Goldstream Road Memories

It has been an interesting week. I am so glad Mel is back. It really doesn’t ‘feel’ like he was gone for 10 days. Time flies by so very fast.

I found a new blog last night that I’ll check regularly for updates,

Notes from Solar Cabin

. Did it bring back memories! This blog is written by a young couple who just moved to Fairbanks. Their new abode is not far from where we lived 28 years ago. I’ll check back on it every once in awhile to see how they are doing, how they are liking living in Alaska.

Twenty-eight years ago – how can that be possible? It seems that this year I am feeling my age more than ever before. But, in a good way. I love my life and all the wonderful things I have done, incredible places I have been, unusual places I have lived. I wouldn’t trade it for anything!

Kara was a toddler and I was pregnant when we first moved into that pathetic “cabin” just off of Goldstream Road. Peter was born the summer we lived there and I became pregnant with Andrew just a few months before we moved into Fairbanks proper. I picked blueberries in our yard. I picked raspberries down the road a couple miles and up a hill off an old Alaska Department of Transportation quarry site. I watched the northern lights at 2 o’clock in the morning at 50 degrees below zero, standing just outside the cabin door, close enough so I could hear if one of the kids started to cry inside, with all of the lights turned off. I’d stand there, watching the aurora, praising God, waiting for Mel to come home after working the swing shift at Jeffrey’s Restaurant in town. (… always with bare feet stuffed into snowmachine boots, dressed in my floor-length nightgown covered by an equally long heavy robe, topped by my forest-green Alyeska Pipeline parka with the real fur ruff that Mel’s mother had salvaged for us at the Fairbanks Rescue Mission, heavy mittens covering my hands which were stuffed deep in the parka pockets, my homemade crocheted scarf wrapped around my mouth and neck. The key is to stand ‘inside’ all of those clothes without really touching them, so an air pocket of warmth forms between you and the outer clothing. It takes a bit of practice, but try it – it works! Of course, I was much thinner then and the clothing not quite as tight as it is today… ). Standing there, alone – really alone – out in the wilderness, in the silent hours of the midnight, I could hear Mel coming home, could hear the car turn off the highway miles away and start down Goldstream Road. Silent nights, stars shining brightly above me, aurora dancing in colors from pale blue to bright yellow edged with pink. Alaska. I have a feeling you can’t do that out on Goldstream Road now – too many people, too many houses, too many cars (when we visited the area 10 years ago, it had already changed a lot). We had electricity, but no running water, except as Mel always said – it ran when he did, from the artesian spring at Fox into 5 gallon jerry cans and then to the car. No phone, no television. Just a small radio that I kept mostly tuned to KJNP (King Jesus North Pole), and mostly kept off.

As ‘they’ say – those were the days! I am so thankful I have these memories.

I’m going to try and list other posts I’ve written about Alaska in the right sidebar. It may take a bit of time because all of this blogging stuff is still relatively new to me and I’m still learning.

Photo: Mel with Kara, Cindie with Peter, 20304 Goldstream Road, winter/spring 1978-79