When I was 9 years old my parents decided they wanted a getaway from the hustle and bustle of Anchorage, which at that time had a population of about 100,000. They went in halves with another family who had four boys under the age of ten. Leasing a plot of land from the state on a small lake about 60 miles outside of Anchorage they built a cabin. No running water and no electricity it was heated by a wood burning stove and lighted with Coleman lanterns. At some point a propane tank was added so we could have an indoor cooking stove. The outhouse, which seemed like a mile away on cold or dark mornings, was utilitarian to say the least. The cabin was basically a large main room with a few partitions to make you think it had a bedroom and a sleeping loft with no beds, just big mattresses. This was one time I was really glad I was a girl. I got one of the three beds downstairs and didn’t have to “rough” it in the loft. I loved it! I loved spending weekends there. It was heaven.
As an adult, when people would ask me what my religious background was I’d half jokingly tell them it was the Church of the Cabin on the Lake. Once the cabin was built we no longer attended church. The woods and the lake became my religious and spiritual space.
Basic cabin – four walls and a roof
The cabin in the morning sun
Trout fishing
I’d be willing to bet the temp here was probably in the 60’s – I remember the first time it hit 82 degrees in Anchorage and I could barely move it was so hot
Fishing with my brother
Winter – cabin had no insulation – many times it would be colder inside than out
Loved going up there in the winter
Spring is coming
Springtime – temp is probably all of 50 degrees
Breaking up the ice – rite of spring
Lilly pads at southern end of lake
You had to stay near the surface, you did not want to touch the lake bottom because of the leaches – hence the inner tubes
On the road leading down to the path to our cabin
Alaska RR – back then you could flag the train down in between stations to get on and off
Ruthie and me
We bought this little Sunfish sail boat and my brother and I fiberglassed the hull – it could fly
Ruthie and me – March 1975
Ruthie & John
Dad – June 1976
