Growing up in Nome Alaska - part four

My Uncle Frank was appointed US District Attorney at Nome and his office was in the Federal Building. The jail was also in this building—biggest best building in town. Luella Grant was the cook at the jail. She lived across the street from Kaasen’s. Luella Grant started stopping at our house to visit on her way home from work. She and my mother were very good friends. One day she stopped and told Dad that her stove wasn’t working properly. Dad said he’d go over and fix it for her. That night we were awakened by the fire siren. We got up and went outside to see where it was—Dad got very upset when he saw that it was Luella Grant’s house—--he pounded the wall with his fist—he thought it was his fault because he hadn’t fixed the stove right. Mother and I stood in our front yard to watch the firemen fight the fire. It was cold, icy and dark outside. I watched a water truck come down the street to go to the fire, but when the driver tried to turn left to the fire his truck started to slide on the ice and he was heading straight for us. Mother pushed me into the ditch and fell on top of me to protect me. Luckily, the driver got control and was able to steer the truck away from us. Very scary moment but I knew my mother loved me and was willing to give her life to protect me. We later learned that Luella Grant had been murdered and the house set on fire by an Eskimo who had served time in jail.

My dad did sheet metal work for town people besides working at the base. Everyone had oil stoves for heat and cooking so lots of calls for smoke stacks! Also tanks to hold the water; we paid 25 cents a bucket for water in the winter. The buckets were coated with ice. We had a large tank on a stand in the corner of the kitchen. It held 50 gallons. Each week the Eskimos would bring in water. We’d put a card in the window when we needed water. By the end of the week the water was warm from standing in the kitchen.

Dad was asked to make a crown to be given to someone to be honored as the Arctic Queen. It was made out of metal and he put jewels on it. I thought it was beautiful! He spent a lot of time making it as elegant has he could. Dad was an outdoorsman and enjoyed hunting and fishing. He had a gun collection and displayed his guns in a gun case. The gun case was at the foot of my small bed in the bedroom.

I remember going to the meat market with mother and the butcher would give me a frozen wiener… I thought it was yummy then but I don’t think I would consider it yummy today. Mother said that our meat was sawed like a chunk of lumber and we bought a lot of reindeer. They would ship fresh produce for Thanksgiving and Christmas by air—$2.50 for head of lettuce, $2.60 stalks of celery and $5.00 a dozen for eggs.

Anne Jenks made arrangements for my mother to have a dog team ride with Al Carey, an old gold prospector, who lived around the corner, had a dog team of seven dogs. Anne talked him into taking mother on his dog team for a ride to Cape Nome to a civilian radio patrol station 15 miles east of Nome. Mother said it was 31 degrees below zero. Mother was bundled up in borrowed clothing. As soon as it got light they took off over the frozen Bering Sea. About half way home they saw an Eskimo with a dog team on the shore. He was waving his arms so Al Carey said, “we had better go see what he wants.”They headed for shore and discovered that they were on a floating ice flow. They were headed out to sea and Siberia. The lead or open water was about three feet across. Al unhooked the dogs and put the sled over the lead and they and the dogs walked over to safety. Al hooked up the dogs and they headed home. My mother said it was the most frightening experience she ever had. If that Eskimo had not warned them they could have floated across the Bering Sea and may never have been found.[See the picture of our school in the background.]

Some people would have groceries sent in on the last boat in September. Mother would turn the crate of eggs every week so that the yolk wouldn’t settle in one end and spoil. We had powdered milk in big cans. It was called “Klim” — milk spelled backwards. Our shipping cream came in small brown bottles called “Avoset.” [I looked up on the internet and found this information about Avoset: Avoset was sold in 8-ounce jars and you can substitute unsweetened heavy whipping cream ounce for ounce. From 8 ounces (1 cup) Avoset or whipping cream, you'll get about 2 cups whipped.]

I spent a lot of time playing with Suzy Galloway. Someone told me that her house had been a brothel at one time in Nome. We used to play upstairs and there were a lot of little rooms. Suzy’s mother, Joy, would sometimes give us an open slice of bread with mayonnaise on it. I just loved those little treats. One time I was there for breakfast and her dad introduced us to Rice Krispies and sat with us as we listened to the snap, crackel, pop. My cousin Gary would call Joy Galloway…”Momma Sue.”

It seem to me that there were a lot of deserted houses in Nome and I remember exploring some of them. There was one house that had a box of sticks that we thought was dymanite… not sure if it really was or just our imagination but the box was real. Interesting all the things we did and the fun we had. I’m grateful that nothing dangerous happened to us. The oil barrels near the mining company that had a mote of oily water around it and we thought we should crawl out on this pipe over the water… so glad no one fell in that ugly looking water.