Finished June 8, 2010
When Ak. was becoming a new state, Anchorage High School was to become my new school. Having just arrived from a small town in Southern Idaho with a high school attendance of 100, and AHS was 2,000 shyness was on the menu. My parents and I were members of the Methodist Church on 9th ave. There was a large youth group was found in that church, which helped to welcome our family into the fold of society. Some advice from my elder sister Charlotte Ann Townsend Allen of Palmer, Ak., quote: "When you get to school walk down the hall like you know where you are going, but if you need help be sure to ask. " With that, I appoached each day that Sept. and everyday after that as a new adventure that was going to take me from the cattle ranching, which had been the main focus of our family occupation. Did I miss the ranch and the fun life of riding horses across miles of land, helping my father and brothers in the fields by driving tractors, pickups, cars. Yes I did. I received my drivers license at age 14, and began the trips to town 10 miles away to purchase supplies that were needed to repair equipment, and food for the house. Our ranch had 40 head of dairy cows that needed to be attended to twice a day. After my four siblings were off to college, and the grandparents had passed away, my mother, father, Uncle and myself were left to hold the 365 acres of land in our hands and make a living. Then a letter arrived from the Condit cousins who had moved to Anchorage in 1953. Richard Condit's mother wrote, "Sybil, there is more money to be made in Alaska. Why not rent out the ranch, come Anchorage and teach school, since you have a degree". My sister Charlotte Ann had moved to Palmer with her husband Lee Dale Allen in the summer of 1956, as Lee had a position with the Alaska State Experimental Farm. So one hot Aug. day we left burnt Idaho and its 100 degree heat and started up the Alcan in a 1955 Ford car. The green of Ak. helped me fall in love with my new home.
Soon after my parents bought 5 acres just off what is now the New Seward Hwy on the east side, where the cute little yellow shack was moved for temporary housing while a new home was built. In or around 2000, my parents house which had by that time been sold was burnt to the ground by the fire department as training to the men. The ground was being cleared to make way for the clover leaf of the new Dimond exit off the New Seward Hwy. I tried to salvage the kitchen cupboards that my uncle had made. The house was a duplex and had two wonderful "Andy Gump" hand stoned fireplaces. What a shame it had to go.
I missed not riding the school bus with my dear cousins. We did not have any class together, but did graduate together. In the fall of 1958, all high school students were no longer doing "morning shifts" as the new Jr. High school building had been opened and named Romig.
After graduation in 1960 I spent a lot of time at Goose Lake, and other lakes near by in Anchorage. I was also preparing for college in Fairbanks. One year in Fairbanks and I was married July 1st of 1961. My husband had found a job in Delta Jct. While living there we were in a trailer court. Many of the folks were employees of Philco Corp. The men were running a satellite tracking station near Fort Greely. Sometime before Thanksgiving the weather dropped to minus 80 below. And us in a Sparten trailer house. My husband had prepared us for the cold, but when the oil furnace stopped burning, we turned on the electric heater. Then new antifreeze was put in the oil tank, but for five weeks we lived with that cold. That is another story, which I have written.
In Dec. of 1961 my husband joined th Navy and we were off to Calif. for the four years he was required to serve. The Alaska earthquake of 1964 affected many of my relatives in Anchorage ,but none of my in-laws were much bothered as they lived in Fairbanks. Ed and I arrived back in Ak. in June of 1966, where he decided to go back to Fairbanks to live and attend college. That first summer we had the whole of it filled with forest fire smoke. Even thou we were looking forward to the hot summer as we had just left Calif. I worked for the Bank of the North and was taking care of our two beautiful daughters. Ed continued with college, and working part time.
The summer of 1967 was not a happy summer. The weather turned to rain and wind,so after weeks of rain the two river near Fairbanks flooded in Aug. Climbers on Mt. McKinly also suffered with death of seven as the winds howled in from McGrath. Ed, the girls and I lived in a basment apartment on E. 18th and knew we were going to get water in our living area. After packing up as much as we could in our two cars, we drove through flood water to the campus at the University of Alaska Fairbanks where we camped out in a radar shack for two weeks. My mother Sybil was on campus taking classes to get her Masters in Education. When Ed and I arrived in the middle of the night at her dorm room we left our daughters with her and we went to the shack. At 1:00 a.m. the flooded Fairbanks residents were being flown into the campus for housing and food. My mother left the campus for her home in Anchorage two days later. I saw her off as she was standing in the back of a Army truck hanging onto the side railings while the truck was heading toward the Fairbanks Airport. That was the last summer we spent in Fairbanks.
I am now living in Soldotna, where we had bought land on the Kenai River in 1976. The adventures of fishing, hunting, snowmachinging, skiing, swimming, clamming, berry picking, meeting folks of all areas of the state has been an adventure of all time. Being a Republican has brought me much joy as I help my United States of America and all it means to our family. My fathers family were part of the Revolution in 1776, so to help keep our nation free of dictators, and Kings I will stand proud.
Lenora A. Townsend PEPIN
