Charlotte goes to Coldfoot: Odds, Ends and Oddities (Report 8)

Wiseman 4th of July

I haven’t blogged for a whole month due to company, working, rafting and computer difficulties. This blog is a hodgepodge of unrelated bits of the summer:

Every 4^th of July Clutch, Eightball and the other members of the furthest north American Legion have a celebration with BBQ, a keg, and potluck. The population of Wiseman goes from thirteen to eighty. There’s a bug tent for the musicians but the BBQ smoke does a good job of keeping the pests away. Plus everyone wears deet. Many of those attending were miners. One well tanned woman explained to me how she and her husband mined. When she described how it is an addiction, I totally understood. Ever since I found my amazing crystal, I have been obsessively scanning the ground for another one.

Church in Wiseman

I went to the Kalakbuk Chapel for church one Sunday morning. Walking in the door I smelled incense and thought “Catholic” until I realized it was Pic, the mosquito incense coils we all use. The sixteen of us sang without accompaniment. June Reakoff, 78, gave a lovely sermon on thinking positively and thanking God for helping us in things great and small. Jack Reakoff, sitting next to me, led us in many of the songs, nonchalantly waving his mosquito death racket as he did so. Since June he has had that contraption with him whenever I’ve seen him. Most of us carry them with us, too. The zap as they fry the mosquitoes is quite satisfying although I hate the incinerator smell when the juicier ones are electrocuted.