BUS RIDES

 

BUS RIDES:

My first bus ride was when I was about two or

 three years old.  I am sure that Richard was

 with us.  Dad was working in Eastern Oregon 

and Mom had to return to Emmett for some 

reason.  So we took a bus.  The main thing 

I remember was when we were nearing Ontario 

there was an over powering smell of onions. 

 Phew!

Next bus rides were the routine school bus 

rides when ever we lived out in the country

 sides.

One very special bus ride was one to eastern

 Idaho to attend the 1965 Basketball 

tournament which Emmett won for their 

division. I screamed myself hoarse.

There was one memorable bus ride when we 

lived near Riggins.  Mom found us a Church 

Day Camp to attend.  Away we went, all six 

of us. One of the ladies thought the girls 

were my daughters.  We all did the macaroni 

and glue art project. I remember some one 

asking about religious preferenes.  Not a

 problem attended plenty of Sunday school here and there.  I am sure the lady was d by my eccumenial leanings.

When I lived in California, my first roommate

 took a trip back east.  She had me take a 

bus from Vallejo to Reno wher we met.  

That was fun. The trip up was unremarkable 

except for a black couple who were drunk and 

argued.  The bus driver finally had them leave the bus at some point.  There are always intereting folk to be found on a bus.

Then I took a bus ride with Charlie from 

Philo,CA to Novato.  We were scheduled for a 

trip to Idaho. We rode on a helicopter to 

SFO and it was noisy.

Before that I was chaperon for Vicky on her 

class trip. We weny from Novato to Disney. 

This was shortly after a big quake that 

brought down freeways.  Once we got close, 

the driver very carefully got to the Happiest

 Place.  It was fun.  I forgot how few places

 there are to sit down in Dinny land.

I got got we had a bus system in Barrow, 

you 

could look on the Eskimo channel to see how close it was.  Hop on drop in a token, away you go!! Occasionally the driver would say where were by saying “ And here is the Blue Hotel. Jail” Every one laughed.  

If I ever hit the lottery I would start a l

ocal bus service for Coquille and to Myrtle 

Point for free. Wheeee.

MOMS STORY

MOMS STORY:

I guess Mom got tired of me talking all about Dad stories.  I had talked about the time he ran away from home at age eleven and took a lenghthy journey, the time he and Carl burned the neighbor farmer hay stack and the time he went AWOL and got away with it.

 So she told me that she once stolen five pounds of sugar. Oh, do tell I purred. She was on a date with some one, not Dad. They had gone dancing. There may be been the itty bitty aount of liquor consumed. The went to the Ola Store.  There was a very bit stack of five pound bags of sugar.  She decided to steal one and put it in her coat pocket...deep pocket.  I asked her what she did with it. She put in her mothers pantry.  Grandma Horn baked a lot. She usually made pies and routinely kept one hundred pounds of sugar and baked bread and kept one hundred pounds of flour.
 

I wish I had asked her if she had committed any other girlish indiscretions. I know that she droppd out of highschool and worked in a bakery an then at the local five and dime, I think it was Sprouse. She boarded with lady who owned the store. She was very independent. The sugar was taken well before WWII and rationing began. I remember her telling me that she was painting the bedroom when they heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor. She said she got her first pair of nylong after she married. Her wedding shoes were leather, brown and heeled. Ellen has them. I remember her telling me that Dad gave her a Pink Kimono which came from Uncle Carl as he had been stationed in Japan. She said she made it into a dress. I do wish she had kept the Kimono. So did she. If anyone has other memories, please share. 

HIGHER EDUCATION

 

HIGHER EDUCATION:

The summer I moved to Petaluma I was seventeen, not old enough to work.  So I spent that time going to Santa Rose Junior College to take placement tests. Unfortunately I could not enroll due to lack of money. I also babysat once with a family who went to Russian River over Fourth of July.  That was fun.  I wish I had volunteered at the hospital with my current experience and gradually gotten into medical transcription. I may have headed for a degree in medical records much sooner.  Once I was hired at Fairchild on night shift.  I was free to attend Redwood Junior College where I took classes on Astrology, Art and Spanish.  

