special that they put in their ice cream but can I just say that it is heavenly? Especially when it was frigid temperatures outside, we would still crave ice cream. Ice cream just seems to taste so much better in Alaska. My favorite place to get ice cream was from the “Knotty Shop”. This shop was so neat. It was full of locally made knick knacks, including painted gold pans and saws. I loved going in and seeing the stuffed animals, all from our area. There were lots of them! But the ice cream was hands down the best ever. When we were really good our dad would take us there to get some ice cream. After we had eaten our ice cream we would go outside and play on the big “things” that were out in the front of the shop. There was a moose, a mosquito, and snow shoe and some other things all made out of knotty pine. Knotty pine is beautiful. It is a kind of wood that knots up creating a beautiful wavy design. You need to “google” it to get the real effect of its beauty. This whole was made out of knotty pine and it is truly a sight to see. It is still there and I was able to share my love of their ice cream with my husband on our honeymoon a couple years back. I can’t wait to take my nieces, nephews, in-laws, and my family up there again so I can share more of me with them.
Well I think I have talked enough for one time about my beautiful Alaska. I will come back for more in a bit.
Some things I want to share about include: Alaska Land [Pioneer Park], gold mining, bush planes, earthquakes, northern lights, and Santa Claus.
I love thinking back to the school I attended in Alaska. My dad was stationed at the local Air Force base, Eielson AFB, outside of Fairbanks and I went to school on the base at Anderson/Pennell Elementary. I believe the name changed the year before I moved to California and then it was just Anderson. I had the most wonderful teachers and the most wonderful memories from that school. I think back to my experience there and want to incorporate those things I did then into my classroom now. I have not yet been successful in these endeavors but I hope to one day be able to do so. I remember we had this huge, empty room that we would use all the time for special events, special talks, and for grade meetings. We used that room to create the Amazonian Jungle, reenact pioneer days, and to vote for the President [back when Clinton was elected president]. I loved how we would get together as a class and each have a section of that big room to fill with whatever we wanted. I remember we chose an anteater to go into our Amazonian jungle and I got to trace it using the overhead projector. At one time we got to do a dinosaur dig. Someone had come and pressurized a whole bunch of stuff into clay and we got to go up to this “site” as a class and excavate. We found all kinds of artifacts, including pens, scissors, and even a bone. It was fun to get to use the tools that real excavators use on the dig site.
Another favorite memory of mine was my PE teacher. I distinctly remember him because he was the only male teacher I ever had and he always seemed grumpy, except when we did something truly excellent and he would light up with the biggest smile on his face. He would do some really neat things in his classroom. I remember he invited this dancer to our class who did lots of neat things and taught us some moves ourselves. Every year we also got to take part of the Eskimo games and we would invite a local tribe to come and show us how to play all the “games” that the Eskimos would do during this time of the year. I loved getting to see them all dressed up in the garb and all the crazy games they took part of. One that I remember the most seems simple enough but is really difficult. There is a sack suspended from the ceiling. The Eskimos have to kick it by only using their feet. They have to leave the ground from their feet and then land again, after kicking the sack, back on their feet. The sack is moved up higher and higher into the air until there is only one person left. They are the winner of this game. I remember that sack getting very high and being in awe of how high they could jump.
One of the most memorable parts of school was . . . playing outside in the snow. I remember that we used to spend a lot of time outside. Not only that, just thinking about how long it took for 20+ kids to put their snow gear on with only one teacher to help . . . we had a long time to play. And boy did we love it. I remember having huge swings, these big cars made out of wood and metal tubing, some tall towers that we could climb, and lots of other equipment to play with. We loved playing in the snow and playing tag. A lot of people ask me if I ever stuck my tongue to a pole while it was cold outside and I would have to say no, that I don’t remember ever doing that. Namely because I remember when a boy in my class did do that and it was a big issue that took forever to take care of. It was actually quite comical how I remember it. That poor boy was so embarrassed and those teachers were working frantically so that he wouldn’t lose his tongue entirely. Talk about some training that you don’t receive in Texas. I also loved to play tag with my classmates. Remember I was a tom boy so when we played tag, boys versus girls, I would just decide what team I was on and go from there. Looking back I wonder, why didn’t a teacher ever say something to my dad? I was so rough but I guess that is just how some kids grow up like in Alaska. It tended to be a rough and tumble lifestyle.
I don’t remember playing any sports in Alaska but my dad has told me that he played a game called “Snow Ball”. After he told me how they played this game I was totally jealous and wish that I could have had the chance to do so. Hopefully in the future I can play. Obviously, as you can tell by the name, this game is played when there is snow on the ground. It’s just like slow pitch softball only with a bright orange ball. I could just imagine how much fun it would be to play, slipping and sliding around on the snow. I guess you would have to play this game towards the middle of the day because during the winter months there is not much light in Alaska. On the other side of the coin, during the summer it is sunny and bright for most of the day with the sun going down for little time. At one point there is no light all during the day in winter and no darkness all during the day in summer. During the summer solstice there are baseball games that go on during the wee hours of the night, just because it is bright as day during this time. This is actually a tradition that many come out and take part of. I don’t remember there being any specific event for the winter time, though.
