Mildred’s own writing – transcribed June 14, 2010
October 1958
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Mother’s book dedication:
Dedicated To My Beloved Husband. Without him our dream never would have been born, therefore fulfillment would have been impossible. Without his unfailing belief, support and encouragement this book never could have been written.
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Goal: Recapture lost youth and dreams, make them feel what we felt, desire to reach their goals and fulfill their dreams whether great or small. It’s never too late but becomes increasingly difficult with age.
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Mother wrote:
A stirring, deeply moving story of a young couple who couldn’t find fulfillment in today’s shallow modern world and sought a better way of life in America’s last frontier. The problems and struggles incurred and their love for each other and their children that carried them over – can’t help but to cause their venture to be a success.
[Their love for each other and their children carried them over their problems and struggles and couldn’t help but cause their venture to be a success]
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DREAMS CAN COME TRUE!
Ours led us to Alaska and a richer and fuller life
I am A FIRM BELIEVER IN DREAMS. Dreams can come true – ours did.
Everybody dreams to some extent. Although they might be the last to admit it, even the most professional, austere and business-like people dream. Some people just hide their more than others.
Some of those dreams are to remain in the world of fantasy forever. They are thread-like and fragile, only to be brought out every so often, dreamed about and stored away again. These dreams are in a class by themselves.
Then there are other day-dreams. These are the ones that are important for all of us to try to make come true. In a sense, they are our frustrated ambitions. Many men work all their lives in a job they dislike while dreaming of another they’d enjoy. Another man dreams of being in business for himself instead of always working for others. These are some of the dreams people could make come true if they tried hard enough.
It is up to each of us to reexamine our dreams to see which are meant to remain as day-dreams and which would bring us a happier, more successful life.
Many times it is hard to break out of a rut and face up to sacrifice, hardships and work that’s necessary to make these dreams come true if we want to realize them enough to work to make that happen.
We had unfulfilled dreams and it was time for us to take stock of them for we were among the dissatisfied! Although happily married for eight years, with four splendid children, and thankful for our blessings we were not living a life suited to us. We were both looking for something and yet were unable to define at first what it was.
We had both always wanted to own our own home and live in the country so decided to move further out in the country away from Los Angeles, California and buy a delightfully new, modern four bedroom, two bath house, complete with built-in-stove, deep freeze, refrigerator, dishwasher and washing machine and dryer. Materially, we had everything but were still vaguely discontented.
We were disappointed in our ‘country life’. The once peaceful, quiet town of Glendora was becoming a thriving city and row after row of houses were quickly replacing beautiful scenic orange groves. Nor had we escaped the smog, a product of too many people, industry and progress.
We did enjoy creating a lovely yard out of bare, rocky dirt. We now realize that it was in building a thing of beauty out of nothing that we achieved our greatest pleasure and a growing sense of wanting to pioneer. [bolding mine to keep track of this statement]
We worked in every spare moment in our yard and thrilled over the transformation that took place. Soon, our lovely tropical gardens bloomed against our redwood fence and our cement patio and walks we’d designed were surrounded by lush green grass watered by our own sprinkling system. It was a place of beauty, but wasn’t our answer. Now that it was completed we were not ones to recline on our chaise lounges and be content.
We were bothered by other aspects of suburbanite living. Our houses were so close together we felt that neighbors practically lived on top of one another. Many were losing their individuality as they were busy keeping up to the Joneses.
Too many young couples were placing too much emphasis on a materialistic way of life and in doing so were sacrificing all the simpler pleasures of family life. Some men were holding down two jobs just in order to get more luxuries and gadgets for their families so they could have more spare time – for what? Women were becoming bored and worse still, so were the children.
I was reminded of the Queen Bee and the drone bee being the father, becoming a mere shadow of a man in his own home. What was happening to the forceful man of the family that a wife and children could look up to and respect?
During summers and after school the children were confined to their small fenced-in back yards or driven into the streets to find entertainment. The modern houses were pretty, convenient and efficient but didn’t offer much in the way of homey family living.
Our children were small and so were still easily confined but what of the future and what of our future?
I could see my husband changing too. I did not like what I saw. The long drive to and from Los Angeles over the freeway was nerve wracking and time consuming and he heartily disliked working in the city milling with millions of people when he got there. Having grown up in the desert he was accustomed to clear skies and wide open spaces. Gone was the ruddy complexion of the out-door man he had been when we married. What had happened to the plans he once had for remaining at his present job temporarily? He had just received his ten year pin.
Suddenly I became worried! Putting my husband in a city permanently was like putting a lion in a tight cage and I would gladly free him if I could.
