Alaskan Mentality

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 A guy came into my bar recently, and told me that retirement sucks. I asked where he had worked; he said all over the world for Halliburton, including the Trans Alaskan Pipeline in 1974. Well, I remember those days; I hitchhiked up the Alcan Highway in 1973, after I got out of the Army at the Presidio.

Incredibly beautiful country, even the twelve thousand miles of gravel road back then. I spent four seasons working at logging camps around Ketchikan. One political reality struck me, as I stood on incredible fir and cedar forests, overlooking whales spouting in the bays below: and that was explained to me by the camp owner's nineteen-year-old son, who was hook tending at the time: Alaskans hated government, described with an almost mantra repetition, that 4 out of 10 jobs in America were government jobs, -that were paid by taxpayers.

I guess this included city, state, and federal employees; probably military; who knows, maybe mailmen and police. Do Alaskans hate soldiers and police? I would like to think not. Basically, Alaskans don't like regulators dictating what to do with their rich resources.

This particular camp was a Seventh Day Adventist Camp, a floating camp, a small town build on log rafts, and isolated in a pristine bay. Most workers came from the lower forty, I think they called us, and left after the season ended (around November). California was not their favorite, but I was all right, for some reason, since my home was Virginia. Drinking was not allowed in camp, so workers took a float plane to Ketchikan to hit the bars every couple of weeks.

Although the Seventh Day Adventists were pretty fundamentalist, they did not push their religion; they were warm and friendly folks",at least until the End Days, perhaps. Similar in some ways to Pentecostals, I would think.

Of course, that was then. Now, fundamentalists have their sights on the White House, and the ends justifies the means.