#4 Out of Seward....More Unforgotten

The rain was coming down in sheets. The SS St Mihiel was rocking and bucking even as it was moored at the Seward City dock. After a good breakfast of bacon, eggs, pancakes, and coffee, Tony and Alys spiffed up their area, gathered up Tiny and Gerry in their best looking outfits and hurried on deck for the big day. The day on disembarkation!

It was May 10, 1935. The train to take them from Seward to Palmer, with a stop in Anchorage for lunch, was huffing and puffing and ready to roll. Steam hissed as the relief valves allowed the hot gas to escape near the driving pistons to prevent a boiler explosion.

The families waved goodbye to the townspeople many of whom were Alaskan Natives of various cultures. Seward was the location of a school run by the Interior Department for Alaskan Native children who were sent from their villages to central locations to be trained in the ways of the white man. They were excellent students with much artistic talent.

Benny Benson won a contest to design the Alaskan Flag at age 13 in 1926. His knowledge of the outdoors on cold winter nights led him to depict the Big Dipper with the North Star lined up above the two outer stars forming the lip of the utensil. The field of Blue from the sky, and gold for Alaska's great natural resources and fields of flowers. He wrote: " “The blue field is for the Alaska sky and the forget-me-not, an Alaska flower. The North Star is for the future of the state of Alaska, the most northerly in the Union. The dipper is for the Great Bear — symbolizing strength.”

"EIGHT STARS OF GOLD ON A FIELD OF BLUE..."

The Vickaryous family thrilled at the climb from sea level up to a higher plain to travel over Moose Pass. The tracks curved in a circle climbing ever higher with each revolution. It took several of these twists to get over the mountains and as you looked out, down, and back you could see the caboose just across from the engine. Looking down would take your breath away if you could imagine a derailment on the way up.

It was not long before the steam engine could relax and coast towards the end of Turnagain Arm, named so by Captain Cook for another failure to find that Northwest Passage that would make him rich and famous. His name is known everywhere in Alaska along with many other explorers who came before him and after to make Alaska available to some erstwhile "farmers" from Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Turnagain was typical Alaska. Beautifully rough, barren, and isolated. It came into full view as they passed over the bridges of the several streams flowing into the tidal waters which were gone! The whole inlet was a sea of gray silty mud with some areas of trapped water or streams flowing to Cook Inlet the main outlet to the Pacific Ocean. Oh God, Alys thought , is this like the Matanuska River that will be near our farm?

She could remember the flooding of the rivers in Minnesota and how Warroad was engulfed when she was a child. Her family was not injured, but many others were, their property ruined. The grave yard had to be moved to another site by the town to avoid health issues. Her father Edmond and a friend had a delivery business with teams of horses and wagons. They were hired for the job, digging up caskets, moving them to the new site, and reburying them. Her father told stories of how many of the bodies were turned face down when they would open some to see what "Old Joe" looked like. They had been buried alive in haste during flu epidemics! Though she harbored fears of the raging rivers, she knew Tony understood and respected its awesome power and did not fear his working on the water. "He is a fisherman, not a farmer," she mused to herself.

"Girls and Alys!" Tony cautioned. "Look for a Boar Tide. The wind is blowing against the outgoing tide, and soon after low tide, all that water you can see miles down the Arm is going to come rushing back along here." He described how a wall of water laden with muddy silt, small rocks, dead tree limbs, and other debris will be chased by the sea gulls as this turns up easy pickens for them. Fish ready to eat all served up in a cloud of mist, froth, and foam! If you are so dumb as to be out there, you are a goner! Learn this:" Low Tide! Slack Tide! High Tide! You must know the difference!" "Always, six hours in, six hours out."

Alys listened, wondering how could this man know all this stuff? He never lived where such a thing could occur. Just another one of his stories gathered from his many treasured sea-salt friends, most of whom drank more than they fished. "Damn it! I wish he would not enjoy that drink so much." She felt a chill of jealousy, as any women would, who recognized a challenge from other women paying too much of the wrong kind of attention to her man. She could handle other women taking after her handsome man . But the Devil in a Seagram's Seven bottle? How many bottles can one woman destroy?

She was ready to fight for her man, with a new start in training him up, the way most wives do. Found Mr Right? Wonderful! Now shape him into the man you imagined him to be! "Is that so?"... Good Luck Alys!

TURNAGAIN TIDE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tFQB5naImI&feature=related