A blog by Bill Hess

Running Dog Publications

P.O. Box 872383 Wasilla, Alaska 99687

 

All photos and text © Bill Hess, unless otherwise noted 
All support is appreciated
Bill Hess's other sites
Search
Navigation
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.

Blog archive
Blog arhive - page view
« Jobe falls, gets up and becomes a rolling toddler | Main | Two studies of the young writer, Shoshana; dog in the post office; six scenic views taken through the window or a red Ford Escape in the vicinity of the Little Susistna River and the Manvil H. Olson Bridge; breakfast »
Sunday
Mar132011

Master chef boy Kalib shows up carrying his spatula, then whips up some chocolate chip cookies; his little brother falls asleep

Late yesterday morning, master chef boy Kalib showed up carrying his spatula. He was ready to cook.

Soon, he was mixing dough to bake chocolate chip cookies. 

He spread flour across the counter top, and then discovered that if he whipped it off the counter and into the air, the flour spray would glow in the sunbeam that shone through the window.

He had already put in the white sugar - now it was time for the brown.

He did some of the steps out of order, and did not follow the recipe closely, but that is the kind of thing that master chef boys do.

His grandma poured vanilla extract into a measuring spoon.

Kalib had to be certain that this task was done right, so master chef boy took the measuring spoon from his grandma and applied the vanilla to the pre-dough concoction himself. 

He used a potato masher to mix everything together.

Then his mom showed up with an electric mixer as little brother Jobe drifted past the picture of little brother Jobe than hangs on the refrigerator door.

Before I continue - I must emphasize that Jobe also did something pretty darn spectacular during this visit, but I can only stuff so much into one post and so I am saving Jobe's accomplishment for another day.

Kalib stood ready with his mixing fork, just in case his mother did not do such a good job with the electric mixer.

Kalib added more flower and such to the mix.

Kalib checked to be certain that there are no frogs in the mix. A frog would spoil the cookies.

Then it was time to add the chocolate chips. So Kalib added one.

Then he ate a chocolate chip.

Next, he ate another chocolate chip.

To make it easer for him to dump all the chocolate chips at once, his dad put the chips in a bowl. Kalib extracted one and ate it.

Then he extracted another and put it into the mix. At his rate - three chips, one at a time, into Kalib for every chip, one at a time, into the mix, it was going to take a long time and these cookies were going to be sparse on chocolate chips.

The process of applying the chips was taking so long that Jobe grew tired and weary. He began to yawn. His mother tied him into his cradle board, where he promptly fell asleep.

Somehow, a number of chips sufficient to make cookies made it into the batter. Kalib assigned the menial task of placing the dough onto the cookie sheets and into the oven to his father.

When the cookies were done, Kalib ate them himself. Every last one. He teased his dad with this one, pretending that he was going to let him take a bite, but devoured it before Dad could.

Maybe I exaggerate a little bit.

Maybe Kalib shared the cookies with the rest of us.

Maybe we enjoyed them, because it is fact that they were damn good.

Maybe I ate more than I should have.

Maybe I still feel the excess chocolate chip cookies weighing down my tummy.

Probably not, but maybe.

 

View images as slides

 

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

Reader Comments (4)

He is born talent!! chooooooo cuteeeeee of him! Love the lil chef so much n his tastier than cookie bro :P

March 13, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterSuji

If you stood in a room with fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookies and did not eat so many that they weighed your stomach down, well, Bill, you did that wrong.

March 14, 2011 | Unregistered Commenterdebby

i love little boy master chefs

March 14, 2011 | Unregistered Commentertwain12

Mmmmm!! Chocolate chip cookie dough, nothing tastier! That Kalib is quite a chef. Can't wait to see what amazing thing Jobe did.

March 14, 2011 | Unregistered Commentermocha

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>