Send this article to Promobot

OPINION: Definitions of home within Alaska

June 13th 1:03 pm | Lew Freedman Print this article   Email this article   Create a Shortlink for this article

The phrase "home is where the heart is," is an old one, but as real now as it always was.

It means something different to everyone. Just the other day I was reading comments from someone who feels re-energized each time he visits the ocean. The sight of the sea and his hobby of surfing are life-giving to him.

He is not alone. Living beside the ocean, a river, or lake has an intoxicating affect on many people. Similarly, I know many people who obtain that extra high by going high. They love the mountains, climbing, being above tree line, being surrounded by views that extend for miles.

These people are at home near water or at home in the mountains. But home is also a certain location. It may be the place you grew up. It may be a place discovered as a young adult. It may be a place stumbled upon later in life.

I have moved around the United States and always get asked questions like "Where's home?" I have always been able to differentiate between a place where I had an address and a place that was home. I have lived in Boston, the suburbs of Boston, Syracuse, N.Y; Tallahassee, Fla.; the suburbs of Philadelphia, Anchorage, Chicago, the suburbs of Chicago, and Columbus, Ind.

I grew up in the Boston area. Several of my closest relatives still live there, and all of my childhood and college memories are centered there. That's a home. The only other place on my list of addresses that is home is Alaska.

As we well know, there are several Alaskas. The Alaska home of someone who grew up in Anchorage is quite different from the Alaska home of someone who grew up in Barrow, Bethel, Dillingham, Dutch Harbor or Seward. They surely have more in common with one another than the 907 area code for their phone numbers, but the differences are substantial, from size of community, urbanization, tourist visitation, encounters with wildlife, and diversity of population.

Homesickness can be a powerful emotion, if not always precisely defined. The Yup'ik Eskimo graduate of a high school gone off to college in the Lower 48 might become bewildered. I remember hearing a story about an Alaska girl who grew up in a remote area attending college in a large midwestern city who was nearly run over by a car because she didn't realize how the cross-walk signs worked.

Never mind that no one in the dorm was conversant with fishing, hunting, or berry-picking. Or that it was still 85 degrees in October. It was a long wait into fall for the usual crispness to take over the air. And boy, there sure were a lot of cars and not enough trees.

Of course, for some Alaskans gone Outside there are too many trees because where they come from the tundra is the main feature of the landscape. Naturally, family is far away, too, and there are no weekly gatherings at grandma's house, or with the friends you have known since you were born.

Anchorage is more like other American cities than any other part of Alaska, yet its personality still resembles Alaska more than Seattle, San Francisco or Phoenix. It is a medium big city that is easy to get around in. Bears wander into town. Moose pop up out of the woods on the Coastal Trail or behind Bartlett High School. Despite the occasional disparagement from rural dwelling Alaskans calling Anchorage "Los Anchorage," Anchorage is still Alaska.

During my 17 years there, I always thought of Anchorage as a base, my personal hub that allowed me relatively easy access to the North Slope where I could walk along the Arctic Ocean; Fairbanks, where I might set a personal record for walking outdoors in minus-40 degrees; Southeast, where the trees seemed as tall as mountains; and the Kenai Peninsula, where I could fish for salmon.

Yes, Anchorage was the place where I received my mail, but Alaska was the place where I made my home. All of it.

Lew Freedman is a former longtime Alaska journalist and the author of numerous books about the state.

 


Copyright 2012 The Bristol Bay Times is a publication of Alaska Media, LLC. This article is © 2012 and limited reproduction rights for personal use are granted for this printing only. This article, in any form, may not be further reproduced without written permission of the publisher and owner, including duplication for not-for-profit purposes. Portions of this article may belong to other agencies; those sections are reproduced here with permission and Alaska Media, LLC makes no provisions for further distribution.