The Fright of 1964

By Robin Wood

Kitti Hoyt and her granddaughter, Lola, lived through the Anchorage earthquake on Good Friday. There is a massive cleanup, but a problem arises when they hear strange noises coming into the bedroom at night. When will they ever get a good nights sleep?

Senator Joe Lindau and his children, Gaar and Patricia, arent sure they did live through the earthquake. Are they in hell, or have they slid into a glory hole? How will they ever get out of this fix? Its a story of survival, neighbors helping neighbors, and services to the rescue.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 6, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524503734

Robin Wood

Robin Wood was a founding editor of CineAction! and author of numerous works, including Personal Views: Explorations in Film (Wayne State University Press, 2006) and Howard Hawks (Wayne State University Press, 2006). He was professor emeritus at York University, Toronto, and the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Cinema Studies. Barry Keith Grant is a professor in the Department of Communications, Popular Culture, and Film at Brock University in Ontario, Canada. He is the author or editor of many books, including Shadows of Doubt: Negotiations of Masculinity in American Genre Films (Wayne State University Press, 2011) and Documenting the Documentary: Close Readings of Documentary Film and Video (Wayne State University Press, 1998) and has served as editor-in-chief of the four-volume Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film.

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Copyright © 2016 by Robin Wood.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016908514

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5245-0375-8

               Softcover       978-1-5245-0374-1

               eBook            978-1-5245-0373-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 07/05/2016

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The Fright of 1964

Alaska Novel

Robin Wood

Reviews From

Writer’s Digest International Self-Published Book Contest:

Dedication

This is dedicated to my mother Ann Leslie, who lived through the Anchorage earthquake, and helped me with her memories. She just died at 101 years old. I didn’t get the book finished in time, to my regret.

Research credit goes to:

Anchorage Daily News

The Alaskan Quake booklet by J & H sales of Spenard, Alaska

Diane Tanguy, for gathering information when I had a question and giving suggestions. She works at Prudhoe Bay

Dear Reader,

The story in this book has been a long time coming. I’ve been collecting information for years. On the fiftieth anniversary of the Anchorage, Alaska earthquake in 1964, my daughter, Diane Tanguy brought newspapers from Anchorage, gave them to me and said it’s time to write the story. The story has been writing itself for all these years and now it has been put on paper (finally).

Sincerely,

Robin Wood

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Reviews From

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter: 1 Before The Quake On 4th Avenue

Chapter: 2 Before The Quake On ‘Turnagain By The Sea’

Chapter: 3 Aftermath On 4th Avenue

Chapter: 4 Turnagain By The Sea - After The Quake

Chapter: 5 Clean-Up On 4th Avenue

Chapter: 6 What’s Happening On Turnagain By The Sea

Chapter: 7 4th Avenue - Tomorrow Is Another Day

Chapter: 8 Turnagain By The Sea - We’re Alive

Chapter: 9 4th Avenue - So We’ll Eat Today

Chapter: 10 Turnagain By The Sea – What Now?

Chapter: 11 4th Avenue Repairs

Chapter: 12 Turnagain By The Sea – Clean-Up

Chapter: 13 4th Avenue – Relatives Go Home

Chapter: 14 Turnagain By The Sea — Depression

Chapter: 15 4th Avenue - Noise

Chapter: 16 Turnagain By The Sea - Light In The Tunnel

Chapter: 17 4th Avenue – Confirm Noises

Chapter: 18 Turnagain By The Sea – A Way Out?

Chapter: 19 4th Avenue - Solutions

Chapter: 20 Turnagain By The Sea- Spring Planting

Chapter: 21 4th Avenue - Can You Hear It?

Chapter: 22 Turnagain By The Sea - Not Again!!!

Chapter: 23 4th Avenue - What Happened?

Chapter: 24 Turnagain By The Sea – Try Again !

Chapter: 25 4th Avenue – Stop That God-Awful Noise

Chapter: 26 Turnagain By The Sea - Green Is Our Thing

Chapter: 27 4th Avenue – Investigators

Chapter: 28 Turnagain By The Sea – Missed Oppertunity

Chapter: 29 4th Avenue – Someone Needs Rescuing?

