Great Grandaughter Aurelia Eleanor Talbot in her Kindergarten Christmas Show

Memories from Fairbanks

The smoke doesn't rise when it's cold.

The wind doesn't blow.

The roads look slick, but they aren't.

Even the moose has frosty eyebrows.

The sun doesn't shine much.

Kennedy Assassination Remembered

John F. Kennedy was murdered on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas.

No more than eight months later, we were there.

Dealey Plaza is bounded on the south, east, and north sides by 100+ foot (30+ m) tall buildings. One of those buildings is the former Texas School Book Depository building, from which, both the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded, Lee Harvey Oswald fired a rifle that killed President John F. Kennedy.



Not open to the public in 1964.

A makeshift Memorial to John F. Kennedy

Dealey Plaza across from the Depository

There is also a grassy knoll on the northwest side of the plaza, from which, the House Select Committee on Assassinations determined that there was "...a high probability” that a second assassin also fired at the President, but missed. At the plaza's west perimeter is a triple underpass beneath a railroad bridge, under which the motorcade raced after the shots were fired.

This Court building is one of the buildings surrounding Dealey Plaza and is where Lee Harvey Oswald was killed.

Information included came from  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dealey_Plaza. 

THE AFRICAN CHICKEN

In late September of 2001, my husband and I traveled to Malawi, Africa for a year of work in the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian. We lived in the capital city and learned to love the area, the people - and the animals. Less than a month later, we purchased a dog that we loved and cared for until his untimely death in 2009. 

 

In August of 2002, we acquired the gift of this chicken! (She was an "honorarium" for my husband preaching in a village church of 8,000 members.)

 

 She was an agile one and is pictured here on the back of our truck.

Obviously, she owned the garage.

 

 

One day, we noticed that we had a visitor. He was a rooster with an attitude.

We smiled at what we considered his "lack of beauty," never having had this sort of chicken back home on the farm in South Dakota. 

 

He was proud. He strutted all over the garden area and beyond.

One day, our gardener, Mr. Masina, called us to look at our chicken! He had made a nest for her in the garage and she was making good use of it, all day, all night for several weeks.

 



 

We watched every day to see if our chicken would reappear with her brood, and sure enough, there she came, herding her precious babies around the bushes and watching out for any dogs or roosters.

 

Out of the four chicks, we noticed that two of them "took after" her and the other two "took after" the rooster!

Our neighbor, a friend, came over, saw the chicks and said, "That was my rooster that visited your chicken and the custom here is that the owner of the rooster gets half of the chicks!" We agreed to his claim and had a good laugh.

There was no question as to which two were his!

Two Boats of the Arctic

This baleen boat was a gift to us from friends in Barrow, Alaska in 1999.

 The baleen boat is a prized possession of ours and will always hold a place of honor in our home.

This is the explorer schooner Elvira, before she was crushed by arctic ice in the Beaufort Sea.
Photo by W. E. Hudson, 1913.

I was struck by the similarities between this boat (the schooner) and the baleen boat above.

I have always displayed them together.

1971 TENTING ON THE TUNDRA

It was July, 1971. We had lived in Alaska for less than a year.

A plan was made for the youth of First Presbyterian Church in Fairbanks and the youth of the Utkeagvik Presbyterian Church to join in a survival camping trip to the North Slope. It would be an adventure remembered for decades by the whole group.

 

Tents were set up right on the tundra.
Everyone was getting acquainted and some were wondering
how they would survive without candy, chips, sodas, etc.
The food for the camp would be fish and caribou plus greens from the tundra.

Everyone joined in Bible study and worship together.
Parkas were the preferred outer clothing -
due to the high mosquito population and the low temperatures.



These boats carried the campers on the Arctic Ocean and various rivers to
"Half Moon Three," an old reindeer corral.




The Brower cabin became a very visible landmark after this paint job.
The only trouble was - the caribou were scared off!
By the time this shot was taken, both youth groups were enjoying new friends.

Photos are from the Straatmeyer collection of 25mm slides.

Salt Lake City Views

Slides from 1963