When I returned to Idaho as a displaced housewife I took aptitude tests and the local unemployment office.  The Social worker told me that I had a good vocabulary and would work best on night shift. She then presented three jobs she thought I would excel at.  First was nuclear lab technician. This was located in far eastern Idaho with a lengthy commute by bus to the lab. No thanks. The second option was that of OSHA inspector. Umm people are shooting at OSHA inspectors.  Third was medical records, two year degree at Boise State University, Tell me more.  I applied and qualified for Basic Education Opportunity Grant.  Thaat paid for my tuition.  No books or food.  The books were spendy but I only bought a couple of them.  There was no math requirement.  The rest of my classes were wonderful. Medical record five day a week, terminology three days a week, she gave new words and tests on Friday so I skipped Monday and Wednesday. I aced it.  Biology thrree day a week, lab once a week three hours. Speech three days a week, English three days a week, Medical Law evenings once a week.  Also Introduction toW Western Civilization. The teacher asked us first thing what grade did we want. He love =d social experiments. After a while we understood do project, read book. Well we never opened the book. He loved to have prisoners come in; we had burlary week, car theft week. Then we had a couple come in he wanted a sex change, still wanted his wife and family. He asked what to tell the children, one of his friends said tell them that Dad had died.  NOOOOO. Kids love their parents no matter what.  When I worked at St. Als a doctor wanted a path report on someone.  He was a prisoner who would swalloe items such at razor blades, knives etc. The path report reae in part “and a partridge in a pear tear.”  So my project for class was to invite that prisoner to class but he did not want to do that. I got an A. Wunnerful

When I transferred to Barrow, Alaska there is the Ilizagvik College out at NARL, naval arctic research lab.  They discovered a vast gas field. All the borough owned buildings and apartments were heated by gas.  The dryer were gas as well. I took a couple classes one was film we watched tne original Vampire film with Bela Lugosi. Then we watched the recent Frankenstein with Robert Deniro. We also read a short story about someone heating a pot of rice with a very small fire.  The teacher asked us to write about one of them.  I chose Frankenstein.  It was a lot of fun.  Victor lived happily ever after in The Place of Owls.  HIGHER EDUCATION:

The summer I moved to Petaluma I was seventeen, not old enough to work.  So I spent that time going to Santa Rose Junior College to take placement tests. Unfortunately I could not enroll due to lack of money. I also babysat once with a family who went to Russian River over Fourth of July.  That was fun.  I wish I had volunteered at the hospital with my current experience and gradually gotten into medical transcription. I may have headed for a degree in medical records much sooner.  Once I was hired at Fairchild on night shift.  I was free to attend Redwood Junior College where I took classes on Astrology, Art and Spanish.  

When I returned to Idaho as a displaced housewife I took aptitude tests and the local unemployment office.  The Social worker told me that I had a good vocabulary and would work best on night shift. She then presented three jobs she thought I would excel at.  First was nuclear lab technician. This was located in far eastern Idaho with a lengthy commute by bus to the lab. No thanks. The second option was that of OSHA inspector. Umm people are shooting at OSHA inspectors.  Third was medical records, two year degree at Boise State University, Tell me more.  I applied and qualified for Basic Education Opportunity Grant.  Thaat paid for my tuition.  No books or food.  The books were spendy but I only bought a couple of them.  There was no math requirement.  The rest of my classes were wonderful. Medical record five day a week, terminology three days a week, she gave new words and tests on Friday so I skipped Monday and Wednesday. I aced it.  Biology thrree day a week, lab once a week three hours. Speech three days a week, English three days a week, Medical Law evenings once a week.  Also Introduction toW Western Civilization. The teacher asked us first thing what grade did we want. He love =d social experiments. After a while we understood do project, read book. Well we never opened the book. He loved to have prisoners come in; we had burlary week, car theft week. Then we had a couple come in he wanted a sex change, still wanted his wife and family. He asked what to tell the children, one of his friends said tell them that Dad had died.  NOOOOO. Kids love their parents no matter what.  When I worked at St. Als a doctor wanted a path report on someone.  He was a prisoner who would swalloe items such at razor blades, knives etc. The path report reae in part “and a partridge in a pear tear.”  So my project for class was to invite that prisoner to class but he did not want to do that. I got an A. Wunnerful

When I transferred to Barrow, Alaska there is the Ilizagvik College out at NARL, naval arctic research lab.  They discovered a vast gas field. All the borough owned buildings and apartments were heated by gas.  The dryer were gas as well. I took a couple classes one was film we watched tne original Vampire film with Bela Lugosi. Then we watched the recent Frankenstein with Robert Deniro. We also read a short story about someone heating a pot of rice with a very small fire.  The teacher asked us to write about one of them.  I chose Frankenstein.  It was a lot of fun.  Victor lived happily ever after in The Place of Owls.  

BARROW BITS AND PIECES

 

BARROW THIS AND THAT:

In all of the ten years I never took a sick day.  

The Barrow High School has an Olympic sized pool.  The only pool that a swimmer could train in for the Paris Olympics.

Jury duty was always very interesting. I observed several ways to be excused.  One was to bring a book, read, do not pay attention. You are excused.  Bring lots of business cards, give to everyone and do not pay attention.  Bye bye.  Make a jjoke. Lawyers do not like a sense of humor.  There was voir due question in Nome about bumper sticker.  I said had had no bumper outte here.  The cases I hear were mostly assault and DUI.  No murders thankfully. 

