I love going to places where I can buy stuff, this usually involves Christmas Fairs, bazarrs, sales held in houses and in on instance a lovely little boutique was going out of business in downtown Boise in the mid 1970's. They had an extensive collection of angels. I purchased a teen angel, a cook angel and my vast collection of angels began.
When I lived in Barrow, there was always a Christmas Fair held in the gymnasium of one of the schools.
The Filipinos cooked and sold pansit, odobo and fried rice. Yum! Jessie (Phoonsri Charunsonfonsak, made Thai food. I never purchased any because I am not fond of peanut in my food and I knew the heat would knock my head off.
Good available were mukluks (about a thousand dollars), Parkas which were about two thousand dollars were gorgeous.
I purchased a lovely little bracelet made of baleen and carved walrus tusk ivory with figures of fox, polar bear, walrus, seal and bowhead whale. I still have it and wear it occasionally. They also sold little masks made of reindeer hide with a rabbit fur hood surrounding the face. I purchased a sled made of reindeer jaw.
I purchased a charming little soap stone bear. I also bought a beautiful red fox fur hat with the tail on the back. I think I paid $250.00 for it and sold it to a taxi driver for fifty bucks when I moved to Coquille.
The only angel I ever purchased was a darling pin made of beads it was gorgeous. I lost it one day and have rather grieved its loss. I had a fascinating chat with the security guard when I went to Social Security to see about getting some thing done. A lady sitting near me admired the pin and I said that I had gotten it in Barrow. The guard perked up and said he had lived there for years. One time he was driving a snowmobile along the frozen Yukon river. His machine stalled right before he would have jumped a bank of snow. On the other side of the snow was a open spot of water. He would have likely died from that but for a cranky snow machine.
I also purchased a lovel little birch box made by someone from the Russian island of one of Diomedes. It is large enough to hold a few bits ad bobs.
Samuel Simmonds was the first Inupiat to study for his Doctorate of Divinity. He was the pastor of the local Presbyterian church for years. His hobby was carving ivory figures. The heads of his pieces were always a little square. One piece that I have admired it that of a father dressed to go hunting. He is holding a spear. His small son is pleading to go with him. The father tells his son that he is too small this year. He will have to wait until next year. I always get a little chocked up telling this story. Mr. Simmonds had a story to go with each piece.
Baleen bowls are very charming. They a woven from strips of baleen. The base is a small round wooden disk. The lids usually have a small ivory carving on them. They cost about one hundred dollars per inch.
When Judy retired from her job as Medical Records manager, we chipped in and purchased a two inch baleen basket. I had a lot of very colorful shopping bags and I put the bowl in my smallest bag and went on up. Judy kept opening and opening and the native ladies apparently had never seen this trick and thought it was very funny.
I went with Judy to visit one of the teachers. She had carved a lot of small animal figures. Judy chose about twenty five of them and had the lady make them into a necklace. I think the lady was carving them illegally as the carving was reserved for the natives. Federal law, protected mammals. The necklace was gorgeous. I cannot imagine what the value of that piece is now a ways.
My first Christmas in Barrow was a little sparse in decorations. I had taken quite a few angels. Unfortunately the Christmas trees cost about one hundred dollars. So I used a couple hangars and suspended the angels from fishing line. It was very pretty until it started to look like a mass hanging.
Then when we moved to Coquille we acquired cats who would have attacked any tree with bright dangly things. So decorations were limited to the mantel.
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