Colony Christmas

Last week Ken and I were in Palmer, Alaska. We celebrated cold weather in a winter wonderland, where we attended  “Colony Christmas”. 

There were all the trappings of a small town from the turn of the last century. 

We attended craft fairs. The children built marshmallow snowmen and the adults toasted to one another at the Pioneer Museum. A string trio played Christmas music as people simply enjoyed each other’s acquaintance.

Our grandchildren baked Texas Tea Cakes and we attended the play, “A Christmas Carol” at the PAC in Anchorage. 

It reminded me of the night before Christmas: “Mama in her 'kerchief… just settled down for a long winter's nap”.

Palmer is a small farming community north of Anchorage, in the Matanuska Valley. Historically, in May of 1935, 203 families from Michigan and Minnesota relocated to Palmer in an effort to colonize the area.

I was able to visit with one of those pioneers this past week, Bonnie Larash. Bonnie was a 1 year old babe the year her Mom (age 19) and Dad (age 24) moved  to the Mat-Su Valley.

Bonnie, now 80, grew up in the Mat-Su. She has a picture of herself as a toddler I love!  She looks like Shirley Temple standing on a rugged driveway holding a slice of cheese letting the entire world know she will survive.

Bonnie told me Alaska has changed. But people need to remember, “It’s not like the TV shows, nor will it ever be”. 

She remembers 25 below degree days - using hot water from a wood fire and pouring the water over a frozen propane bottle to warm up the propane.  She needed to do this just to get it out of the bottle to shower to go to work. 

As a child, her first home was a tent. Yes, there was lumber, but her folks had to build the house --- no chain saws! When the families arrived they drew lots for the 40-acre tracts and their farming adventure began in earnest. The failure rate was high. There was no US currency; everything came from the company store.

After a few years, Bonnie’s dad realized that unless he got away from that co-op his family would die owing the company. So they moved into the upper story of a flooded out school house.  Life was hard.

Bonnie grew up and worked at Peggy’s Diner in Anchorage (by the way it is still there) where she earned $2.49 an hour and she raised three kids!  After the children grew up she was offered a job on the Alaska Pipeline, Pump Station 12.  She earned $12.49. She said it was the best job she ever had.

Bonnie is a treasure.  She has life experience!

Look around and you’ll find a Bonnie; I have a few of them.  There is my Aunt Knoxine and my Dad, Tom Campbell.  These people are remarkable, rugged individuals. They have survived life and have life wisdom.

                                                       

I like that!

This holiday, spend time with people who can teach you to learn to leave your own trail.

Just Little Changes Over Time

Daily quiet time enables me to stay grounded and grow personally.  I am so very lucky I have a spouse, family, and staff who understand that.

 
This year I added reading to my five year daily “quiet time” habit. Right  now I am digesting a book my son, Cory recommended entitled, “Myths to Live By”.

The classic work is a look at Joseph Campbell’s personal life philosophy. His work actually intensifies for me just how dramatically my personal faith has grown and how much  has changed in the past 15 years.

Everything has changed for me.  The way I look, the way I process  information, my emotional stamina even my relationship with others.  Ask anyone who really “knows me” and they will tell you, “there are some huge changes.” 

When I think about it, you know, I’d love others to be wiser than me.

That being said, listen to the words of “The Teacher”,  King Solomon, a very wise man from the Bible.  In chapter 12 of Ecclesiastes he says:

1 Don't let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator. Honor him in your youth before you grow old and no longer enjoy living. 2 It will be too late then to remember him, when the light of the sun and moon and stars is dim to your old eyes, and there is no silver lining left among the clouds. 3 Your limbs will tremble with age, and your strong legs will grow weak. Your teeth will be too few to do their work, and you will be blind, too. 4 And remember Him before the door of life’s opportunities is closed and the sound of work fades.  Now you rise at the first chirping of the birds, but then all their sounds will grow faint, 5 You will be afraid of heights and of falling, white-haired and withered, dragging along without any sexual desire. You will be standing at death's door. And as you near your everlasting home, the mourners will walk along the streets. 6 Yes, remember your Creator now while you are young, before the silver cord of life snaps and the golden bowl is broken. Don't wait until the water jar is smashed at the spring and the pulley is broken at the well. 7 For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.  

Personal change is huge! It takes commitment and time.

Attached to today’s blog are two pictures. The first was taken in San Francisco, I believe the  year was 2002.  This is the woman my children called Mom.  The second was taken at the office this week. She’s  the one I want my grandchildren to remember.

 

 

 



San Francisco 2002



May 2014