I started my little life in a little village called King Salmon, AK…I love that place, the smells, the people, the light, the dark, the summers, the fishing, the bears…I like how it shaped me and everything in between…I like remembering the sound of my Gram’s laugh, or her “whoofta” when we’d take a steam…or her “I’m gonna fly over there and sting you if you don’t shape up!”…I like how it always revolved around family and she was our “queen”…you couldn’t tell have told her any different…she made the rules…and we all followed!
Two days into my trip to visit “home”…my mom, my boys and I made a small trek to this village I called home for so long…my first visit there since 2003…when my Gram was still alive…it was beautiful and hadn’t changed…it was exactly how I remembered it…the chill in the air, the long summer nights, the smell of the birch and alder after the rain, the same potholes on the road, the faint whiff of smoke from the smoke houses going…standing in this spot…
I felt everything from my past meet with everything in my present and make me smile for my future…I have been surrounded by a lot of love, many rules, a few spankings, and a lot of hard work…and I’m thankful for it all…I love being a mom and I love all of my memories and I love how it makes me, me…
During our 18 hours in King Salmon, we checked the smoke house, ate Pilot Bread and Smoked Fish, had a steam, visited a best friend, Tanya; drove to Naknek, stayed up too late, hugged my cousins, saw Uncle Lynn, had good laughs, packed I don’t know how many boxes of fish, rode a quad, toured an airplane (now Zachary wants to be a pilot), hit up the Ponderosa for some cookies, ate Aunt LaVerne’s pancakes, lost a shoe and had a latte from EFI…THAT’s how you enjoy King Salmon in the summer…
Some of the places my heart and mind remember from being a little girl…always in my blood…
The smoke house…oh…just to have one more summer slinging fish with Gram and our Crew…
HATED it when Gram sent us to the Black Garage to get something…it ALWAYS looked like this!…
Used to make mud pies out here…
The steam…can’t tell you how many buckets of water and blocks of wood I’ve chopped for this thing…that I LOVE!!!
…and right behind Gram’s house…our swing set/monkey bars/play gym…still there…reminding me of her…I remember when she bought this one to replace the frame that was left of the old orange one we used to play on…seriously, just the frame…what kids do with nothing back then!!
Loved having this time to bring my boys to a place called home…SO wished we had more time to tool around and see all these people who have been a part of my life…
many people aren’t happy with where they are from…but I am proud to be from this community, this place, this heart…
Love this post!!
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