Outhouse races, Snowshoe Softball, Snowball Fight Tournament, Dog Races = Fur Rendezvous

21 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by Naomi Gaede Penner in Uncategorized

Fur Rendezvous, Anchorage, Alaska, 1956

The 78th Fur Rendezvous starts tomorrow in Anchorage, Alaska, and runs through March 3, 2013. The event started in 1935. I’d love to see the Outhouse races, Snowshoe Softball, Running of the Reindeer, Great Alaskan Bed Races, Snow Sculptures, Snowball Fight Tournament, Ice Bowling – and more!

My one and only time at the Fur Rendezvous was …a long time ago…..

Naomi, Ruby, Ruth Gaede

(Excerpt from Alaska Bush Pilot Doctor)

Anchorage, Alaska 1956

As told by Elmer E. Gaede

“The Anchorage Fur Rendezvous, held in February, provided more entertainment. Originally a celebration when trappers came to sell their winter’s cache of furs, this annual, ten‑day cabin‑fever antidote attracted crowds of Natives and whites. The hustle and bustle of dogsled races, dog‑pull contests, snow‑shoe races, and fur auctions nearly shut down 5th Avenue. In one of the open lots there was a platform with hundreds of raw furs, sectioned off for red fox, white fox, mink, beaver, muskrat, lynx, and wolverine. ..

…. At the first of the Rendezvous, I bid on the red fox and got two for $5 each. The next day, some of the same quality of fox went up to $20 each. I was told that I did well to bid early since the furs usually sell low the first few days before the buying interest is up. Later, when the buying fever was aroused, the prices would go up.

When the furs were brought in from the cold and into a warm room The odor went up later, too. Some of the furs came from villages where they had been tanned in barrels of human urine… I learned that in fur selection, one needs to use both eyes and nose.”

Ruth and Naomi with fox skins

(Excerpts from http://www.anchorage.net/articles/anchorage-fur-rendezvous)

Fan favorites, such as the Outhouse Races, always draw a crowd. Dog teams and their mushers complete three 25-mile loops over three days. One of the newest events is Yukigassen, a team snowball fight tournament that joined the lineup in 2011.

Native culture is celebrated in many ways.

Blanket Toss at 1956 Fur Rendezvous

– The Blanket Toss mimics the Alaska Native whaling tradition. Everyone can have a turn to either jump or grip the (walrus skin) blanket’s edge while tossing others as high as 20 feet into the air.

– Arts and crafts are displayed.

– Tribal regalia, customs and culture vary greatly between Alaska’s distinct Native cultures. The Multi-tribal Gathering celebrates their diversity, joining cultural performers and visual artists in a one-day extravaganza

Fur Rendezvous – 1956

For more information, including the schedule of events and travel specials, visit http://www.furrondy.net/ or

Writing in Crock-Pot Mode

19 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by Naomi Gaede Penner in Book Reviews

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Rhoda Ahgook and Naomi in Anaktuvuk Pass, AK – 2009

Twenty-some years I started researching and writing the Anna Bortel Teacher stories. In 2011, ‘A’ is for Alaska: Teacher to the Territory was released. A month ago, January 2013, ‘A’ is for Anaktuvuk: Teacher to the Nunamiut Eskimos arrived on my doorstep.

Over the course of these writing years, I returned to the Alaska settings: To Tanana, Alaska a handful of times and Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska once. I worked alongside Anna on countless occasions, both in Denver, CO and in Newberg, OR.

Naomi interviewing Anna and making documentary DVD – 2008

The books had starts and stops, fits, re-boots, and sudden-death.

I did not write with lightening speed of a creative muse. I plodded.

My desire was that the history of the moment be recorded and not lost, while at the same time, the reader turned the pages as if they were fiction.

Most books don’t just-happen.

Most books don’t happen over-night.

Most books don’t happen with a stroke of genius and “I couldn’t put down my pen.”

Most books are like slow and steady crock-pots.

I recently read these non-fiction narrative books:

Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World’s Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb.

http://www.amazon.com/Hunting-Eichmann-Survivors-Agency-Notorious/dp/B004H8GMH6

Issac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in Historyby Erik Larson.

http://www.amazon.com/Isaacs-Storm-Deadliest-Hurricane-History/dp/0375708278/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361317634&sr=1-1&keywords=isaac%27s+storm

The Last Season by Eric Blehm.

