Helen Atkinson: What an Alaskan Lady

Helen Atkinson: What an Alaskan Lady

My office wall at the News-Miner was mostly bare except for a calendar in Polish. This past week I purchased a low-budget painting of a cabin in the woods signed by watercolorist Helen Atkinson. The artist was born Helen Linck in 1915. Her birthplace was Gold Road,...
Pride cometh before a snowfall

Pride cometh before a snowfall

The road to sourdough from cheechako received another setback Thursday. My snowplow guy had not yet cleaned my driveway, but somehow, I made my little Jeep barrel over ice and deep snow right up to the garage door. Right that moment, I felt pride. And we all know what...

Consider the. outhouse…many, many moons ago

I see that the News-Miner web page carries an ad for a calendar with outhouse photos. Outhouses on both western New York boyhood farms of my grandparents were hardly a photographic attraction. My German grandfather stocked real toilet paper in his outhouse. My Polish...
Snug as a bug in cabin

Snug as a bug in cabin

Gosia unloaded the last of the boxes and supplies today that we carted to Alaska from Indiana. Now her bags are packed for a 12:30 a.m. boarding for American Airlines Fairbanks to Seattle to Indianapolis.  Our friend and former colleague Ray will give her a ride to...
Arrived in Fairbanks!

Arrived in Fairbanks!

  “Hank, we have a problem,” my wife Gosia said from the open window of her Jeep. We were just 10 feet into Alaska after a 3,500-mile drive. The temperature was 11 below zero. Five minutes earlier, I passed through U.S. Customs. The female officer asked why...