Going back to school, one of my favorite teachers, who I actually never had as a teacher, was my neighbor, Mr. Smith who taught 4th grade. Yes, that was really his name. He was married to Mrs. McMorrow-Smith and I actually had her in 3rd grade. But I loved Mr. Smith. He was such a neat person. Every once and a while when dad, my sister, and I were watching the news we would see him pop up and give part of the nightly news. He was a “fill-in” anchor and I loved seeming him on there. Another thing I loved about him was his rabbit. They had one, HUGE black and white rabbit. Whenever they went away out of town they would let me take care of this huge thing. I remember it would make my cat, Smokey, so mad because he wanted to pounce on it but it was too big and he could take it down alone. He would try sometimes though. Poor rabbit. Watching that rabbit got me into rabbit fever. So my dad, who tended to give my sister and I everything we wanted, went and bought us two rabbits, a boy and a girl. Well if you know anything about rabbits they tend to multiply rapidly. Within no time, those two rabbits who I had grown to love turned into four rabbits. I remember helping my dad build the cage for them and it was beautiful. Soon, though, that cage was too small for our rabbits and we had about 16 of them. So dad built another cage. This one was huge and it laid on the ground. So periodically we would just move the cage and let the rabbits do our mowing for us. A pretty sweet deal if you think about it. Well, then that cage got too small so we dedicated a whole section of our yard just to the rabbits. Dad build this big room that was for them to nest in. It had heat lamps and little cubbies for the rabbits to go into. Outside of that house was a huge, fenced in area where the rabbits were free to just run around and have an enjoyable life. I remember the trees inside the fenced area always having white trunks about 3 feet up the trees from the rabbits enjoying the bark. I loved those rabbits and spent a lot of time out there with them. We would take some out periodically and “play” with them. I remember one time we took them a couple out and tried to see if they could swim. Those poor rabbits. Just in case you ever wanted to know, yes rabbits can swim. They swim just like a dog, paddling through the water. I was so sad when my dad was re-stationed to California and we had to leave those rabbits behind. I heard from a friend of mine that the people who bought our house let their dog go in there and he ate up all the rabbits. I was so upset out it. I cried for days.
We had other animals for pets, including ducks and hamsters. It was fun watching the ducks grow up. We were able to relocate them so they could grow up in the wild. Then the hamsters were pretty fun, except that 30 minutes after bringing them home my sister squeezed the life out of hers while hugging it. She still feels horrible for that. But my favorite pet that we ever had in Alaska was Smokey, my cat. I loved that cat. He had a brother named Rocky but we lost him when I was about three when he ate some anti-freeze. So after we lost Rocky, we had Smokey. Smokey was a large cat, black with some yellowish stripes, kinda like a tabby. He was so fun. He would let me carry him around the house and when I wasn’t carrying him, he would follow me. He was my companion. He used to go out and catch mice and birds for me. He would bring them back to the house and lay them out on our railroad ties for all to see. He was such a good cat. He survived the move from Alaska to California in the middle of the cold winter trek through Canada, and then again from California to Michigan in the middle of the hot summer. By the time we reached Michigan he was 11 years old and arguably the biggest cat I have ever seen in person. Almost as large as my 50-lb dog that I currently have. I loved that cat dearly. I missed him so much when I decided to move to Texas with my mom when I was 12. I loved seeing him during the summer and just holding him. I was so sad when my dad called one day when I was 16 to tell me the news that Smokey had died. I was devastated. I remember just hanging on to my mom and crying. I miss that cat. Hopefully when I have kids one day they can have a relationship with our family pets like I had with Smokey.
Now that we are leaving a sad note, maybe I should continue on talking about something that is more cheerful: Alaskan ice cream. Now, I don’t know if there is anything special that they put in their ice cream but can I just say that it is heavenly? Especially when it was frigid temperatures outside, we would still crave ice cream. Ice cream just seems to taste so much better in Alaska. My favorite place to get ice cream was from the “Knotty Shop”. This shop was so neat. It was full of locally made knick knacks, including painted gold pans and saws. I loved going in and seeing the stuffed animals, all from our area. There were lots of them! But the ice cream was hands down the best ever. When we were really good our dad would take us there to get some ice cream. After we had eaten our ice cream we would go outside and play on the big “things” that were out in the front of the shop. There was a moose, a mosquito, and snow shoe and some other things all made out of knotty pine. Knotty pine is beautiful. It is a kind of wood that knots up creating a beautiful wavy design. You need to “google” it to get the real effect of its beauty. This whole was made out of knotty pine and it is truly a sight to see. It is still there and I was able to share my love of their ice cream with my husband on our honeymoon a couple years back. I can’t wait to take my nieces, nephews, in-laws, and my family up there again so I can share more of me with them.
Well I think I have talked enough for one time about my beautiful Alaska. I will come back for more in a bit.
Some things I want to share about include: Alaska Land [Pioneer Park], gold mining, bush planes, earthquakes, northern lights, and Santa Claus.
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