My Decision to Move to Alaska

You might be curious, how did I get to Alaska in the first place? In 1968 I moved from my home in Florida, back to my birthplace in Ohio. Florida had been a great place to live for 10 years, from the ages of 9-19, but I always had dreams of being back in Ohio, with snow, seasons and my extended family.

However, when I moved back, I had it firmly in my head that I would stay in Cincinnati no longer than 5 years, and then I wanted to move on. Didn’t know where, didn’t know exactly when, but 5 years seemed like a good target. College or marriage really weren’t high on my agenda. I wasn’t actually a ‘hippy’, but I did run on the edges of those circles, and I guess my freedom was really important to me.

So, in the spring of 1973 lots of pieces of my life started rearranging. Diane, a good friend was moving with her boyfriend from Cincinnati to Maine. Francis, another good friend was moving to Boston to work on a master’s degree. Charlie and Gene, my married couple friends/roommates, were moving to Portland, OR and finally, the guy I had been dating for 5 years was moving to Guam! Within just a few short weeks, my most inner circle of friends was disappearing!! About this same time Mom and Dad let me know that my brother, Jim, was moving to Alaska!! Even though Jerry asked me to marry him and move to Guam, I said no, marriage and Guam were definitely not part of the plan. However, Alaska sounded very interesting.

Jim moved to Fairbanks in April 1973 and I made plans to move up in July 1973. Mom and Dad were going to drive up in an RV and I was going to drive my VW van up the Alcan Highway, so we made a little caravan. I gave notice at my job, said goodbye to what was left of my friends and was ready to go!
Figured I could live in Fairbanks for around 5 years and then I would move on to my next destination, wherever that might be.