They usually had a craft fair close to Christmas.  The Filipinos made  adobo, pansit.Yummy.  I purchased a beautiful beaded angel pin for my coat.  Lovely.

I worked on the RPMS system, resource patint management system.  Three of usT were sent to Tucson for a refrsher couse.  While there I purchased a pair of burden basket earrings.  Then I had fry bread taco for the first time. Wow!

I loved to order Teriyaki and seven up. The taxi guys delivered it for fifteen bucks.  

Television was from Chicago so prime time was well over by the time I got home after five.  Saw some intereting commercials about black hair care.  One app was good enough to eat.  I asked a black lady at work if she processed her hair.  No her father was Indian. Shoot. I really wanted to know.

The Eskimo station always broadcast Star Trek and the occasional Eskimo dance. Also older.

There were  films about Eskimos making a sled using antler and the runners were large fish inside skins then frozen. When the camped and made the igloo the fish were cut up and cooked in a stone bowl. The kids loved the fish eyes raw.


I tasted whale chittlins, it was crispy like a radish and fainty fishy.

The local folks love TexMex Muktuk.  Seal oil, hot peppers muktuk.  Ok.

The whale muktuk os sliced off with long knives and put in the cellar which are below permafrost and well frozen.  Fresh muktuk is boiled and called unaluk.

Barrow was usually damp.  Means you can have liquor mailed in to consume.  For a period of   eighteen months the town was dry.  My job was to report all alohol related visits to ASRC.  One of the doctors did a study about the results and I was cited as a contributor. Kewl.

Recently the town voted that all liquor would be confined to a space and held two weeks until people could pick up their order.

The taxis were very reliable. One time they called because they were holding a strike  I walked to work and got there safely.  The strike was over by noon.
I purchased a beautful fox fur hat, red with tail. I loved it.  I sold it to one of the taxi guys for fifty bucks. 

They had internet, It was dial up. Husband called them so often he was banned for thirty days.

Yard sales were very popular and especially the teachers.  I had a yardsale and made about eight hundred dollars.  I left the left over in the washroom where ther was a free shelf.

Sold lots of VCRs.  Had to leave a beautiful steel shelf that cost one thousand dollars to ship.  I used it for plants, it was beautiful.  

All veterinary services were free. Bradfor had all his medical stuff done there and we had to put him done.  They were very sympathetic. Bradford spoke Chines when he was warbling away.

Litters were rare so I brought three of Jubiles litter to Barrow.  Two  two one house and one to another.  One one flight the kitten was so noise the jet actually flew faster to Fairbanks.

One time I attended a workshop in Fairbanks, it was so hot no breeze I was temped to sleep in my car.

One time I attended a workshop in Anchorage.  I had to drop the car off and got lost. I finall saw a sign that said keep runway clear. Yikez!!!  Turned around and found the right place.

One time Phil used airmiles to send Mom and Dad to Anchorage.  They checked in before I did. We met.  I had reserved a catamaran to take us on a tour of glaciers.  Did did not care for the food Chicken Tetrazine.  Yerk.  We rode the train through a tunnel it was so much fun.  Then we went to the zoo, the elephants painted and it was stinky. There was also a large polar bear named Binky.  A tourist decided to jump the fence.  He got lucky, Binky got to keep one red tennis shoe. Headlines and picture read, “Send more tourists, they are delicious.”

One evening there was an earthquake about 5.0 barely feel it.  We visited Vivian and Darrel.  It was nice seeing the cousins, one of them was a fisherman and the other drove bus.  Darrel drove the haul road when the pipeline was being built.

My favortite place to camp out was the Hilton and order room service.  One timeit snowed heavily it was so pleaceful  especially with the cemetery next door.  I especially like the coconut shrimp with Becks beer.  Ya!

DAD AND THE HAYSTACK

DAD an4 the Haystack:

One time Dad and Carl were working the neighbors field. They were learing out the drain ditch. The got old and pulled some hay from a nearby haystack and made a fire. Unfortunately the fire got away from them and burned the haytack. Grandpa B made them work the farmer for six months to make up for the lost hay. All that time they plotted about how to take revenge.

The next time the farmer and family were gone, the boys sneaked onto the property. Well, well, well. They decided to stack up several hay bales next to th barn.. They then coaxed the gentle bull up onto the top of the barn.

When the farmer got home and discovered the bull on top of his barn, he was pretty sure that the Berglund boys were guilty./ The sherrif even got involved. The boys laid low for a long time after that.