Chapter: 30 Turnagain By The Sea – Contimplation

Chapter: 31 Rescue Planning

Chapter: 32 The Rescue

Chapter: 33 4th Avenue – The Hole Closes

Clarification Of Bedroom Noises

Prologue

Fifty years ago on Good Friday of March 27, 1964 at 5:36 P.M. Alaska had one of the worst earthquake recorded in the history of the world, next to Chile with a 9.5 in 1960. A magnitude of 8.6 later upgraded to a 9.2 hit Anchorage, Alaska, causing extreme damages to the city, outlying villages and towns. 4th Avenue in Anchorage dropped at least 30 feet below road level. Buildings were demolished or damaged beyond repair.

One tavern on 4th Avenue had a patron sitting on his bar stool when it and he fell into the basement filled with refreshments meant for the bar upstairs. When found unharmed, he thought he’d gone to heaven and it wasn’t such a bad place for an old reprobate like him after all.

In a hotel room a person was showering in her bathroom and came out after the shaking stopped to find only a few feet of her room left and she was standing wrapped in a towel

My folks had a business at the end of 4th Avenue where only the front business end of the building fell four feet down, splitting the building in half. The living quarters were now upstairs with a patio where the loading dock had been between the two areas.

I’m placing my fictional women characters, Kitti Hoyt and her grandmother, Iola Hoyt there as I’m familiar with that area.

The area hardest hit was the upscale community of Turnagain By The Sea. This was a beautiful place, with its trees and tucked-away homes, landscaped to blend with the native plants that overlooked Knik Arm. It was here where Cook Inlet splits into Knik Arm and Turnagain Arm.

These homes, in their peaceful setting, fell forty or more feet sliding into the mudflats of Cook Inlet waiting for a twenty foot tide to come back in for more devastation. Some homes fell into fissures wide enough to devour them and in some cases closed back up again hiding the rubble.

I’m placing my fictional male character, Senator Joe Lindau and his two children, Gaar and Patricia there at Turnagain By The Sea.

As I write this my mother is now 101 years old, she remembers it as if it were yesterday. My brother was out on Adak. My nephew was celebrating his birthday when the tsunami warning came, so the birthday cake and presents went with them up to higher ground. They didn’t get hit hard, but many other cities and towns were wiped out by that tsunami, as far down as some beaches in California.

I was here in Washington State and had to worry, with only the newspaper and TV station to tell us what was going on. The Red Cross finally contacted my Aunt Louise (mom’s sister) who promised to inform the rest of our family that they were okay.

I have since visited these sites and seen the devastation and rebirth of Anchorage. Although quakes are a common occurrence in Alaska, the people who live there, love the area and just hang on when one occurs.

Fifty years is a long time to remember this terrible time, so I want to give credit to the Anchorage Daily News, The day the world fell to pieces, and the Alaskan Quake booklet by J & H Sales of Spenard, Alaska, for information and research to start my fictional story. I, also, checked with my mother, Ann Leslie, on what she remembered. I need to give credit to my daughter, Diane Tanguy for the research she did for this book while she worked up at Prudhoe Bay.

Chapter #1

Before The Quake On 4th Avenue

Kitti had carved some pieces in highly polished, beautiful wood. What she was carrying now was a portable table for her grandmother. Her Grandmother, Iola Hoyt, loved to sit on the loading bay with the doors open. Here she could look out over the small parking lot for Kitti’s customers and the dirt path, now covered with snow, going up to 5th avenue, where flowers were planted on the terraced bank during the summer months.

Of course there were no flowers at this time of the year. It was Good Friday today on March 26th, a little early this year. Kitti took the folding table over to her grandmother where she sat rocking in her chair dressed as if she was going to the North Pole. Thank God, Granny Iola was still sitting there. At times in her early signs of dementia, she would disappear on Kitti. It might have been the snow still on the ground that kept her rocking in the open door area.

Granny Iola, see what I brought you today? It’s a magic folding table. See how it folds out. Kitti demonstrated how the table folded out, her long black hair swirled in front of her face as she bent over. Now you can set your coffee on it while you rock. Kitti set a cup of coffee on it poured from her thermos for her diminutive grandmother

Her grandmother just nodded, eyes staring blankly ahead.

Just then the bell rang in the front store area of the building.

