Christmas in Alaska

In the first place, there was always snow. The settlers of Alaska’s Matanuska Valley never worried about a white Christmas. Christmas was always white. Not to mention Thanksgiving, Easter, Halloween and even an occasional grim May Day.

But my parents had plenty of other things to worry about. Would the water pipes freeze? And if they did, would my father be able to get them unthawed with the blowtorch? Or would he have to hire Pete Lepac with his professional pipe thawing machine for $15 per hour? Would the tractor start? (Even under the best conditions it never started without a lot of tinkering.) Because if it didn’t, my father wouldn’t be able to haul logs from the forest to cut into wood for the kitchen stove, our heating system. All of it.

PC

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Patricia S. Coyne

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In the first place, there was always snow. The settlers of Alaska’s Matanuska Valley never worried about a white Christmas. Christmas was always white. Not to mention Thanksgiving, Easter, Halloween and even an occasional grim May Day.

But my parents had plenty of other things to worry about. Would the water pipes freeze? And if they did, would my father be able to get them unthawed with the blowtorch? Or would he have to hire Pete Lepac with his professional pipe thawing machine for $15 per hour? Would the tractor start? (Even under the best conditions it never started without a lot of tinkering.) Because if it didn’t, my father wouldn’t be able to haul logs from the forest to cut into wood for the kitchen stove, our heating system. All of it.