July 1973 -1974

I had an apartment, I found my cat Sadie (six weeks later) and now I needed a job. Jim was helpful with the start of making friends. He is a very social guy and since the ratio was 10 men for every 1 woman in Fairbanks, it was really easy to meet guys. So, I focused on the job first.

The best way to find a job in Fairbanks at that time was through the Alaska Employment Services Office. I checked in with them and within a week I was working as a Title Clerk in the only GMC dealership in Fairbanks. There was only one other woman in the business, the office manager, my boss, and all the rest were guys. And they all knew within seconds of my acceptance of the offer that a new girl was in town.

The ball was rolling. I was meeting people like crazy and there were women friends to be had. I stayed at Fairview Apartments for a few months and then I met Marcia Williams and she and I got an apartment together. I dated Bill Sarbaugh (center photo), Bob Batley, Kevin Coor, Stu Altman (right photo) and Axel Bachman (left photos) during the two years I lived there. I had wonderful Alaskan adventures with all 5 of them.

At about the 9 months mark I switched jobs and became the secretary to the US Fish & Wildlife Law Enforcement Agent stationed in Fairbanks. He was responsible for enforcing federal fish and wildlife laws for the entire northern half of the state….big region! His name is Red James and was a joy to work for.

Momentous moments during that first year….Jim announcing at Labor Day that he was not staying through the winter. What!!!! He moved back to Florida and I was stuck, since I had used up all my savings to get there, I didn’t have the money to leave. It didn’t turn out to be a big issue. By then I had a new circle of friends and I knew I would be fine. But I was going to really miss Jim.

Meeting Karen was another big milepost. At the time neither of us would have ever guessed that 37 years later we would still be close friends. She was a young, single mother with a zest for life and adventures that was attractive to everyone who met her. Becoming her friend was an easy thing to do.

Through Bob Batley I met Jack Blume and Karen Kohout (photo to the left). They were a long standing couple who were in the middle of making plans to move to the bush. They had homesteaded land several miles outside of Fairbanks on the Tozitna River and they were to become a pivotal couple in my Alaskan experience.

My first winter in Fairbanks was a big deal. Everyone took care of me. They made sure I had the right clothes to wear in sub-zero temperatures. They made sure my van was arctic weather ready (which turned out to be a big joke, more on that later). They explained what my emotional needs would be as we moved from 24-hours of daylight to 24-hours of night.

The first snow fell that year in mid-September, and by the end of September snow was on the ground until the following Spring, late May. By mid-October I was very aware of how short the days were becoming….rapidly and I thought I was ready for an Alaskan winter! Ha!

One thing to always keep in mind if you decide to move to Alaska…do not take a car with an air-cooled engine, like for instance a VW Van. At -60, or even -20, air-cooled engines are not the best choice. I had so many problems with that van during my first winter. The interior of the van never got above 5+ degrees whatever it was outside. So if it was -20, outside, which it often was, then inside the van was -15, if I was lucky. It helped when I put a barrier up between the front seats and the rest of the van, but not much. I had ongoing problems with the accelerator cable that went from the engine (at the back of the van) to the gas pedal at the front of the van. It was constantly frozen in place. And then there were those aluminum rims that my 4 tires were mounted on. Do you know what happens to aluminum rims at -20, -30 or -40? They shrink. And that means that the tubeless tires mounted on those rims go flat…all at the same time. I constantly had to be somewhere close to air pumps to pump up my tires. If I could have lived without a car, I would have gladly given mine away.

I don’t think I had a hard time adjusting to 22 hours of night. I joined a basketball league, became a Girl Scout leader and had a great circle of friends to hang with. One of the most fascinating pastimes of Alaskan winters was watching the Northern Lights. Anytime they were out the phones would ring and we would gather outside to watch. Sometimes they were minor shows, but often they were spectacular. It’s hard to imagine, sitting outside, at night at -20 or lower temperatures, watching the night sky. But the Lights could keep you entranced…for hours.

By mid-February you are aware that the days are getting longer. When the temperatures get above 0 you start to see foolish people running around town in shorts and t-shirts, no lie!! It happened. But it is a huge change, between the daylight and the temperatures; spring becomes something revolutionary in Alaska.

The seasons are a little different there. There is winter, then spring thaw, then mud season and then for a very few days, spring as we know it in the lower 48. Then it is summer, and back to the long days. That first spring was a little rough for me. I was having symptoms that made me think I might be pregnant, but when I went to have them checked out, turned out I had gall stones, 5 of them to be exact. The doctor wanted to do surgery immediately. I asked how long the recovery time would be…this was before endoscopic surgeries, and I was told six weeks. That would mean an entire summer lost to recuperation. I couldn’t do it. I told the doc I would return in the fall for the surgery. I immediately put myself on a very low fat diet and started drinking cranberry juice at about 1 gallon every 1.5 days. I hated the stuff at first, but soon developed a taste for it and within about 4 weeks all the symptoms were gone and never came back. No surgery for me!!

And so, I survived my first winter in Alaska…more or less.