We both loved the great out-of-doors and heartily disliked the confinements of city life.
That night we sat down and figured how much interest we would have to pay for our house over thirty years before it was paid for and we were sick at heart. We wondered if it would still be standing at the end of that time. Bill had always dreamt of building his own house – would we ever accomplish this? We had looked at acreage and found it scarce and high.
We asked each other the same question. Is this really what we wanted? The answer was no, no, no. Perhaps for some people it was the formula for happiness but not for us.
We decided the time had come for us to reexamine all of our lost dreams and to be completely honest with each other and with ourselves.
It was fun. We decided to take all of our dreams out of mothballs and reclassify them as “day-dreams” or “dreams we could make come true.” We discovered we had many dreams, most of which we felt we could make true – somewhere, somehow. We also found that most of them coincided. We both dreamt of a particular “way of life” for us as a family.
I was brought up in a nice suburb of Boston, Massachusetts and summers we often visited a farm belonging to my Aunt and Uncle in Maine. I had always dreamt of having a place in the country and we both shared this dream. It seemed impossible to find such a place here. We wanted our children to have a place to run and play. A small farm would be wonderful to have. We could plant vegetables and flowers and eventually have a few chickens, horses and a cow.
Our dreams knew no limit, and yet we let our day-dreams remain intact – dreams of Bermuda, travel in Europe. For we were down-to-earth dreaming, yet one dream popped up again. Bill said, “Remember years ago when I first mentioned to you that I’d always wanted to see Alaska?” Remember, I certainly did.
It was years ago when I was pregnant with our third child in 1953. How different our lives might have been if we had moved to Alaska then. He once again expressed his desire to see Alaska and who knows maybe there we could find what we were looking for!
It would be nice to have the place we would love. We both had come to southern California because of circumstances, not choice. I had always missed the change of climate and beauty of the seasons. I still had fond remembrances of New England and the enjoyable times we had during the winter and felt our children were missing a great deal not experiencing winter first hand.
Bill had never become accustomed to the shut-in feeling of city life. He enjoyed hiking, fishing and hunting of which he had done little since moving to southern California.
We talked on into the night and it was one of our first discussions which gave rise to the new thought of Alaska and that perhaps we could find the answer to all of our individual dreams.
We went to the local libraries in search of up-to-date information concerning Alaska. We found that current literature on Alaska was hard to obtain. There were many books on Alaskan adventure and stories of its romantic past. We read these, but we were searching for information telling us what the Alaska of today was like.
Finally we obtained some very good books from the Los Angeles library and were amazed to read about the many changes that had taken place during recent years in Alaska. I found out that the climate in parts of Alaska was very much like New England and there were farms in the Matanuska Valley. As we found out more accurate information, visions of an entirely new and different life appeared, the kind of life we were looking for and were unable to find in southern California – or within driving distance of most large cities.
We became more and more engrossed in obtaining all available literature on Alaska. We attended lectures and travel movies. Alaska still seemed a very remote, distant far-a-way place and our thoughts of living there had a dream-like quality and seemed far-fetched and unbelievable. How could we ever hope to make such a drastic change? We had many responsibilities and ties.
How could Bill up and leave a job he had held for ten years with many promotions and a great future security? How could we uproot our four small children and leave our family and friends? Then too we owned property – what of it?
Yet, in our hearts we knew we could do all of this if we really wanted our dreams to come true badly enough. It was not an easy decision to make to leave the known for the unknown. There was no doubt now but that we would move to Alaska. We both felt certain it would work out. It was now a matter of time.
There was much to be done and still we knew there would be many readjustments to make and in a sense, we would be leaving the easy life for one full of uncertainties and rougher bumps – especially if we were able to homestead as we hoped we could. But we felt we would be leading a far richer and fuller life full of unexpected rewards.
We felt that the gains would eventually be greater for our whole family then the easier, secure way of life. We were ready and willing to take the hardships and make the necessary adjustments. We both felt that this was to be the most important move in our lives.
We were ready to pioneer. We wanted to live in Alaska, a growing country free of congestion, crowds and smog where we could create a life to our liking.
But how, how, how?
Bill became quieter and quieter until I thought he had lost interest completely. Bill hedged and hawed until I was almost convinced he didn’t really want to go. After all, originally it had been his idea and now I wondered if maybe “pulling up stakes” was costing him more than he had anticipated. Perhaps this dream of Alaska was only a day dream and would not stand up under close scrutiny. I wondered if I had uncovered a dream of adventure that he really did not want to become a reality.
