Pioneer Potluck: About the American and Alaskan Flag

  • By Grannie Annie
  • Tuesday, March 10, 2015 2:44pm
  • LifeFood

1989 to now

North Nikiski, Alaska

 

Bob has seen to it that we have a large United State of America flag and the Alaskan flag, flying in our yard for the 26 years we have lived here on the lake. They get tattered and he replaces them. He keeps an extra in his shop.

A month ago we had some severe wind storms that came up from the south – switch directions and blew from the east- then down the hill from the north. We live in a big “bowl” about 100 yards up from the lake. It seems to make trees and flags or anything sticking up more than 20 feet go in tiny swirling circles at the top.

Two years ago Bob built, with the help of his friends, his cave/shop. and one of the first things after they finished painting the outside, was dig a large hole, fill with cement and put up a tall flag pole, fixing the American Flag to the top of it. He, for a while put the Alaskan flag underneath it. It was our wind sock and the first thing we looked at when we came out of our little house.

During one of our several windstorm this winter, after noticing the day before the swirling flag pole top, with the flag happily blowing in the wind, that the pole was a little loose at the base. The next morning we found the pole between the “new-to us” -1994 Ford pickup and the Current bush, (that protects the wall of the cave/shop) laying on the ground, not more than and inch or two of space next to the new-to-us pickup. It had twisted off at the base. We will have to wait for thawed ground to reinstate our flag on a pole. We miss it! The Alaskan flag is positioned on the side of cave, flying in these warm-cold-blustery winds of the winter as a reminder of how proud we are to be living in Alaska.

A few years ago we had a very tall “lonesome” pine swirl in tiny circles at the top in wind storms, for years. One day during a windy day – it twisted off at the base and fell down the hill. It was hollow inside.

Our first flag flew on the pump house at the lake in 1989. Bob and J.T. built an A-frame and the flag has always flown at the peek of the roof. The pump house, as we call it, has been the place for all visiting grandkids, fathers, friends and neighbors ,to change into swim suits, then run off the deck to the dock and jump as far as they can into the lake. Dogs did the same.

Bob built it with that in mind and it has been a source of great pleasure all these year. Kids have grown up, gone away, some multiplied and will, maybe, return and teach their little ones to do the same run, jump, splash, under the forever waving flag. Doggies go to heaven and new ones learn the jump-splash trick. Hopefully our year-old black lab, Jake will learn to do that this year. Our lake has not seen spalshing kids or doggies for a few years, but the flag is still waving just in case someone comes running down the hill to have some summer fun.

I cannot forget the fishing off the dock that mostly kids have done, with great results and a plea for me “to please fry it for me??” Or the canoe trips and the remote control boats that gave so much pleasure to old and young, under the watchful American flag.

Bob is proud of his military years and he is even prouder of the flags that fly over his piece of peace in Alaska.

Long wave our American and Alaskan Flag!

Please God, Bless our America.

More in Life

This Korean rice porridge, called dak juk, is easy to digest but hearty and nutritious, perfect for when you’re learning how to eat. (Photo by Tressa Dale/Peninsula Clarion)
A comforting meal for new beginnings

Rice porridge is a common first solid meal for many, many babies around the world

file
Minister’s Message: The sound of God’s voice

In all my desperate prayers, I sometimes forget that God has spoken definitively already

Rivers and Ice by Susan Pope. (Promotional photo)
KPC Showcase to feature discussion with Alaska author Susan Pope

Pope will discuss her memoir “Rivers and Ice: A Woman’s Journey Toward Family and Forgiveness”

Promotional photo courtesy Sony Pictures
Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace and Celeste O’Connor appear in “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.”
On the Screen: New ‘Ghostbusters’ struggles to balance original ideas and nostalgia

“Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” picks up right where “Afterlife” left off, and it also succumbs to a lot of the same problems

document from ancestry.com
William Raymond “W.R.” Benson’s draft-registration card from 1942 reveals that he was 52 years old, living in Seward and self-employed. His wife, Mable, is listed as a person who will always know his address.
Hometown Booster: The W.R. Benson Story — Part 2

W.R. Benson was a mover and a shaker throughout his life, but particularly so in Alaska

Terri Zopf-Schoessler and Donna Shirnberg rehearse “The Odd Couple: The Female Version” at the Kenai Performers’ Theater near Soldotna, Alaska, on Tuesday, March 19, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
‘Iconic, classic comedy’

Kenai Performers debuts “The Odd Couple: The Female Version”

Photo provided by Sara Hondel
Sara Hondel stands with a leprechaun during Sweeney’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Soldotna on Sunday. Green, leprechauns and Nugget the Moose poured down the streets for the 34th annual parade hosted by the Soldotna Chamber of Commerce. Under cloudy skies — but fortunately no precipitation — a procession of viridescent celebrants representing businesses and organizations brought festivities to an array of attendees lining Redoubt Avenue.
Go green or go home

Soldotna turns out for St. Patrick’s Day parade

Eggplants, garlic, lemon juice and tahini make up this recipe for baba ghanouj. (Photo by Tressa Dale/Peninsula Clarion)
When making a good example is hard to swallow

Preparing baba ghanouj despite a dislike of eggplant

William Raymond “W.R.” Benson (front row, far right) poses along with the rest of the Sigma Nu fraternity at Albion College in Michigan in about 1908. Despite a lifetime spent in the public eye, Benson was apparently seldom captured on film. This image is one of the few photos of him known to exist. (photo from the 1908 Albion College yearbook via ancestry.com)
Hometown Booster: The W.R. Benson Story — Part 1

W.R. Benson was a man almost constantly in motion

Most Read