The Sunday church is available on YouTube, and I can catch the whole thing whenever I want rather than getting up and dressing special (it used to be in Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes.)
Well there is one weekly thing that I try to work on earlier than Saturday itself...to publish on Sepia Saturday.
Let's see if I have any old photos that are somewhat linked to this photo. Navy nurses sitting on a rather old jeep, with some strange sign on the building behind them. Does it refer to the base name? I don't even know when this was taken...but it does say Alaska. Mmm. That immediately made me think of something close to my own life. No, I've never been there. But I know people who have!
My long time friend, whose father was stationed in Alaska during WW II. He died there, probably in one of the fierce battles against the Japanese in 1942-43. These attacks on American soil were after Pearl Harbor in December 1941 but didn't get as much publicity. I don't know much about it, but there're some details available through Wikipedia...HERE.
And here are some sepia photos of Alaska.
Japanese attack on Dutch Harbor, Alaska.
Another story...another friend from 7th grade...
This dear friend got this shirt and thought it was so funny, back in about 2014 or so. Now Corona beer isn't exactly anyone's favorite to order any more...though it still tastes the same, especially in a bottle with a lime stuck in the neck, but it's just got a bad connotation these days.
I had been a bridesmaid in my friend's (pictured above) wedding in 1961 or so. Then she and her husband went to live in Alaska, where she had both her sons. They spent a while there, in a cabin type rough life, and she remembered it fondly. Yes I did have a couple of photos of her smiling with the children, but couldn't locate them, and they don't really show the wilds of Alaska.
We both enjoyed the TV show "Northern Exposure." She said she had been in the bar that was featured in many episodes, but it was in Washington state, not really Alaska.
AND...my third dear friend and father of 2 of my sons...
I haven't found any photos of my ex husband, who was on isolated duty in Alaska for the US Coast Guard on an Aleutian island, where no women were, nor anything but birds and fish, and supplies were flown in when the weather would allow. It was a LORAN station, watching out for the very close Rusians, after all, it was 1962!
I wrote to him for about a year. I was in Illinois for some of that time, where I'd met him, and then I was as stewardess in Miami FL when he returned and visited me, and well, we fell into love and marriage.
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no longer in operation - USCG Cape Sarichef Loran Station on Unimak Island |
Today's Quote:
When all the ordinary divides and patterns are shattered, people step up to become their brothers’ keepers. And that purposefulness and connectedness bring joy even amidst death, chaos, fear, and loss.
REBECCA SOLNIT
...everyday feels like a Saturday for me!
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely all Saturdays for me too. With a Wednesday thrown in every week or so.
DeleteNope, I never knew of attacks in Alaska. Being stationed that close to Russia in 1962 must have been a major worry. I remember the bomb drills in elementary school, like huddling in the hall with our hands on our heads would help.
ReplyDeleteI never learned those drills...maybe because I'm a few years older than you. But how awful to give kids that terror, as if it would help. Now they are taught to hide from crazy gun shooters in their schools.
DeleteThank you for sharing these stories and photos.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to share, and remember my two good friends that re-connected with me when the internet became available.
DeleteI've communicated with a cousin and now her daughters who live in Alaska for years and we've been to Alaska twice ourselves - once visiting friends stationed on Sitka, and once on a tour. A beautiful, wild place full of wonderful sights. When we flew into Sitka, I was amazed at the hundreds of wooded islands dotting the ocean everywhere. And our land tour followed by an inland passage cruise was amazing. But none of that was near where the WWII bases and fighting were - except for manned watches on Sitka.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful to have those experiences in Alaska. I haven't been there, which I forgot to mention, but I guess it was inferred.
DeleteVery interesting. I never knew there was fighting in Alaska during the war.
ReplyDeleteI looked (for about an hour) for the email when my friend talked about her father's service, whatever she was told and maybe some from his letters to her mother. My friend was born in 1943.
DeleteLike you, I find the days run into one another, without my usual weekly/monthly activities puncturing the days - I wake up and have a hard job working out what day it is! I enjoyed your links with Alaska and I did not realise it was attacked during the war. There was a recent TV programme here featuring then state and it looked a wild and wonderful place.
ReplyDeleteEvery so often I'll see a car here in WNC with Alaska plates and wonder at how at how far they've travelled and how long it will take for them to return. If I could, I'd get in my Subaru right now and drive to Fairbanks just to find out if people there would have the same curiosity about my NC tag.
ReplyDeleteMy great-aunt was in Seward during WWII and they had troops stationed near the orphanage where she worked. I must look in her journal, as I think she wrote about the attack.
ReplyDelete