The heat is intensifying in the Presidential campaign, a blow torch of media frenzy has been turn upon Sarah Palin....and of course, Wasilla too.
Can you imagine? Al Jazeera is here. That's how big a deal this has become. I am kind of embarassed, really. Wasilla is truly nothing more than retail strip malls and subdivions-nothing like "Small town" America with graciuous courthouses and town squares and ancient trees and a history spanning centuries. It's a brash, in your face type of place where commerce is king-right alongside recreation.
I can't recount here the numerous slanderous attacks on our Governor I have read online. It's unending, relentless, vicious and mostly, just ignorant. I find myself constantly reassuring people, telling them how I see her adminstration and its boondoggles, its legal troubles, what ACES and AGIA really mean. What the TransCanada "license" does and does not do. I try to explain what Wasilla was when she first gained a seat on the City Council, and what it is today. I even have to revisit the library flap for some, who are outraged without knowing the facts.
Sigh. Of course it isn't my job to enlighten, inform, or otherwise straighten out errorneous conclusions but some of the stuff is beyond belief. Somehow it feels like my responsibility as a resident of Alaska that I must also be an ambassador for our state. And that it is important that I do so, as eloquently and eruditely as this author can manage under scrutiny. Somehow, by implication, all Alaskans are under the same microscope.
I have even had to defend BP, the Yu'pik people, and Todd Palin, the North Slope and its many contractors, etc. Seriously, this choice of Sarah has created a whitehot frenzy as I have never seen before. It polarizes, it capivates, it divides, it is of historic importance to our country as a whole (Geraldine Ferrero aside).
It's amazing and astounding and I was very proud of the speech she delivered to the RNC, and I think Senator Biden is going to fall on his face at the debate to come.
So, on a somewhat lighter note...a longtime online friend of mine was inspired by the speech to create this:
http://www.horsedesigns.com/shirts/horses/special/sarah_palin_t_shirt.html
You will have to cut and paste the above into your browser, but I hope you will share with your friends. I imagine I will see some of these very shortly, around Wasilla.
3 comments:
I wouldn't be embarrassed by our humble little town (which is bigger then I ever wanted to see it).
When I first arrived here I went to the school that is now city hall. I appreciate that the officials of this town chose to restore the building instead of tearing it down to build something bigger and better. Main street Wasilla still has some of the old colony settlement buildings, which have plenty of history. Farming history, survival history, personal history.
Of course I'm kind of partial since I am a county girl myself.
I grew up with Sarah. When I see her now my mind goes back to those high school days, when this town was much smaller.They are fond memories, when streets where few and Teelands was the only store in town. Most folks had farms which now are subdivided and developed.
My memories go back a little further :)
My first recollection of Wasilla was when my folks sent me down from up north, to Victory Bible Camp. At that time, you sent your kids off on the train and they collected you at the train station there near what is now the four lane Parks highway. If you remember where the old store was, it was located where United Rentals is today and they had an amazing variety of candies :) It was up the small hill and there was a path between the store and the station, with basically just woods to the south.
Or at least that's what my 9 year old self recalls. It was a fairly long bus ride up to the Camp, mostly on dirt roads, but it was great fun.
After that, the next memory is basically passing through Wasilla on the way to Anchorage. It had one blinking light there at Main Street and the Parks. We never stopped since we usually came through late at night, all jumbled together in the car.
When I moved to Wasilla, it was during the early 80s construction boom. My first job here was at the Teeland building (since relocated to it's present spot) in the liquor store part. At that time, they still had Marie handling the grocery and sundries side of the store and it was well stocked with all sorts of stuff a person might find useful. I recall thinking how quirky it was rhat you could buy produce, TP, AND your beer in the same stop, haha
But I have to say I miss the old Wasilla too, when Carrs was brand new and there were way fewer residents in the area. As a part of my job these last 20 years, I have driven to all areas of the Valley and the changes on the landscape are astounding. Even the location of work place has been remodeled for prosperity. Originally, it was a wooded hillside. Then, over the course of about ten years, the gravel underneath was sold off. Today, that once wooded hill is nothing but a 25 acre flat spot alongside what has now become a major thoroughfare in the Valley.
Many changes, and many more to come I am sure.
*hee-hee*. I went to Victory Bible Camp too, I wonder if all the kids of Wasilla did.
Actually I remember the Teelands store being located where the 7-11 (Tesoro) station is now, corner of Parks and Main. Much later it was moved to where it is now and converted into a cafe of sorts. The cafe does have a number of colony photos of the original town site and of locals. One of the photos shows a local hauling large blocks of lake ice on his skid with a team of horses.
You can also research some interesting history at the Alaska Transportation Museum located north of Wasilla, next to the airport.
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