Alaska, Here We Come
By Pat Flanagan and George Watters
It was the spring of 1963. Right before our high school graduation. George Watters and I had been working on getting a job in Cordova Alaska since the winter of 1962 and had succeeded with the help of my father, Joe Flanagan who represented Pt. Chehalis Packers in Cordova. It was a small company which processed Dungenese crab, King Crab, Snow Crab and a bit of Salmon. It was going to be our first real move toward independence from our parents and being on our own. The goal was to go and work, make lots of money and then fly back in August or September to start our college years.
This wasn't an easy decision for us to make and we did have our reservations. George had to borrow money from his father to pay for the plane trip and our costs to get started. George's father argued with him on whether he should commit to the trip. Without George, I'm not sure I would have committed to go by myself. George was adament with his father that he could make it on his own and that he would pay the loan back. Almost at the last minute, after George listened to his father's points of view, he cried at the dinner table and told his dad that he was probably right, and that maybe he shouldn't go. His dad replied, "I want you to go! I just want you to think realistically. You will learn." George borrowed the money and made the final decision to go.
This wasn't an easy decision for us to make and we did have our reservations. George had to borrow money from his father to pay for the plane trip and our costs to get started. George's father argued with him on whether he should commit to the trip. Without George, I'm not sure I would have committed to go by myself. George was adament with his father that he could make it on his own and that he would pay the loan back. Almost at the last minute, after George listened to his father's points of view, he cried at the dinner table and told his dad that he was probably right, and that maybe he shouldn't go. His dad replied, "I want you to go! I just want you to think realistically. You will learn." George borrowed the money and made the final decision to go.
Barney Neilsen was the owner of the company and worked out of Westport Washington and sold most of the product in the U.S. with Joe Flanagan handling a lot of the sales for the western United States. He advised us and setup the job hiring with Jim Poore who was the plant manager in Cordova. I will never forget one phone call just a month before we were scheduled to leave: "Make sure you bring sleeping bags and prepared to live a very rugged lifestyle. About 50% of the town just burned down and fire trucks had to be airlifted in from Anchorage and Valdez so many of the buildings are gone." All of the hotels were gone. We had no place to stay but we never gave up on our plans.
The night before we were scheduled to leave, we had our Senior Prom. What a night that was and we were ready to celebrate leaving early the next morning. It was the start of a very turbulent time. My date that night was Sandy Christiansen and I had hopes of making it to "2nd" or maybe even "3rd base". I had my parents' car which was a seldom treat and didn't have to go with anyone; just Sandy and I. After the dance, I drove up to a remote area where we wouldn't be disturbed and a favorite spot for "neckers". Well, she just wasn't in a very cooperative mood. Try as I may, my advances were severely slowed down and time was running out. I got very upset and then decided it was just time to go home. I slammed the accelerator down and backed out right into a big redwood tree with a crunch. Great end to my Senior Prom. I was so young in those days, I didn't even realize that a major dent had now appeared in the old Oldsmobile trunk.
The next morning, we had to get up early for our plane leaving Oakland Airport. I was anxious and then discovered the huge dent before my mom came out to drive George and I to the plane. She couldn't help but not see the damage and all I could think of was that I'm soon to be gone. I told her I would explain when I got back and let's not be late for the plane! It kind of worked but I knew I was in trouble. I blamed it all on Sandy!
That plane trip was really something. We started out in a jet from Oakland to Seattle. From there, we transferred to a turbo-prop and on to Anchorage. At Anchorage, we then boarded a small regular prop plane to finish our trip to Cordova. In one day, we had flown on all three types of planes which I thought was exciting. A moment of air history for me.
Well Cordova Airport was the real start of our trek to Alaska. It was small and we had to get a taxi into the town which was a few miles away. By then, we knew that the town had been devastated by the fire but was rebuilding slowly. We went directly to the Pt. Chehalis plant which was on the wharves down by the inlet. It was there that we were told that we would start working soon and to try to find a place to stay in the meantime. There was nothing in the small town except for a few bars which had survived. Both George and I were under-age but we could still go into the bars. It was there that we started our search for a place to stay when not working.
