A blog by Bill Hess

Running Dog Publications

P.O. Box 872383 Wasilla, Alaska 99687

 

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Wasilla

Wasilla is the place where I have lived for the past 29 years - sort of. The house in which my wife and I raised our family sits here, but I have made my rather odd career as a different sort of photojournalist by continually wandering off to other places to photograph people and gather information, which I have then put together in various publications that have served the Alaska Native Eskimo, Indian and Aleut communities.

Although I did not have a great of free time to devote to this rather strange community, named after a Tanaina Athabascan Indian chief who knew Wasilla in the way that I so impossibly long to, I have still documented it regularly over the past quarter-century plus. In the early days, my Wasilla photographs focused mostly upon my children and the events they participated in - baseball, football, figure skating, hockey, frog catching, fire cracker detonation, Fourth of July parade - that sort of thing. 

In 2002, I purchased my first digital camera and then, whenever I was home, I began to photograph Wasilla upon a daily basis, but not in a conventional way. These were grab shots - whatever caught my eye as I took my many long walks or drove through the town, shooting through the car window at people and scenes that appeared and disappeared before I could even focus and compose in the traditional photographic way.

Thus, the Wasilla portion of this blog will be devoted both to the images that I take as I wander about and those that I have taken in the past. Despite the odd, random, nature of the images, I believe they communicate something powerful about this town that I have never seen expressed anywhere else. 

Wasilla is a sprawling community that has been slapped down hodge-podge upon what was so recently wilderness of the most exquisite beauty. In its design, it is deliberately anti-zoned, anti-planned. In the building of Wasilla, the desire to make a buck has trumped aesthetics and all other considerations. This town, built in the midst of exquisite beauty, has largely become an unsightly, unattractive, mess of urban sprawl. Largely because of this, it often seems to me that Wasilla is a community with no sense of community, a town devoid of town soul.

Yet - Wasilla is my home and if I am lucky it will be until I grow old and die. Despite its horrific failings, it is still made of the stuff of any small city: people; moms and dads, grammas and grampas, teens, children, churches, bars, professionals, laborers, soldiers, missionaries, artists, athletes, geniuses, do-gooders, hoodlums, the wealthy, the homeless, the rational and logical, the slightly insane and the wholly insane - and, yes, as is now obvious to the whole world, politicians, too.

So perhaps, if one were to search hard enough, it might just be possible to find a sense of community here, and a town soul. So, using my skills as a photojournalist and a writer, I hope to do just that. If this place has a sense of community, I will find it. If there is a town soul to Wasilla, I will document it. I won't compete with the newspapers. Hell no! But as time and income allow, it will be fun to wander into the places where the folks described above gather, and then put what I find on this blog.

 

by 300...

Anywhere within a 300 mile radius of Wasilla. This encompasses perhaps the most wild, dramatic, gorgeous, beautiful section of land and sea to be found in any comparable space anywhere on Earth. I can never explore it all, but I will do the best that I can, and will here share what I find and experience with you.  

and then some...

Anywhere else in the world that I happen to get to, such as Point Lay, Alaska; Missoula, Montana; Serenki, Chukotka, Russia; or Bangalore, India. Perhaps even Lagos, Nigeria. I have both a desire and scheme to get me there. It is a long shot. We shall see if I succeed.

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Thursday
Dec102009

Kalib moves out, final: He shares his dad's birthday dinner, helps? decorate the Christmas tree; Today in Wasilla: Familiar face regurgitates, then pops through the door

I take one last journey back to last Friday night, when Kalib moved out. Here, he looks through the window of his new house as his Uncle Kalib pulls into the driveway. Just moments before, his dad pulled in with something special in his vehicle.

It's a Christmas tree! Kalib gives instructions and directions on where and how to place it.

Before the tree can be decorated, we all go out to celebrate Jacob's birthday. Jacob chose the nearby Taco King.

We all ordered Mexican food.

Kalib ate a wedge of lime.

Then we returned to his new house to eat cake. There were no candles at all, this time, so Lavina tore off a piece of a paper bag, rolled it up and lit it on fire. The lights were turned out. The paper only smoldered, and try as I might, I could not take a picture off the glow of the smolder. 

In desperation, I dialed my shutter speed down to something like maybe a full second or two and tripped the shutter. Even as the image was exposing someone turned on the light.

Kalib lifted up the first piece and dumped it upside down atop the cake. Oh, it was a good cake, though. Margie made it. Lisa bought the ice cream.

Next it was time to decorate the tree. Kalib began the task with confidence.

Can you see how sleepy he is? Remember, he had hardly had a nap at all. He was very tired. Everything in his world was changing.

He started to cry and ran across the floor. Lisa tried to amuse him with a balloon. He ignored it and zipped right past her.

Then he flung himself face down upon the rug that his parents will soon replace. Caleb tried to amuse him by bouncing the minature Spiderman basketball.

Kalib would not be amused.

And right after this, his gramma and I had to say goodbye and leave.

Early the next morning, his actual birthday, btw, his Dad had to leave to go to Washington, DC, for some training. 

 

Today in Wasilla:

What!!!??? Who is this, sitting on our couch with Caleb, eating strawberry Jello??? Why, it's Kalib! But he moved out? How could this be?

Last night, he started to vomit. Fearing that it was fumes from the new paint that has gone up on the walls since he moved in, Lavina brought him home. He is going to stay here for a few days now.

We have since learned that three of his day care peers had to go home today, because they were vomiting, too. So maybe it wasn't the fumes.

Whatever, he is here again.

And here I am, driving down Lucille Street, on my afternoon coffee break.

As you can see, weather-wise, today was exceptionally nice. It sounds like we were about the only place in the country with good weather today - except for Hawaii, where surfers were cutting up giant waves, 30 feet tall - a gift to them from Alaska.

I want to ride a 30 foot wave.

Do you think I could?

Or would such a wave tear my artificial shoulder right out of its socket?

I wanted to go to Hawaii this winter to find out. But I can see that its not going to happen. No money for such a trip.

Life is hell, I tell you.

Maybe next winter.

Maybe I will be richer then. And stronger. Grayer as well. Richer, stronger and grayer.

If so, then I will go to Hawaii and ride a wave.

Maybe not a 30 foot wave.

They don't get such waves every year, you know.

Nobody can know exactly when they will come.

And then when they're done coming, they're done.

There's nothing anyone can do about it.

You can't schedule that kind of surf.

It happens when it happens and only when it happens.

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Reader Comments (4)

Kalib eating lime! Oh, My, he is a brave fellow! Especially for one so young. I am sixty-ish and I am not brave enough to eat lime!

December 10, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterWhiteStone

I love the picture of Kalib with the chocolate cake on his face. He is very smart and is in on everything, and I don't blame him! There's too much going on to be left out! I sure hope he's feeling much better by now.

majii in GA

December 10, 2009 | Unregistered Commentermajii

You got a Kalib-loss reprieve! Enjoy!

December 10, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterMichelle

Oh, boy, I am even further behind than I thought I was.

Whitestone: The sourness didn't even phase him. Like the time we were eating in Jalepeno's and he just picked up the salsa and started drinking, never flinching.

majii - Yes, he's smarter than his grandpa, even - and he already knows more than I do.

Michelle - We treasure every minute with him.

December 15, 2009 | Registered CommenterWasilla, Alaska, by 300

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