2012

29 Friday Jun 2012

Posted by Naomi Gaede Penner in Soldotna

When I was 18, my father decided I need to get a job. He had connections with everyone – including someone at the Columbia Wards fish cannery. I wasn’t asked if I wanted to work there. Dad informed me I’d been hired.

The cannery was about four miles from our Gaede-80 homestead, down Kalifonsky Beach Road. I drove an old blue pick-up, which didn’t go very fast, and which later I discovered was not really attached to the chassis. All the same, it got me to work.

It was common for college kids from Outside to come work for the summer, so I had peers of sorts. Japanese worked there, too, with the salmon eggs. The cannery was a 40,000-square-foot warehouse. No heat. Cold fish. Fish smell. I wore several pairs of wool socks in my tall black rubber books, a winter coat with a clear plastic apron that wrapped around most of me, and a bandana kerchief on my head.

My job was the assembly line where cans of fish traveled past me and my job was to use a kind of pliers to flip and twist any exposed skin downward or to the sides. The purpose was so the eager purchaser would open the can and find an attractive round of meat.

Working along the conveyor belt took some getting used to. It never stopped and our work was done while the cans traveled in front of us. The constant movement caused a kind of mild motion sickness.

The work was monotonous. The work was cold. We stood all day – or all night – depending on when the fish had come in. To break the boredom, someone down the line, just in front of the lid-stamper, would accidentally flip a can over. Of course, this jammed the lid-stamping machine and we’d all have to take a break while the mechanism was unclogged.

In 2007, the cannery was recognized as a historical landmark and several buildings were put back into use. All the buildings had signs designating their previous use and there was a map with walking tour available at a visitor center. What a step back in time for me! I was so excited to re-walk back into my past. It made a wonderful field trip to take guests.

Just this week I learned that the warehouse is being torn down. I was shocked. On July 13 and 14 timbers from the building will be available for purchase. I plan to be there.

Columbia Wards fish cannery

http://peninsulaclarion.com/news/2012-06-27/deconstruction-of-kenai-landing-warehouse-under-way

What did you do for summer work as a high school or college student?

Was it your idea or your parents?

What are your memories?

Back on the Gaede-80 and Soldotna

18 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by Naomi Gaede Penner in Gaede-80 Homestead, Soldotna, Uncategorized

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I’m back on the Gaede-80 Homestead outside Soldotna, Alaska. In 1961, my parents got in on the tail-end of the Homestead Act. They proved up 80 acres. Gaede and 80 rhymed, leading to the nomenclature of Gaede-80. In 2012, there is the Gaede-80 Subdivision off of Gaede Street. Most recently, there is a cluster mail box with Gaede Street addresses.

For years there was confusion about addresses of the buildings on the homestead. There was more than one building per legal parcel; perplexing for city planners who wanted to organize this random state. The electric and gas companies arrived at different numbers for the same building, and the borough showed alternatives. This was even more complicated when we siblings co-owned land.

But Alaska UPS and repair services are smart. They don’t bat an eye when you give them directions of “Go down Gas Well to where Jones goes straight, Gas Wells turns left, and Gaede is to the right. Oh, I think the Gaede sign is down again. Well, yes, there are actually two Gaede Streets because one runs down the property line, whereas the original one, which is still used, went to the Unical gravel pit…No, not the blue house. Go past the cabin and A-Frame to the brown house….. with the moose antlers in front of the drive and the orange wind sock……Yes, we land planes on the road.”

Several years ago, we tired of explaining that this and that building had two or three addresses. We decided what numbers we wanted where. I made cinnamon rolls. My sister-in-law and I delivered the cinnamon rolls and our request for non-randomness. The borough-manager-of-addresses agreed on this efficiency. Word made its way down to utilities.

No matter what the erraticness, the borough never lost us when they sent out property taxes.

In 2008, we had the homestead replatted and some parcels reassigned. The title search revealed that a parcel we’d thought was mine, and which I’d paid years of property tax, was still titled in all our names. Good thing I hadn’t tried to sell it.

The In 2012, we siblings have our own Gaede-80 land – except for one co-owned piece between two siblings of the four siblings. This is easier to manage; except for the parcels we still use as open-space.

Soldotna. When we arrived in 1961, there was disagreement about how to spell Soldotna or Soldatna. Eventually “Soldotna,” used by the Post Office took preference. Yesterday when I was in town, I saw a local advertisement with a location of “Soldatna.” When we arrived, we were told the name came from a Russian word meaning “soldier.” Now you might hear that it comes from an Athabascan word meaning “the stream fork.”

When we arrived in 1961, no one “Outside” (a term my parents became familiar with when they arrived in Anchorage in 1955), had any idea where Soldotna was. Now when I mention that our family homestead is located outside of Soldotna, I get these responses from people in Lower-48: Great vacation! Drove through it on the way to Homer. Saw bears! Caught huge salmon! Caught enormous halibut! Loved staying in the Freddie’s parking lot. Well, actually, no. They don’t mention that last one. That’s just what Soldotna locals put up with when Fred Meyer’s allows huge campers and enormous RVs to park in their lot. Not easy to drive through in July to buy groceries, but it’s good for business. We get our fishing licenses elsewhere.