Thanks to George's resourcefulness and imagination, we finally got a room, a small storeroom. I can't remember the rent, but it wasn't cheap. No beds and a heating pipe going right through the room. One could look through parts of the wall and see the outside and I don't think we had any windows but these holes. It was dark and primitive but it was our first home in Alaska. And maybe we could get some free alcohol? We were still just kids. By then, it was the beginning of summer in June of 1963 and still the store room was very cold except for that pipe. There was just enough room for both of us to sleep in our sleeping bags and it was just the beginning of our adventure, miserable as it was. Curled around a pipe.
We then started off to work under the tutelage of Jim Poore. Washing Dungenese crab with powered rotating brushes. Getting all that mud off of them. It was soon that we met our fellow employees and one was named Ken, a Tlinget Indian. He told us of a home out by the lake which might give us room and board for a reasonable price and get us out of our storeroom. After work, we followed up and met Ms. Hansen for the first time. She was in charge of a Lutheran Home for juvenile delinquents and needed some role models to help these kids get back to a normal life. So we made a deal, a minimal rent, free room and board in return for taking the kids to the movies, hikes, and just general fun things to do together. The Lutheran Home was quite large and with a huge kitchen where Ms. Hansen made bread daily and cooked just so good. After meals, we would always read a bit of the Bible and discuss it at the table. There were probably about 20 kids in the home, and some were really difficult and dangerous, but not to us. Some were mentally disadvantaged like Gook who was huge and had no clue as to his own strength. I remember watching him one night ripping a door right off its hinges. I kept my distance.
We then started off to work under the tutelage of Jim Poore. Washing Dungenese crab with powered rotating brushes. Getting all that mud off of them. It was soon that we met our fellow employees and one was named Ken, a Tlinget Indian. He told us of a home out by the lake which might give us room and board for a reasonable price and get us out of our storeroom. After work, we followed up and met Ms. Hansen for the first time. She was in charge of a Lutheran Home for juvenile delinquents and needed some role models to help these kids get back to a normal life. So we made a deal, a minimal rent, free room and board in return for taking the kids to the movies, hikes, and just general fun things to do together. The Lutheran Home was quite large and with a huge kitchen where Ms. Hansen made bread daily and cooked just so good. After meals, we would always read a bit of the Bible and discuss it at the table. There were probably about 20 kids in the home, and some were really difficult and dangerous, but not to us. Some were mentally disadvantaged like Gook who was huge and had no clue as to his own strength. I remember watching him one night ripping a door right off its hinges. I kept my distance.
That meeting with Ms. Hansen was the start of a very rewardable 3 months of time. George and I continued to work when called at Pt. Chehalis and, in our time off, we spent counseling and taking some real tough kids out on trips to the real world. Perhaps the most memorable were our two mountain climbing efforts to reach the summits of both Mt. Eccles and Mt. Eyak, the two highest mountain tops above Cordova. We chose a small group of kids and climbed both mountains with basically no gear at all. I think Mt. Eyak was the toughest and will never forget Gook shoving large boulders down upon us as we made our way to the top. He thought that was fun. I also remember along the way of finding a "lily" pond which was quite beautiful, and George taking off on his own to reach the summit by going across some very dangerous iced areas. He made it to the top and we met him there. On the trip to Mt. Eccles, we came across a porcupine and killed it so that we could eat it later. That was really stupid as nobody wanted to skin it. A really stupid thing but we were young and stupid in those days.
Another event was taking all of the kids out to a glacier. Most of the roads in Cordova were named "11 Mile Road" or "13 Mile Road" as that was as far as they went. Most ended at glaciers. We spent the whole day picnicing and playing "Capture the Flag" with the kids. It was a great time. Most of the kids just needed to be kids again.
The Lutheran Home was a bit out of the main town of Cordova and a fairly good walk from work. We had developed a short cut from the road through the brush from the road leading to town. One day George confronted a large brown bear checking out the nearby garbage cans. The bear checked George out. He looked back at the garbage cans, looked at George, and then grabbed more food from the can. Later that day, George measured the bear's footprint in the mud from his open fingers to his elbow and a little more. Within the next few days, a hunting party from town killed the bear as they did not allow big brown bears near town or especially near Ms. Hansen's place. It was common for us to be stopped by both bears and moose and always made our hearts beat a bit faster.
I also remember how big the hospital was in Cordova. I got a case of histamine poisoning from handling all of the crabs and had to go in for treatment. What amazed me was most of the patients were in for alcoholism or sexually transmitted disease. Kind of gives one an idea on what people do during the winter and when no daylight ever hits during those times. When we were there, the sun was up almost all of the day, just the opposite.
