Why Alaska??? Reasons

So, after my last entry Lorraine asked a good question . . . what made the moose move to Alaska.

The question is so very much easier than the answer - so bear with me, please.

Back in 1978 - oh, so very long ago - hubby and two young daughters and I were living in a quiet neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. We had a four bedroom, two story home, two vehicles, and hubby had a decent job where he'd been for about 4 or 5 years at the time.

We worshipped in a small (no longer so small) church and enjoyed visiting with traveling missionaries and preachers, often having them to our home for dinner after morning worship. One of those traveling missionary/preachers was from an even smaller church in Kenai, Alaska. I don't think he and his wife ever shared table with us, but we loved to visit with them after services and to hear their stories of church planting in Alaska.

One day the fellowship's magazine came in the mail and the cover photo was of that pastor - in a boat - on Cook Inlet - with Mt. Redoubt in the background. I was smitten - we didn't have much water around Columbus and had NO mountains at all! I read the accompanying article and called hubby at work. Our conversation went something like this:

me: honey, what would you say if I said let's move to Alaska?
dh: what in the world took you so long?

Fast forward to about 6 weeks later - several long distance conversations between us and that Alaskan pastor - a job offer from someone he knew, but dh would have to be in AK the following weekend to take it.

shivers of anticipation - lots of fretting and nervousness - set in. We had NO money, honey. How was this going to work? We both KNEW that we were supposed to be in Alaska. Hubby called the pastor back and accepted the position but told him that we didn't have to money for him to fly up in time to take the job. No problem, Pastor said, the owner will front your ticket and it will come out of your paycheck.

Now, mind you, the pay was not all that great - it is funny what you will do in order to achieve a dream that you know in your heart of hearts is the right one. Hubby accepted. He would fly up and the girls and I would close out our house and dispose of whatever furnishings would not be shipped up - in other words, dispose of EVERYTHING.

We had put feelers out on selling the house as soon as we had made the decision to move - even before we had the job offer. It sold almost immediately, and because it was an assumption, the deal closed in record time. We were allowed to stay in the house until time for the girls and me to follow hubby - which was a week after his departure.

To show you how RIGHT the move was - we sold our house, two cars, all of the furnishings, and had shipped up whatever was left, in a very short period of 3-4 weeks! Hubby flew to Alaska on Sept. 12th, 1978 and the girls and I followed on Sept. 19th. That was a loooooooonnnnnggggg week. Hubby and I had never spent more than one night apart in our 9 years of marriage.

We were soooooo ready to get to Alaska - to see hubby - to see daddy. To start our new life.

Let me tell you about the job that awaited us - I say "us" because it was to be a joint effort. We were the winter caretakers of a fish packing plant. We called it a cannery, although no canning had been done in that plant for years - fish was frozen and shipped frozen.

We had left our four-bedroom home to live together in an 8 by nothing trailer! ACK!!! That was how I always described the trailer - 8 by nothing. I'm sure it was a bit larger than that, but when you walked down the hallway and your hips scraped the sides, well that "nothing" had a bit more meaning to it. ;-)

We used a company truck to go to worship services - the ONLY time we were ALL allowed to be off-property at the same time. At all other times, either hubby or I had to be on property to watch over the boats stored for the winter. A couple of months later hubby had to take work off-site to boost our meager salary ($750/month plus trailer for living - woot!). When he did that I had to stay onsite whenever he was gone.

This was a true testing time for my spirit. In the dead of winter nobody else was around the plant - the staff had all been let go for the winter - the owners were in Hawaii most of the winter - hubby was at work all day - oldest daughter (8) was in private school - youngest (3) and I were home all day by ourselves. There was some mild depression that first winter - the LONG DARK, in more ways than one. I thank the Lord that He sent me good friends to bring me up and out of that darkness and back into the light - they were true God-sends.

It was not all dark, however. I absolutely fell in love with Alaska that first winter. Outside the trailer on one side of us was one set of mountains. On the other side was another set of mountains and the OCEAN!! (in the form of Cook Inlet). And, to the rear of the trailer, on the other side of the plant, ran the Kenai River. Oh, how glorious was the view!!! How quickly and how fast did I fall in love with Alaska that first winter.

There is, of course, much more to tell. But, this is already quite long, so I will stop for now. Maybe I will write onward at another time. Thanks for asking, Lorraine - for allowing me a trip down memory lane.

Posted by Purplemoose at August 11, 2004 09:16 AM