Mostly I pretend I don’t really work, and so it’s a surprise when I have to pay taxes, or when I think I have been watching Baby James exclusively for two weeks and then I learn that two pieces I’ve been working on around the edges of my life will be published in Sunday’s We Alaskans by the Alaska Dispatch News. One, the cover story, is a profile of Haines’ own Rosemary McGuire (38) who has just written her first book of short stories that’s out with UA Press this month titled “Creatures at the Absolute Bottom of the Sea.” The other is just my regular-ish Dateline Alaska column on “Dancing at Lughnasa” and theater in Haines. This kind of amazes me. No wonder I’m tired. So excuse me if I seem, as Rosie would say “kind of braggy.” (Rosie emailed from Antarctica where she works at a research boathouse — asking that I take out a quote in the story from her about having traveled to over 40 countries because it sounded “kind if braggy.”)
And with any luck there will be an obituary in this week’s Chilkat Valley News (for sure next week). Maybe that’s the wrong way to say it. It’s not like I’m hoping someone will perish. Longtime (and much loved) Pioneer Bar bartender Nellie Dale died in California last week. She was over 80 and illness had sent her there to be closer to her daughters. Nellie was a worker bee, “a doer and and a goer,” as one friend said. I am waiting for my call to the family to be returned and the Chilkat Valley News’ deadline is tomorrow afternoon. So that’s what I mean by “with any luck.” While I’m waiting, and the Irish black bear stew simmers away, and the north wind blows in gray skies — and postpones today’s planned Freeride World Tour big mountain ski and board event for another day– (The Pioneer Bar and the library will both broadcast streaming video once the Freeride show begins, so stay tuned), I will leave you with my favorite quote of the day from current Pioneer Bar co-owner Christy Fowler. (Her father ran it before her.) This is what she said about her friend “sassy” Nellie Dale:
“When I was growing up, my Dad kept a gun behind the bar to keep the peace, then a Billy club, then an electric cattle prod, then Nellie Dale.”
