Andre James - Five Days To Fairbanks - 1956
San Francisco to Fairbanks, Alaska. 3,100 miles traveled by car in 1956. Pops packed up the Ford Falcon wagon, dropped down the back seat to install a mattress on top…
San Francisco to Fairbanks, Alaska. 3,100 miles traveled by car in 1956. Pops packed up the Ford Falcon wagon, dropped down the back seat to install a mattress on top so the five kids could hang out as we traveled for Five days to Fairbanks, Alaska. As an avid hunter and fisherman Pops had fallen in love with outdoor life in Alaska during the time he worked on the Alaska pipeline. Post WW2 yet before Alaska was a state. The Al-Can highway was in various stages of repair from the US border to Fairbanks.
After dozens of games of monopoly and gin rummy we arrived at a small house on 23rd ave. just west of Cushman, the main drag. 23rd was at the very outskirts of town. There was 23rd, then there was the wilderness. Serious wilderness. Wolves, moose, caribou, wild strawberries all in walking distance.
My first friend in 2nd grade was Richard. He was an eskimo indian who lived a mile from our house. One family of 5 or 6 in one room shack with a wood heater in the center of the room.
During that first summer, Richard taught me how to throw a knife. When you are six you can spend hours doing one thing without any awareness of time going by. That is most curiously true during summertime in Fairbanks when the sun never sets.
Come fall we walked to Hunter Elementary to start school. Unlike Golden Gate Elementary in SF, this was a big new building with a large campus filled with play structures. Unlike Golden Gate, I did not expect to get hassled by young black girls who wanted to run their fingers through my soft curly hair. That was before black was beautiful. In the fifties in the black community light colored skin and soft curly hair was in. Come the sixties and Black Power, black was beautiful and Afros were iconic. But I digress.
Valerie was this one girl in my San Francisco class that seemed to always bother me. Although I knew no one in Fairbanks, I thought at least I am rid of that one girl fan club!
As I put my lunch in the cloak room and then walk into the class to meet my new classmates, I notice a familiar face at the back of the class. It’s Valerie! Yikes. 3,100 miles from 527 Scott Street. How could this be? I was frozen in disbelief, which is not hard to do where average winter temperatures are around 20 below zero!! Did my mother ask her family to join us in Fairbanks?
Fortunately Valerie had matured passed her momentary infatuation with my hair. So we all went out to play on the monkey bars.
A few lessons about living in Alaska you may want to teach your children:
1. Unlike San Francisco where did earthquake drills, hiding below our desks, in Fairbanks we learned Huskie drills. If a pack of hungry Huskies are spotted in hunting mode and you are the likely prey you either run into any strangers house or curl up on the ground to protect your vitals.
2. When playing on the monkey bars do not lick them with your tongue or wet lips. At 20 below, the moisture both inside and outside of your lips and tongue freeze instantly forming a one ice cube that includes your skin.
3. Cold sucks the heat from your body making you feel tired. So when walking home from school do not stop to rest. Do not stop.
Andre James, June 14, 2021
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