I will never forget one day at Pt. Chehalis coming to work and almost all of the women didn't show up for work. I was told that the Coast Guard was in on leave and just gotten their paychecks. The women were all busy servicing the Coast Guard and would be making much more money doing that than working in the cannery. I couldn't believe some of the statistics. Some women had sex more than 40 times in one day and came back with just tons of money. For days they would all be comparing how much each had made during the two days of furlough. Sex was clearly marketable in Cordova and a very hot commodity. The ratio of men to women just was in favor of the women.
The other event I remember quite vividly was the night coming home from work when both Ken and George convinced me to go with them to a trailer outside of town where a French prostitute lived and worked. Once there, they both pants'd me, knocked on the door and ran off. There I was, basically naked as a fairly beautiful French woman opened her door. I obviously had no money, being stark naked, and ran off as well. Can you imagine? I am now running naked through the forest, worrying about running into a bear or a moose, and wondering how I was going to get back into the Lutheran Home without causing a rucus. It was a very scary run home. I finally made it and crept through a window to our room and got dressed fast. I can't remember what I did to George and Ken to get even, but I must have done something. What a night that was!
One thing that George and I did at Pt. Chehalis was figure out better ways of doing things. We ended up doing a lot of different jobs and doing them faster than most. As a result, we got laid off because we were putting others out of work. Jim Poore felt bad about this and helped get us a job at Alaska Packers with the warning to not work so hard or we would lose that job also. We got paid a lot more and even got dinner sometimes when we had to work into the night. The food was great!. I remember one day working 20 hours straight; I was almost sleeping while I worked. Just sliming salmon, cutting the blood vein out of the salmon's spine as it would affect the taste when canned unless all the blood was cleaned out. I did thousands of salmon. Some days we got double pay, sometimes even triple. We were finally making good money but the work was sporadic and dependent upon the boats coming in to unload.
Well, everything does come to an end and soon it was time for both George and I to return. Ms. Hansen had left temporarily to go to a conference in Europe and the adults left behind certainly did not have the command she had when present. The night before we left, the kids threw a riot in our honor and also to express their disatisfaction with the powers that be. It was quite a night and the place was chaotic. It finally settled down but a number of chairs were broken and the adults in charge had clearly been given a message that Ms. Hansen needed to come back.
The next morning I will never forget all the kids going with us to the airport for our departure. Many had tears in their eyes as we hugged each other and made commitments to keep in touch. It was a very moving experience for both George and I. We had made many friends and they were all good kids in our eyes who just hadn't been given a chance to be good. We respected them all and they all respected us.
George and I came home but without telling our parents. By then, I had a fairly long red beard and surprised my mom when I got home. She thought I was a burglar. Then she recognized me and gave me a big hug. George's parents weren't home and we knew they wouldn't be. We planned it like that so that we could throw a big party at his house for our return from Alaska. We thought it was a great idea and we even got a few kegs of beer to make sure it was a great party. Bad idea. The evening got more raucous as the beer levels dropped and finally the police came and broke the party up.
The only reason we didn't get arrested at our return party at George's house was that Andrea Galvin (whose uncle owned Galvin's Butcher Shop on McArthur) was one of the attendees. She lived right across the street from George and was the daughter of the reserve chief of police. She intervened with a few tears in her eyes and the police let us all go. When George's parents got home several days later, they called George to their bedroom and showed him some beer cans they had found in their bed and in their closet. George remembers at the party that Alan Peacock spent most of the time naked and passed out in the bathtub in the upstairs bathroom. I seemed to have missed that one.
I don't think anybody was arrested but it was the final denouement for a very amazing and exciting summer in Alaska. A summer that I and George have never forgotten. We were still just kids.
Another event was taking all of the kids out to a glacier. Most of the roads in Cordova were named "11 Mile Road" or "13 Mile Road" as that was as far as they went. Most ended at glaciers. We spent the whole day picnicing and playing "Capture the Flag" with the kids. It was a great time. Most of the kids just needed to be kids again.