I’ve got a customer, Granny. Enjoy your coffee.

No response. Kitti opened the door to her shop from the loading dock.

A young fellow was in the shop.

How may I help you? asked Kitti, shutting the door behind her.

I heard you had some lovely carved pieces of wood and scrimshaw ivory here.

I do. Would you like to look around or should I show you some of the pieces I’ve carved. I don’t do the scrimshaw. It’s on consignment.

Kitti walked over to one of her favorite pieces. I made a puzzle in the bottom of this tray. The fish has to go in just right or it won’t fit. With her black eyes snapping with humor, she demonstrated the highly polished piece and how the fish fit.

The man touched the fish, loving the silkiness of the feel. This is really exquisite. He checked the price. Ouch, he thought to himself. May I see some of the other things you’ve done?

Kitti showed him a porpoise on the table along with other carved pieces, a grumpy walrus, a slick seal stretching its neck, a fish waving its tail and a grizzly bear swiping a fish out of a river. Just a few riffles of the river showed. He picked up the seal and stroked it as he looked around the shop.

He had seen the huge bear in her shop window, presumably carved with a power saw, as he drove up. In a glass case were most of the scrimshaw pieces. On the back wall, as you came in, was a large moose head that stared intimidating you. A few other heads were preserved on the walls. Her Dall sheep’s head, with its curled horns, was strikingly white among the wooden pieces on display. The polished horns, shinning black and brown picked up the wood colors.

I’ll take this seal as I seem to be attached to it. It feels like it’s stretching its neck as I stroke it.

Kitti grinned, her eyes twinkling, My pieces do that to me too. I love to carve and my pieces react to that I think. She rang up his sale and he departed. A nice young man, she thought. With his baring, he might be from Elmendorf Air Force Base.

It was time to check on granny. It was after 4:00 closing time anyway. She locked the front door to the shop and turned the CLOSED sign over. Turning she went out the back door near the moose head where the loading dock was, locking that door behind her.

She turned to find Granny Iola still sitting and rocking nonchalantly, staring at the snow. Her coffee cup was still cradled in her hands. The table was taken apart and laid in pieces at her feet. The wing nuts were scattered about.

Kitti started picking up the wing nuts. You didn’t like the table I made for you?

Granny shrugged. I wanted to see how it went together, but I forgot about it as a bird flew into our feeder. It’s the first bird of spring, brave soul.

Kitti finished picking up all the pieces of the table and the wing nuts and placed them on a shelf with the rest of her supplies. Her carving bench was along one wall with well lit lights, tools on the pegboard and a small shelf with her oils and stains. Drawers for sandpaper, cotton rags, pencils and drawing paper were on either side of her swivel chair. Burlap was in a box for when she needed to polish a piece after she burnt it with a torch. Kitti loved this area. She didn’t need a window for her dark area. Her pieces lit it up for her.

It’s time to eat, Granny Iola. I’ve got a good moose stew in the iron Dutch oven and because it is Good Friday, I baked a cake earlier for dessert. It has blue colored, vanilla frosting that you like best with raspberry jam in the center layer

Granny weaved to her feet. I like cake, but where did you get the moose meat? That old Tankman doesn’t clean it properly.

I traded it for one of my carvings. It looked good enough to me and the hind quarter was clean. I cut it up and froze the rest. I boiled up the bones with some onions for stock. It was quite good when I tasted it.

She turned to help granny into the house part of their building. Didn’t you smell it cooking a few days ago?

Granny Iola glanced at her. Could have. Didn’t care, I guess. She looked down to see where her feet were going.

Kitti helped her up to the eating counter before she checked the stew. When she removed the lid, the smell made her mouth water. When it was cold outside, stew made the day brighter. How granny could sit by the bay door all day, even dressed for it, and didn’t freeze her butt off, she didn’t know. Granny’s other place to sit was their picture window that looked out on the bank going up to 5th Avenue. It was just snow now, but in the summer it was pretty with flowers, although then the mosquitoes ate you alive if you went outside. Kitti grinned to herself. The mosquito was jokingly considered the Alaska state bird. It was so big you had to keep your baby covered when outside so it wouldn’t carry it away.