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Season-P-S-Eric-Blehm/dp/0060583010/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361317663&sr=1-1&keywords=the+last+season+by+eric+blehm

These authors weren’t trying to giddily set a record for the fastest-book-written. No. They soberly met the challenge of doing a technical climb up a “Mt. Everest” of research. They spent years of tedious and careful research gathering, sorting and sifting facts, minutia, observations, speculations, and conversations. Not only was their research done in archives, libraries, and offices with print, photos, and interviews, but at the physical locations of their stories – where they could feel, walk, smell what it was like for their characters.

As if the stories aren’t captivating enough, in the back of each book is a lengthy documentation of phrases, interviews, interaction, and tidbits that were painstakingly woven together in a sequence that makes their non-fiction read like fiction.

For the grand finale of their print and bound accomplishment , the authors don’t pound their chests and strut in pride; they offer up acknowledgement for the people who assisted them in their research and writing marathon; not only with materials, permissions, and editing; but most likely with cups of coffee, help with daily housekeeping tasks, neck rubs, and some atta-boys. Most likely they used any strutting energy to crawl to the finish line.

These authors are my role models and mentors. They are the ones whose feet I’d like to sit and learn.

A Short Story Behind the YouTube of Alaska Bush Pilot Doctor

15 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by Naomi Gaede Penner in Mark

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Everything has a story — or so it seems to me. No mere incidences. The process of developing the YouTube for Alaska Bush Pilot Doctor is one of these stories.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pItU8uxqtAg

The YouTube publisher allowed only 15 sec. I negotiated for 30.

The YouTube publisher used a female voice. I negotiated for a male voice.

The YouTube publisher put in a stock image of a de Haviland Beaver for the voiced “flew a J-3.” This book is about flying. Any pilot can spot the difference between a Beaver and a J-3. I negotiated for a change to a J-3.

The YouTube publisher put in generic/stock background music. I negotiated for my brother, Mark’s, music.

Mark was born a musician. He practiced rhythm as soon as he could crawl – with mom’s pots and pans that he pulled out of the cupboards and beat with a wooden spoon. Mom didn’t think this was cute. She saw no future in this.

When he could toddle about, he played a tiny piano.

He told me recently, “I first recognized pitches that were related when we lived in Tulare, California — I was around four-and-a-half. I was enthralled by the vinyl record we had of the Nut-Cracker Suite. That’s when I started to use the little pump organ, too.” Short as he was, and his legs were, that is hard for me to imagine. Mom played the pump organ and we had a piano. I don’t remember him playing either. He was sooo much younger than me (I was 10) and I didn’t pay much attention to him. I was busy roller-skating, dressing our black Pekingese dog in doll clothes, and learning how to make pancakes from scratch.

Our father played the accordion. Ruth and I followed suit, as did Mark – age five. In our family, it was not unusual to play a musical instrument — and to be good at it. Ruth and Mark were good at it. I just did it. We didn’t know we were living with a highly gifted child

At age ten, he was church organist– even though his feet barely touched the pedals. In grade school, his piano teacher was sorely vexed that he could play the music without reading the music — if he’d hear it once. She refused to play it for him. She was not keen on learning or playing music by ear, or allowing a musician to play what he or she hears in their head, and whose fingers play without conscious knowledge of how their fingers meet the keys.

He played trombone in junior high. In high school, the girls clustered around him in the music room where he played piano. He was short, but he was popular. The wild curly hair didn’t hurt.

He picked Mom’s mandolin and plucked a bass.

In his bedroom, with doors closed, he composed sound tracks on an old reel-to-reel. He borrowed a friend’s electric bass to add to his acoustic guitar and vocal tracks.

In his 20s, he was the basement go-to studio in Alaska for budding and wannabe vocalists who needed a demo tape to audition.

He’s cut three CDs

– Christmas music

– Original instrumental music

– Unreleased my hymns

Much of his second CD is melancholy. It reflects the turmoil and grief our families’ felt when Mom was dying, and Dad had already died. His CD of hymns is arranged in minor keys.

To make a long story short, I am very pleased with the TV trailer/YouTube of Alaska Bush Pilot Doctor. It’s more than a marketing tool. It’s brother-sister team-work and a blend of creativity where the sum is greater than the parts. It’s a story. I’d like more of these kinds of stories – with my little brother.

Psst! That’s not the only story about Mark. There are the J-3 stories, too.