An Outdoor View: Friends

It’s sad when your children die before you do, but it’s also sad when you outlive your friends.

On Mar. 25, 2017, Howard Van Ness, 75, passed away. He may be gone, but I’ll never forget him.

Known to his many friends as “Howie” and “Doc Fly,” he was a master with a fly rod, and he lived to fly fish. He had the only fly shop in Fairbanks, and he taught a great many residents of that area how to tie flies and fly fish. I feel sorry for any fish without 1,000 miles of Fairbanks.

Whenever sandhill cranes are flying south, bugling to one another in their rattling way, I think of a fall day on Vagt Lake, near Seward. Howie and I hiked in to fly fish for rainbow trout from float tubes. I remember us lying back in our float tubes, watching thousands of cranes flying south in the pale-blue sky, high above. We were fishing, the sun was shining, we had a pristine lake all to ourselves, and all was right with the world.

In 2005, Douglas Green, 54, passed away. He may be gone, but I’ll never forget him.

In 1995, when I’d known Doug for about a decade, he bought a 34-foot Tollycraft cruiser. He named it “Suq’a,” which he mistakenly thought was the Kenaitze word for king salmon. The “Suq’a” and its captain starred in more than 30 stories I’ve written, most of which took place on Prince William Sound.

Like me, Doug was a meat fisherman. When we were aboard the Suq’a, his happiest moments came when the aft deck was slimy and the scuppers were running red with the blood of freshly caught rockfish, lingcod and halibut.

Doug was my loyal friend for more than 20 years. He was helpful, patient, generous, courteous, dependable, optimistic, hardworking, fun-loving and irreverent.

In my mind, and in a photo on the wall of my man-cave, Doug is at the wheel on the fly bridge of the “Suq’a,” leaning back in his captain’s chair, grinning. It’s a sunny day, we’ll soon be fishing and the scuppers will be running red.

In early May of 1991, Loren Stewart, 74, passed away. He may be gone, but I’ll never forget him.

Loren was a treasure trove of knowledge about local goings-on and characters. He homesteaded 160 acres in the Ridgeway area in the late 1940s, and published Soldotna’s first newspaper, the Cheechako News.

Loren generously shared his knowledge and wisdom with anyone who would listen. Many of my early newspaper columns were gleaned from his rich store of stories, usually told at his kitchen counter over a glass of scotch.

When I look at the photos on the wall of my man-cave, I see Loren, sitting in boat, holding an old, fiberglass spinning rod that’s bent into a “C.” The bend is due to the large silver on his line.

While looking at that photo recently, I got to thinking about the boat we were in that day.

I’d been going through some hard times. New to the real-estate business, I was barely keeping a roof over my family’s head, and I’d had to sell my boat to make ends meet. I figured that my chances of having another boat soon were next to none. But I hadn’t figured on help from others.

Gary Jones, a friend who was a welder, had a boat he wasn’t using. He fabricated a motor lift for his boat, and loaned the boat to me on condition that I’d test the lift. I didn’t have a motor so I asked Loren if I could borrow a 20-hp Mercury I’d seen stored in his barn. Loren said, “OK, if you’ll take me fishing.” On a roll, I borrowed a pickup with a trailer hitch from another friend. Finally, a friendly neighbor in Sterling loaned me his boat trailer. I had myself a boat. I didn’t keep it very long, but it got me through that fall.

That fishing trip with Loren, as well as many others, never would’ve happened without a little help from my friends. I’ll never forget them.

Les Palmer can be reached at les.palmer@rocketmail.com.

More in Life

Virginia Walters (Courtesy photo)
Life in the Pedestrian Lane: It’s March

March is the trickster month, probably why we see so much raven activity these days

After Pres. Woodrow Wilson commuted his death sentence to life in prison, William Dempsey (inmate #3572) was delivered from Alaska to the federal penitentiary on McNeil Island, Wash. These were his intake photos. (Photo courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks archives)
A Nexus of Lives and Lies: The William Dempsey story — Part 7

The opening line of Dempsey’s first letter to Bunnell — dated March 19, 1926 — got right to the point

Bella Ramsey as Ellie and Pedro Pascal as Joel in “The Last of Us.” (Photo courtesy HBO)
On the Screen: ‘The Last of Us’ perfectly adapts a masterpiece

HBO unquestionably knew they had a hit on their hands

Chocolate cake is topped with white chocolate cream cheese frosting. (Photo by Tressa Dale/Peninsula Clarion)
A cake topped with love (and white chocolate cream cheese)

He loved the frosting so much he said he never wants anything else on his cake

In 1914, Pres. Woodrow Wilson appointed Charles Bunnell to be the judge of the Federal District Court for the Third and Fourth divisions of the Alaska Territory. (Photo courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks archives)
A Nexus of Lives and Lies: The William Dempsey story — Part 6

Prosecution lawyers were fortunate to have a fallback plan: witnesses to the crime.

The author displays her daily vitamin, three yellowish clear bubbles of Vitamin D, and 20 mg of Paxil. (Photo by Meredith Harber/Minister’s Message)
Minister’s Message: Accepting all parts of your story of growth

I started taking Paxil almost six years ago, after a lifelong struggle with anxiety and depression

Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion 
A copy of Marie Aubert’s “Grown Ups” sits on a desk in The Peninsula Clarion building on Wednesday in Kenai.
Off the Shelf: Good for her

Marie Aubert’s “Grown Ups” caught my attention with a flashy cover and a review from Independent Ireland on the cover

Kenai Peninsula Writers’ Contest logo (Homer Council on the Arts/courtesy)
25th Kenai Peninsula Writers’ Contest winners announced

Winners in all categories were announced March 6

Alaska-style spanakopita includes salmon with the traditional spinach and feta. (Photo by Tressa Dale/Peninsula Clarion)
On the Strawberry Patch: Spanakopita — Alaska style

I have been deep cleaning, organizing, rearranging and generally revitalizing our home these last couple weeks

Nick Varney
Vote on National Apathy Week delayed

What are some of these clueless congressional reps trying to prove?

This photo postcard, purported showing William Dempsey (L) and an unnamed partner, was one of two such cards that Dempsey sent from Alaska to his parents in Cleveland in late 1918 and early 1920. (Photo courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks archives)
A Nexus of Lives and Lies: The William Dempsey story — Part 5

Although William Dempsey didn’t know it as he fled for his life, several things were working against him

As a teen-ager convicted of larceny in 1916, William Dempsey was incarcerated at the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio. (Image from the National Register of Historical Places)
A Nexus of Lives and Lies: The William Dempsey story — Part 3

The lines of history are most accurately understood in retrospect.