Stew’s done. Let me fill your bowl and rip off a piece of bread I baked earlier. Like I said, I made a cake and frosted it. It’s in the refrigerator to eat later.

She passed the bread to granny. It was their privilege to always rip the first loaf of bread apart as they both like the crust of fresh baked bread and it went so well with the stew. Granny tore into it and took off a healthy chunk plastering it with butter. Kitti set the bowl of stew in front of her and watched as granny dumped catsup into the stew and then dunked the bread. Catsup, ugh! She thought.

Then it was her turn. It was so good. She watched granny finish hers. Granny slid off the stool to put her dish in the sink. She started to wobble. Kitti jumped up to help her. That’s when she felt it.

An earthquake!

She yelled Earthquake. Get into the bathtub, Granny.

Granny knew what to do and headed for the bathroom taking her plate with her. Kitti followed her to make sure she made it. Granny more or less fell into the bathtub with her blanket she hadn’t removed when she came inside to eat. Kitti stood in the doorway. She didn’t want to close the door as it might stick and she wouldn’t be able to get granny out again.

The quake was so strong she fell to her knees and quickly straightened her legs to brace against the casing. As she watched, her heart beating a mile a minute, their TV on the cart with wheels ran back and forth across the room. The catsup and food left on the counter flew around the room, spewing catsup everywhere which now resembling a murder scene. Chairs tipped over, plaster dropped from the ceiling, while pictures on the wall swung back and forth with a few falling to the floor. There was a huge cracking and banging in the front of the building. Kitti knew there was damage to her store front. She turned to look as the big picture window cracked, but hadn’t fallen fall out.

How much longer was this going on? It seemed like forever. The electricity went out but the snow outside reflected back light. There was another huge shake and an earsplitting crash, then, all was silent. The world kept spinning, but there was no noise. Just silence.

Granny Iola was moaning.

Kitti didn’t move, but asked in a shaky voice. Are you all right, Granny?

Granny peeked over the edge of the bathtub. Is it over?

I think so, but let’s stay where we are for a few minutes in case of after shocks.

Well, I’m comfortable where I am. If I had a pillow, I could sleep here.

Kitti gingerly got to her feet. Here, have a few towels. That should help, while I see how things have fared. Stay here, because of after shocks. As you know, this is where we keep all of our emergency supplies for times like this; there is bottled water, food supplies and extra medical equipment.

She left gingerly to check out the damage the earthquake left in its path.

Chapter #2

Before The Quake On ‘Turnagain By The Sea’

Gaar and Patty-cake, have you finished packing the stuff you want to have while we’re in Juneau. The government session will probably last for six weeks. Joe Lindau may be a Senator, but he was also the father of a boy and a girl who had to follow him wherever he went. Their mother, Ellen had died in a skiing accident at Mount Alyeska’s ski resort out of Anchorage.

Gaar responded, Do you think they will still have snow down there? Should I pack our ski clothes?

Joe shook his head. So much to remember when the kids had to relocate every time he was in session. Thank God the schools were cooperating, when he had to switch them back and forth. Take your ski clothes anyway. It will still be cold there.

Would they be ready by tomorrow morning bright and early? He had to fly out and be there by 10:00 am, plus, get the kids settled in their home away from home. Patricia came over and put her arms around her dad’s waist. Do we have to go, Daddy?

Yeah, Patty-cake, we do. I’m gone too long to be away from you and we’ve made all these arrangements with your school, so we can’t disappoint them now can we?

Patricia looked thoughtful, I do like my room down in Juneau. You painted it such a pretty pink. I like pink. Can I take my Monopoly game? I’m learning to count real good.

Sure, honey. Just keep the packing to your one suitcase. Our plane isn’t a big airliner. God, when did he do the rest of his packing? During the night when everyone was asleep as usual. How he missed his wife when it came to needing an extra hand. He could hire housekeeper and babysitters, but when it came to packing, it was every man for himself. No one else knew what each person needed.

Joe rubbed his forehead making his dark hair stand up. They had done this numerous times now, but it still was a challenger. He went to the stove to put on tomato soup and grill some cheese sandwiches. He didn’t want to leave a mess for six weeks and maybe longer if they had to go into an extra session for some reason. He was wondering if he should run for another election or just stay home with his kids and be a lawyer.