One night I asked him. I told him exactly how I felt, that I wanted to see Alaska now too and felt strongly it would be the perfect place for us but if he had changed his mind I would understand and we would change our plans. Bill and I are so much the same in many ways and yet so different in others. We have always felt that we temper each other. I spur him on and he slows me down. I know we are good for each other and right for each other. This was one of these times.
Bill’s firm planning mind had quelled my impulsive, quick, eager one – so ready to jump ahead – “together we can do it.” I alone, once decided, would have moved ahead to quickly. Bill alone might have plodded on to retirement at Los Angeles Water and Power, hating it and yet putting up with it, always dreaming and reading books on Alaska.
He explained to me that he too, wanted to move to Alaska but I was moving so swiftly that he felt we would regret such a sudden move. I told him I was afraid if we didn’t act now we might never do it and he agreed. So together than night we compromised!
This was just his way of ‘being sure’. He did want to go but as he said, he “was the provider for our family and responsible and he could not just up and leave a secure job he had held ten years when he had a family of six to support and take off for the wild blue yonder.” Bill firmly insisted that he would not quit his present job until he had one in Alaska.
I could understand his view point. But I was so certain things would work out. This time we took our pen and paper and we figured. The best time for us to leave would be as soon after school let out as possible. This was in November 1956. We would have six months to sell our houses, pay off some debts and for Bill to get a job in Alaska.
We both felt if we delayed action now that we might never come and would always regret it. Our decision was made and we were both glad. Now, with a plan of action I was relieved and Bill no longer felt I was hurrying him into a move he wasn’t ready to make.
We would leave that next summer if we could but if not, we would as soon as possible and meanwhile all of our efforts would be toward our goal. We knew it would be easier on us and our family and friends to leave as soon as possible. The break would not be an easy one. We could visit each other but we felt we would never again live close and that hurt us deeply.
But as we put it, “The Alaska bug had bitten us.” I felt like telling everyone and soon we would be going there to – – – . I felt as I had when I became engaged – thrilled, excited and a little scared, too.
We grew to dislike our present way of life more than ever. Every time the smog got bad we reminded ourselves that soon we would breathe clean, clear air again.
We gradually told the children about our plans. At first the word Alaska sounded strange to them. John, our first grader, wanted to know if we’d still speak English and would we still celebrate holidays the same. We explained to them that Alaska was a part of the U.S. and that the customs, language etc. were the same as in the states.
We made up bedtime stories to tell them about Alaska – the real Alaska – putting the facts we had learned into language they could understand. Yet the more we read about Alaska, the more we were convinced that it offered us every opportunity to live exactly as we dreamed.
Our plan was forming and Anchorage was our goal, for we read that this city enjoys relatively mild winters and warm summers, very similar to that of the northern portions of the Great Lake states, New England and the Scandinavian countries. The January average temperature is 12° Fahrenheit and the lowest temperature ever recorded in Anchorage was minus 38°. The July average temperature is 57° and the maximum temperature ever recorded is 86°.
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Bill brought home an enormous map that we put on our wall and showed us Anchorage where he would like to find work. We bought a slide viewer and many slides on Alaska. We all enjoyed these. There was an aerial view of Anchorage, one of Lake Hood and our favorite was a picture of a homestead farm in Alaska. Every time I got discouraged about it all I’d take out the viewer and look at this farm and plan that someday we’d have a place like that.
Gradually, the children became Alaska enthusiasts too, as well as informed future Alaskans. They now looked forward to the change as much as we did and we shared this important step together as a family. They have felt a part of our Alaskan venture from the very beginning.
Our friends, family and neighbors were aghast though, at our plans. Most of them were unlike us and were entirely content with living in a city and their present way of life. They couldn’t understand our desire to move as far-a-way as Alaska. We found that most people still had the same misconceptions concerning Alaska as I had once had. Many people tried to discourage us. Others offered us words of encouragement and others thought we were crazy to uproot ourselves and move to Alaska.
One friend said, “Why, you wouldn’t consider bringing three little girls to such a rough and tough place, would you?” I tried to explain that Anchorage, Alaska was a very cosmopolitan city now and that the population of Anchorage and its suburbs was 65,000. It was no longer a frontier town. Although it still retained many pioneer marks it was as modern as most cities in the states, if not more so. It had modern stores, schools, homes and our girls could have every advantage of city life in Anchorage and still we could live in the country.
This was but the beginning of a deluge of well-meaning advice and forewarnings of what we would find in wild Alaska and a few recriminations. I might add that most advice came from people who knew nothing at all about Alaska. The young people of teen age were best informed and as they had recently studied Alaska in school and many even spoke with knowledge of the oil development taking place.
