Bears and Salmon Berries

Hello once again Grandkids!  This little entry is to tell you about all there was to see and do in Kodiak during the 3 years I lived there.  First, if you didn't like to hunt bears, pick salmon berries, or fish, I found very little to do there.  In the bank in town, there were large bear skins hanging on the walls with huge heads attached to them.  There was a picture once of a man and the bear he had killed, and the bears head was so large, the man looked like a dwarf beside it!  When we first got to Kodiak, we went to the Navy Cafeteria and there was a man there who told us about a girl who had been running away from a bear on Old Woman's Mountain and she turned her head to see how close the bear was and ran right over the cliff and fell to her death.  They said she broke every bone in her body!  I was already not in love with Kodiak, but that made matters worse. 

Also, the crops in Alaska are huge compared to the fruit and vegies we get here.  There were large berries of a pink-orange hue that the bears loved, and they were called salmon berries.  They were about 2 times the size of strawberries, and really sweet.  The natives of Kodiak made jelly and jam from them and it was really good.  You were allowed to pick as many as you wanted, and if you didn't be careful where you picked them, you could meet up nose-to-nose with a bear!  They were, at the time, the only pre-historic animal still living.  They were 13 feet tall, and weighed literally tons!  They were just huge!  I for one was content to see them hanging in the bank!

There was a river just outside the base called the Buskin River and it was full of salmon.  The  bears would come down from the mountains in the spring and just reach in and take what they wanted.  The sand in Kodiak was black, not white, and I assume it was caused by volcanoes.  The birds would also peck at the fish and remove the eyes for food.  Yucky huh!

In the winter they had storms called Willawahs, and the winds were at least 100 miles per hour!  The snow would be like a white wool blanket pulled over your eyes and if you couldn't get to shelter, you'd blow away in a good storm (ha ha)!  I had to wear glasses and one time I had to walk home in a blizzard and the snow froze onto my glasses and I had to take them off to be able to walk at all!  I was extremely near-sighted and could only see a few feet in front of me.  That was the longest walk home I can ever remember!  Usually, people wore snow boots, heavy coats, hats, gloves, and a scarf just to go outside.  I had red boots with black fur inside, a heavy black coat with white pile lining inside, and a hood.  I had gloves of course, and I almost always managed to fall whenever we went outside.  I'd find the biggest holes of slush and my feet would slip and down I'd go.  Once I landed on my bottom!  Ouch!!!

One end of the island was called Chinniack, and I don't remember what they called the other end of the Island.  There were lots of trees, and once I saw a beautiful scene of large pine trees with moss hanging on the branches, and the sun shining through.  It was a very senic place.  It might not have been so bad if we hadn't felt so isolated.  I lived there for 3 years, ending in May, of 1963.  We left and came to our new station, San Diego!  The next year, they had a major earthquake in Anchorage and it affected the Aleutian Island chain.  The Island was hit pretty hard.  It dipped down on one side after the quake.  The tsunami, or tidal wave, was 30 feet high and it destroyed the town.  The boats in the harbor ended up on top of houses and the only department store on Kodiak, called Achesons Department store, went drifting down the bay.  All the residents in the little city had to be evacuated and  they all were taken up on top of the 3 Sisters Mountain.  From there, my friends could watch the tidal wave come rolling in.  My best friend Karen came down to see me in Chula Vista after we graduated from High School, and every little movement of the ground sent her running to the door frame for cover.  I didn't understand until we had one here in San Diego and I wake up every time we have one.  I'm not as afraid as I use to be.  After the one we had on Easter of 2010, I am no longer freaked out by the little ones!

When I first went to Kodiak, I had been on a diet and had lost my baby fat.  I wore a size 10, but I was very shy and got embarrassed if a boy even looked at me.  Then, being so miserable, I ate and ate and ate, for something to occupy my time and I got very heavy.  I was so unhappy.  The school was one little 2 story building in the middle of a muddy field.  The school held all the grades in one bulding.  From Kindergarten to 12th grade.  They had no football team, no marching band, nothing but basketball.  The kids who had always lived there were happy I guess because they hadn't experienced anything else.  I had gone to large schools and been in the band and traveled to many places, and I couldn't see anything good about the place.  Until my Junior year. . . .

In my Junior year, a boy came to our school from California.  He was funny and very friendly, and didn't make fun of people.  He was good looking, and wore nice clothes.  He would tell us all about California, and his home town of Sunnyvale.  The more I was around him hearing about California, I couldn't believe it when my Dad came home one day and said he had gotten new orders and we were going to move to San Diego!  I don't know why I lied to this boy, but I told him we were moving to Sunnyvale!  He got all excited and started telling me he was going to move back there with his Mom, because he had been sent to Kodiak to live with his Dad for a while.  His Mom was in Sunnyvale, and he was homesick anyway.  So, he told me all about Sunnyvale and all the places he would show me and introduce me to his friends at Sunnyvale High.  I felt bad about lying, but once I had done it, I didn't know what to do about it.  I waited until just before we left and told him the truth.  We were moving to San Diego.  He didn't get mad at me though.  He just sort of looked down at the floor and smiled.  I think he figured it out.  I liked him a lot and we always passed notes and talked between classes.  He was in my home room and we sat together.  I was in love!  I couldn't eat, or sleep and I lost a lot of weight before we left for San Diego.  I cried when we left, but the future would hold so much fun and good things, that looking back over the years, I wish I'd known what the years would bring. 

We left Kodiak on the last day of May, 1963.  We took a small plane to Anchorage, where we got on a Boeing 707 and headed for Seattle, Washington.  We refuled there, and flew on to Los Angeles.  We flew rather low over the Golden Gage Bridge and it was pretty in the sunlight.  I was excited to see what San Diego would be like.  I fell asleep, and the next thing I knew we were getting off the plane in Los Angeles.  The airport was huge and we had to rush to get to our next plane which was very small compared to the pane we flew out of Anchorage on.  Once we were airborne, the plane was very noisy and shakey.  My poor Mom was so nervous.  I don't think she ever got on another plane!  We landed in San Diego fairly quickly, and I was amazed at how hot it was!  It was only 77*, but to me it was sweltering.  I went out of the terminal before my parents did and sat on the curb, waiting for them to get the luggage.  When they came out, we took a cab to a motel and got rooms for a couple of days.  I just layed down and went to sleep, while they went out for dinner.  They brought me food, and we stayed there a few days until my Dad was able to get checked in and find the Navy Temporary Housing at 32nd street.  Then we moved in and stayed there for a month while my Mom and Dad looked for a house.  I'll close for now and add some more at a later date.  I love all of you so much, and I hope you have fun reading about my life and all the strange things I would see and experience.  Have Fun!
Love, Grandma