Coming home from school in Alaska

We’d been in Alaska for a couple of years and the girls were both in school. We lived along a creek, Ketchikan Creek, that literally ran from our house to their school.

The pull of adventure was just too much, they came home every day an hour late and soaking wet. It didn’t matter if it was cold outside, they would be happy, soaking and quivering, and I began doing laundry an extra day per week. I worked full time and already had too much to do without adding an extra chore.

I should tell you that Ketchikan is a resort town where cruise ships from all over the world come to visit in short spurts every day except winter time. The population jumps by 4 – 8 thousand depending on how many ships come in on any given day. The town crawls with tourists, big crowds of them. Ketchikan Creek was on the path of a couple of tours.

I Gave Them an Ultimatum

One Spring I decided I’d had enough of the laundry. I had scolded them too long without results, so I laid down the law: Don’t Come Home With Wet Clothes ANY More! You Will Be GROUNDED! Grounding them was the worst punishment… on me….

They still came home an hour late, but they were dry. I compromised and didn’t harp on the tardiness, at least they were dry. Laundry went back to twice a week, like normal.

One day I got a knock on the door and opened it to find my neighbor. “Have you seen your girls since school got out?” I hadn’t, and she motioned me to come with her. I grabbed a sweater and out the door we went.

Ketchikan Creek has a small bridge that hooked one street to another across the creek. As we approached the little bridge I noticed a crowd of tourists, gathered at one corner and they were ‘awwwwing’ and clapping. I walked a lit faster to the bridge and looked over.

There were my girls, naked as the day they were born, laying in the sun beside the creek. Their clothing was folded neatly beside them. People were taking pictures, which freaked me out and I called down to them.

“Get dressed! What are you doing? Why do you have your clothes off?” The oldest one looked up at me with a puzzled look.

“You told us not to come home with wet clothes, Mommy!” Everyone laughed and ‘awwwed’ again. It was so cute and she was right, I had said not to come home with wet clothes on, and in a seven year-old’s mind, she was doing exactly as I wanted. I had to be more clear in my explanation of why she shouldn’t take her clothes off in town.

     A Great Place to Raise Kids

One of the reasons we chose to raise our kids in Alaska is that kids there are less inhibited and there are fewer people, so more freedom, discovery and such. Some kids got in a lot of trouble because of it, but generally kids learned a lot. The tourism was something we hadn’t known about upon going to Ketchikan and there was a lot to learn from that, too.

As I said, tourists crawled along the creek in groups mostly, and one day the kids came to me and asked if they could stand at the bridge and sing songs for the tourists. They showed me right where they’d be and I said okay. I watched them from the window and the tourists seemed mused and nobody tried to touch them, thankfully. I noticed they seemed to be getting some tips, too.

Twenty minutes later they came back toward the house. They came running happily in the door, asking, “Mommy can we have a big bowl to keep all our money in?”

They had made over twenty-two dollars in those twenty minutes! I asked them to sing the song for me, and it was one they’d made up. It was cute, but Ketchikan has laws about panhandling in a resort town, so I had to make them stop.

I Love Alaska

Alaska is the best place to raise kids, in my humble opinion. We introduced them to the big city as teenagers and now they can’t get enough of the fast-paced, plasticized crowded cities. Not that that’s wrong, but an unexpected reaction, to me. I love the slower pace and kick-back Alaska lifestyle, but I don’t know why I thought they would feel the same. They do grow up and have minds of their own.

While they happily discovered more and more about city life, I was in culture shock and unhappy as all get out, until I learned to find things I did like about living here and focus on those, rather than the crime, overpopulation, rudeness and litter that shocked me in the first place.

They grew into wonderful, fun people who still like the busyness and hub-bub and they’re both starting new career adventures. And, they’ve both said they hope to go back to Alaska one day. Later. You know, some day.