The Lutheran Home was a bit out of the main town of Cordova and a fairly good walk from work. We had developed a short cut from the road through the brush from the road leading to town. One day George confronted a large brown bear checking out the nearby garbage cans. The bear checked George out. He looked back at the garbage cans, looked at George, and then grabbed more food from the can. Later that day, George measured the bear's footprint in the mud from his open fingers to his elbow and a little more. Within the next few days, a hunting party from town killed the bear as they did not allow big brown bears near town or especially near Ms. Hansen's place. It was common for us to be stopped by both bears and moose and always made our hearts beat a bit faster.
I also remember how big the hospital was in Cordova. I got a case of histamine poisoning from handling all of the crabs and had to go in for treatment. What amazed me was most of the patients were in for alcoholism or sexually transmitted disease. Kind of gives one an idea on what people do during the winter and when no daylight ever hits during those times. When we were there, the sun was up almost all of the day, just the opposite.
I will never forget one day at Pt. Chehalis coming to work and almost all of the women didn't show up for work. I was told that the Coast Guard was in on leave and just gotten their paychecks. The women were all busy servicing the Coast Guard and would be making much more money doing that than working in the cannery. I couldn't believe some of the statistics. Some women had sex more than 40 times in one day and came back with just tons of money. For days they would all be comparing how much each had made during the two days of furlough. Sex was clearly marketable in Cordova and a very hot commodity. The ratio of men to women just was in favor of the women.
The other event I remember quite vividly was the night coming home from work when both Ken and George convinced me to go with them to a trailer outside of town where a French prostitute lived and worked. Once there, they both pants'd me, knocked on the door and ran off. There I was, basically naked as a fairly beautiful French woman opened her door. I obviously had no money, being stark naked, and ran off as well. Can you imagine? I am now running naked through the forest, worrying about running into a bear or a moose, and wondering how I was going to get back into the Lutheran Home without causing a rucus. It was a very scary run home. I finally made it and crept through a window to our room and got dressed fast. I can't remember what I did to George and Ken to get even, but I must have done something. What a night that was!
One thing that George and I did at Pt. Chehalis was figure out better ways of doing things. We ended up doing a lot of different jobs and doing them faster than most. As a result, we got laid off because we were putting others out of work. Jim Poore felt bad about this and helped get us a job at Alaska Packers with the warning to not work so hard or we would lose that job also. We got paid a lot more and even got dinner sometimes when we had to work into the night. The food was great!. I remember one day working 20 hours straight; I was almost sleeping while I worked. Just sliming salmon, cutting the blood vein out of the salmon's spine as it would affect the taste when canned unless all the blood was cleaned out. I did thousands of salmon. Some days we got double pay, sometimes even triple. We were finally making good money but the work was sporadic and dependent upon the boats coming in to unload.
Well, everything does come to an end and soon it was time for both George and I to return. Ms. Hansen had left temporarily to go to a conference in Europe and the adults left behind certainly did not have the command she had when present. The night before we left, the kids threw a riot in our honor and also to express their disatisfaction with the powers that be. It was quite a night and the place was chaotic. It finally settled down but a number of chairs were broken and the adults in charge had clearly been given a message that Ms. Hansen needed to come back.
The next morning I will never forget all the kids going with us to the airport for our departure. Many had tears in their eyes as we hugged each other and made commitments to keep in touch. It was a very moving experience for both George and I. We had made many friends and they were all good kids in our eyes who just hadn't been given a chance to be good. We respected them all and they all respected us.
George and I came home but without telling our parents. By then, I had a fairly long red beard and surprised my mom when I got home. She thought I was a burglar. Then she recognized me and gave me a big hug. George's parents weren't home and we knew they wouldn't be. We planned it like that so that we could throw a big party at his house for our return from Alaska. We thought it was a great idea and we even got a few kegs of beer to make sure it was a great party. Bad idea. The evening got more raucous as the beer levels dropped and finally the police came and broke the party up.
The only reason we didn't get arrested at our return party at George's house was that Andrea Galvin (whose uncle owned Galvin's Butcher Shop on McArthur) was one of the attendees. She lived right across the street from George and was the daughter of the reserve chief of police. She intervened with a few tears in her eyes and the police let us all go. When George's parents got home several days later, they called George to their bedroom and showed him some beer cans they had found in their bed and in their closet. George remembers at the party that Alan Peacock spent most of the time naked and passed out in the bathtub in the upstairs bathroom. I seemed to have missed that one.