I moved back to Idaho in the mid seventies after becomig a displaced housewife. For a time I worked at Dewey orchargs. Mr. Dewey recognided me and remembered Dad very well.

While worktring there I worked in the packing she then drove truck. One tiime there were three of us and I had to ask the man next to me to spread his legs so I could shift into low.

Then there were a number Japanese men there. Mr. Dewey warned me to be careful as they were lonely. They only ever offed me a cigaretto. Then I met a ouple of Romanian. One man were there from a cattle ranch of all things. I asked him if he had bought anything for his wife. Yes.. Ool. Huh? Baa baa On Wool. K Mr. Dewey intrpduced them as our friends from behind the Iron Curtain. Very nice folks. 

DILLIGHAMB=BITS AND PIECES

 

DILLINGHAM BITS AND PIECES:

One time is snowed and I went to town to grab some donuts for a medical staff meeting. I decided to stop at home for some reason and at the top of the hill just before our duplex my right passenger side tire fell off. I managed to skid my was to a stop in from of my place. I walked back uphill and found the tire. For some stupid reason I took off myglove and poked my finger inside one of the hole. HOT burned my finger. I walked back to the house to call Janice to tell her what happened and made arrangements to get the car towed to the gas station and wait for parts. Janice picked me upl and I attended with meeting with donuts. Yummy.

It took a few weeks for the part to come in and then it got fixed, I do not remember what it cost. I had

Another time it showed and then froze. Janice went to go to work and promptly slid off the road. She hollered at me not to try it. So I called into work to say I would not be in. After a while a car creeped slowly to park in from of my house. I invited her it and began decorating my Christmas tree and make fruit cake. Later on I received a Happy Winter Solstice card from her. I think she was Wiccan.

Il a

I also had some visitors come, first was Ellen and Mom. Ellen treated them both to a inner island cruise. Mom said she enjoyed it but Ellen said she griped about everything. They bought an airbag because I only the bed for Mom, the couch and I got the airbed. Wheee. Mom had an ingrown toenail and insisted that she be seen. I took them into MR and Walter exclaimed, The just keep getting shorter! He was fun. The doctor tried to inject her toe an she kicked him in reflex and he got a needle stick. We ate out a couple of time and had halibut, my favorite.

Then Jim an Jordie came for fishing. Jim chartered a plane for

catch and release. I kept calling Jordie something faintly asian. That was fun.

There was always a weekend garden sale, I bought fingerling potatoes it was delish. One time I was at AC and saw the most strange peaches. Thy were flat, donut shaped with a bulge on one side. Delicious!

Salmon berries were available but the native ladie said dont buy them, they are not ripe.

Had to haul garbage to the local dump. One time the lady asked if she could have a box, sure.

The Seventh Day church had a pancake supper that was wonderful.

One time was had a MR candidate from Florida and she was a disaster. She had to leave Florida because she sold a ingle pill an got busted. Did not hire her.

DILLINGHAM WOMENS RETREAT

 DILLINGHAM WOMENS RETREAT

Everyonce in a while the overhead would announ

ce Native Arts in the lobby.  I went out once

 and I recognized a lady from Barrow. She was

there visiting family and she had a parka for sale. 

 It was a nice print lined in blue warmth and 

had a wolf ruff.  I purchased it for two 

hundred dollars.

A few weeks later Janice said she wanted me to

 go with her to a Women's Retreat sponsored by

 the Seventh Day Adventist Church.  I had a 

cold, coughing my head off and felt awful. 

I said I didn't want to go.  She said she had 

already paid the fee and we were going.  

I got a facemask from the hospital.  

We packed and she drove to Mosquito point on 

Lake Alecknagek. 

 

There was a little old man in his nineties 

using a tug boat to shove a barge onto the beach.  We got loade up and away went.  He was charming and I had a bit of a girl crush on him by the time we reached to island where there was hunting lodge large enough to host 20 women.

We got unloaded and found our rooms. 

In the mean time I was coughing my head off. We met the hosts and got acquainted with them as well as the guest speaker.  She had gotten her doctorate of theology after being divorced.

We had a lovely lunch.  One of the ladies 

started compolaining of chest pain.  

Have you ever had an all veggie meal? No. 

Got to the kitchen sprinkle a couple teaspons 

of baking powder into warm water. 

After you belch you will feel better. Worked.

Then the lady preacher began speaking and I 

continued to cough. She came over asked if 

she could pray for me.  Yes.  She prayed and 

essed me and annointed my forhead with oil.  

Well crap after that I had to pretend I was 

cured. So went the day. 

I stepped outside everytime I coughed. 
 

The next day we got on the barge and headed home. It rained a bit and my wolf skin parka smelled like wet dog. It was interesting.