We believed in Alaska. Already our hearts and minds were there and we were soon to follow. As we became more and more excited over our plans it was difficult to resist just ‘up and leaving’ but over and over we had been warned in the books we read not to rush off to the land of opportunity unprepared for a move to Alaska. Prices were high and housing was scarce we were told. Nobody should come to Alaska without having at least $500 in savings or a job – or at best, both. For many people were discouraged and had to return back to the states.
I remember as we packed away our Christmas things that year that year we planned that next year if God willing, we would be spending our first Christmas in Alaska. It would be a white Christmas and a splendid one. We would recapture the almost lost Christmas spirit for we both felt that in Alaska we could discover a less materialistic way of life. It was one of our driving incentives.
In Alaska we would live a new and different life. We would try to use every capability we felt we were possessed with that now lay dormant.
We packaged our mementos and treasures away extra carefully, along with our hopes that next year we would open them in Alaska – safe after a long journey. Bill said, “Why, perhaps next year we will even go out into the woods as our forefathers did and cut down our own Christmas tree.” Guess what? He was right. We did!
Right after Christmas we placed our two houses “for sale.” Everyone loved our house and were particularly impressed by the yard. It did look pretty and we wished we could take our flowers with us but we knew that we would have flower gardens in Alaska too. During the summers the days are long and many beautiful flowers can be grown in abundance.
Prospective buyers remarked to us, “Such a shame you have to leave your lovely new house. Where are you going?” We knew we could expect either shocked alarm or avid interest as we answered “ALASKA.” For even the word Alaska itself doesn’t provoke weak comments. People seem to feel strongly one way or another about moving to Alaska.
Some people couldn’t understand why we would want to move there and others could not see how I could part with my appliances. There were others who were so interested and told us to go while we were young. They said the had always wanted to do something like that and never had.
Meanwhile, things were happening. Our determination proved helpful and our prayers were answered for everything fell into place within a few months. Bill saw quite by chance an advertisement in an engineering magazine for an engineer to be employed by the Army in Anchorage, Alaska. He immediately answered it but still gave it no further thought – thinking it too would go like the others. Just as we thought Bill would never get a job there our prayers were answered and he received a telegram accepting his application as an Army Engineer.
All of a sudden we were caught up in a merry-go-round of excitement. There was much red tape to be completed and we made plans to store our furniture until later.
Through it all my heart kept singing “We’re going to Alaska – really going” and yet at the same time we were saddened at the thought of leaving our family and friends. We were both disappointed that we were not to see Alaska together for the first time as Bill’s order definitely forbade his family to join him at first, but were required to join him at a later date when he had located housing. Then we could come and our furnishings would follow. There was no arguing with the Army.
By June, the seemingly hopeless was accomplished. The houses were sold, school was out and we and we were settled in a court apartment awaiting Bill’s final orders. He left Los Angeles for Seattle on June 9, 1957 and arrived in Anchorage on our 8th Wedding Anniversary on June 11th, and it was the start of our new life.
As housing was very hard to find it was August first before four little children and a Happy Me were met at the Anchorage airport by my husband. At last – we wee all together in Alaska!!
He drove us over a smooth paved highway, through forests of trees, past streams and rivers to our first house in Alaska fourteen miles out of Anchorage in the country. He had found a log home to rent, rustic on the outside to fit in with its natural surroundings. It was in a particularly beautiful spot, woods of birch, spruce and aspen with a sparkling mountain stream tumbling by our door.
I could hardly believe my eyes. Inside, it was completely paneled in natural wood and equipped with all the modern conveniences I had in the states. Surprise, surprise and it was but the beginning. We have been in Alaska for over a year now and find it was just as we had hoped it would be, only far better for from the beginning it has more than lived up to our fondest expectations.
Right away I fell in love with Alaska. Our children love Alaska too. There are no more fences to hold them in a yard. They are obtaining a great love for the out-of-doors and Mother Nature is giving them a liberal education they never could have achieved before.
Now our children are back in Alaskan schools for the second year and we’re once again anxiously awaiting the first snow. Meanwhile we enjoy the glory of the autumn world of gold bathed in sun against a blanket of blue skies.
Alaska is a land of indescribably beauty and rich in every way. Our only regret is that we didn’t move here years ago but then perhaps we would not have been ready for Alaska then. We have never once regretted taking our dreams out of mothballs! Why don’t you reexamine yours? Why we might even see YOU in Alaska too, someday!
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TAKE CARE OF MOTHERS 
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