There are several ways people use to define an Alaskan. My favorite is the one from Augustus Birch-Alder in the column at right,"An Alaskan is a guy who's been here a year longer than you have." I happen to know the source of that comment. Years ago he was standing in line waiting for a post office to open. Two old-timers were talking and discovering that they had been in many of the same gold camps in the territory, once in a while at the same time. After tracing their history through a few gold rushes, one of the fellows asked the other, "How long have you been here anyway?" "29 years," was the response. The first fellow then says, "Oh, just a cheechako, huh?" So the other one just had to ask, "how long have you been here?" And the first guy says with superiority, "31 years." End of discussion. But that's when Birch-Alder came up with the year-longer test.
I've always thought it came when somehow your mind relaxes to the idea and you take the country as it comes without a lot of hyperbole and amazement, even though you never totally lose your amazement at what this country offers sometimes. As an example, it is pretty much another rule that the first year or so you live here, you love to point out the extremes your are going through. Like how cold it was last night. We have all tried to impress friends and family outside with something Alaskan now and then probably inducing total boredom in those captive listeners.
When those things somehow become second nature, is when you start growing your Alaska chops. Such a thing happened yesterday.
I am in the process of moving all my accounts out of one of those bailed-out mega-banks and into a local credit union. To do that I had to call an office Outside somewhere. I have no idea where, but it didn't sound like India. (An aside: a few years ago a failed bank robbery in Kissamee, Florida, turned into a hostage situation. When police tried to contact the robbers by calling the bank they were routed to a call center in India.) Anyway the woman immediately picked up on Alaska in what she could see about me on her monitor.
She had some connection from a project she had done in college, and asked me how cold it was. I said in all honesty and not even thinking much about it, it's beautiful, sunny and about 25 degrees. "Ooh," she said. I could almost feel her shiver through the phone. At the time, I had the feeling, maybe wondering what brought the shivering on. I mean, it really was a nice day and 25 isn't that cold, perfect March weather. It took a while to realize probably where she was, 25 is pretty cold and it might feel extreme to somebody, say, in San Diego. Then I realized for maybe the first time, it didn't even occur to me to make a big deal out of it. Part of the deal with being an Alaskan is you get comfortable enough that it becomes something not to make a big deal out of, no sense impressing someone Outside with how tough you are and how extreme your environment is when at 25 degrees it's a nice day, and that's all it is.
I think I made it and it only took 39 years.
Was stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado while in the army from July 1986 to July 1990 and before that I had only seen snow four times in the twenty-two years I had lived.
ReplyDeleteBy December of 1986 I had seen more snow than I thought possible. So much I did my best to get transfered to Fort Stewart, Georgia. It didn't work out and I stayed in Colorado my entire enlistment.