Mike and Maggie Williams, plus other people bumped into while dining; missing Jobe; Kivgiq edit progressing
Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at 10:58AM 
This is Mike Williams and his wife, Maggie, who walked into Mat-Su Valley Family Restaurant one day last week just after I had sat down for breakfast. Margie was still in Anchorage, babysitting Jobe and Kalib.
Any Alaskan who pays much attention at all will know who Mike Williams is and I have written a bit about him before. For those who may not have heard of Mike, he is a Yupiaq tribal leader and dog musher from the Kuskokwim village of Akiak and a recovering alcoholic. He was raised with six brothers and a dog team in that time before snowmachines took over the daily work of dogs.
He loved his dogs and he loved his brothers. He would race his dogs and one race he did was the Iditarod. When he would reach Nome, he would take care of his dogs, and then he and a brother would hit the bars and drink up a storm.
But his brothers got killed - all six of them - one after the other and each killing came as the result of alcohol abuse. One brother had served in the thick of the fighting in Vietnam and had come home safely, only to die from alcohol.
So Mike went to war against alcohol abuse. He sobered up. He created a petition and carried it with him as he raced the Iditarod Trail. Each time he would reach a village, he would take that petition around and commit all who would sign it to a year of sobriety.
Did all who sign it succeed?
No, but some did, and I heard testimony from a few of the them in the year 2000, when the Running Dog was still airworthy and I used it to follow Mike and his team along the Iditarod Trail from Wasilla to Nome.
Mike is not racing this year, but his son, Mike. Jr., is. Mike and Maggie had come to Wasilla to make the food drops that Mike Jr. will need to feed his dogs as he races along the trail.
After I took this picture, I put down my camera, pulled out my iPhone and placed a call to Mitt Romney, to see if I could convince him to finance this blog and the electronic magazine I want to add to it.
Mitt thanked me for calling, wished me well, said it was a worthy cause but he just couldn't afford to help. It was disappointing, but at least the three of us sitting at this table all got to make good use of our phones simultaneously.
If the Running Dog was not broken and I had the money for gas, I would love to follow Mike Jr. up the trail to Nome in this year's race, but the Running Dog is broken and gas is really expensive these days, anyway.
At the very least, I will photograph him at the starting line.
On another day last week when Margie was still in town, I did another breakfast at Family. As I was leaving, this fellow, Franz, noticed my camera and asked me about it. He wondered what kind of things I photograph, so, to demonstrate, I sat down at his table for a moment and took a photo of him.
Then we engaged in an arm wrestling match, which I easily won.
I jokes. We did not. And with my weak, fragile, artificial shoulder, I cannot arm wrestle anyone.
But when I was younger and my shoulder was real and I could, I almost always won - even against people much larger than me.
Not always.
But almost.
Now I have done my bragging for today.
On Friday evening after Lavina brought Margie and Jobe home, none of us wanted to cook. So I ordered a Pizza from Fat Boys and then went to pick it up.
This fellow, Ron, was dining inside. He noticed my camera, commented on it and asked what kind of pictures I took with it.
So I sat down with him while I waited for the Fat Boy to box up my pizza and gave him a demonstration.
So Margie had Jobe all of last week and I had him Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Now he is gone back to Anchorage and I am missing him. There are reminders of him all about the house.
As to my Kivgiq edit, yesterday I did complete my initial pass through of Day 2. Today, I begin on Day 3.
I mention this just to assure those who love Kivgiq that I am sticking with it and will yet make my big series of Kivgiq posts.
Reader Comments (2)
If Mitt can't help out, perhaps SP will support a talented local photojournalist. Oh, wait. She's not from Wasilla any longer, is she? Perhaps that's a good thing, though.
You are a rich man, Bill.
Mr Williams has been one of my everyday-people heros for a long time.
What a treat to see his son racing now.