Making Do or Doing Without!, An Alaskan's Autobiography from 1952-1958

By Bill Richardson

“The net’s full of fish so keep it tight and away from that riptide or we’ll lose them! What do you mean a spark plug broke? Quick get a similar one from the outboard and re-gap it.”
The food freighter with our winter supply of canned goods is going to be at least three weeks late. It’s a good thing our freezer is full of clams, crabs, fish, caribou and moose meat.
“Olay kids, here’s a letter stating that our mail-order winter clothes won’t get shipped until mid-October. So bundle up in your old clothes and get to school before you freeze.”
The handle just broke and we need to split firewood tonight, but a replacement is five miles away and there’s a blizzard blowing.
I’ve had the above and a lot more happen to me so I thought I’d share~:)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bill Richardson
• Release date: Jul 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9780997998733

Bill Richardson

Bill Richardson, winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and former CBC Radio personality, is the author of numerous books for both adults and children, including plays, poetry, and fiction.

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Preface

Surviving in the territory of Alaska meant you had a lot of sacrifices! Why? The services and most of the conveniences the Stateside folks were used to having just were not available here nor even wanted at times.

We were pioneers and pathfinders who preferred to a make do attitude with a minimum of resources; or found a way to do without them; or to create them. Not everyone wanted, or even desired to have a general store, or other conveniences to be nearby.

Many of the items that weren’t available then, but are now taken for granted, included daily mail delivery; fast telephone service; decent roads that weren’t graded or well-paved; flush toilets; indoor running water; timely freight systems; current national and local news; television; electricity; fresh eggs; fresh fruits, and more!

Many services were not available where you lived in Alaska’s six unique regions: the Arctic; the Interior; the Western; the Southwestern; the Southcentral; and South-eastern. Each region still has its uniqueness: languages; weather; types of folks; remoteness; lifestyles; animals; fish; politics; natives; etc.

It took considerable effort for most folks to endure many years of individual and group challenges before receiving any modern services. And how? You Made do with what you got, or you did without!

It’s easy to say, but it still isn’t an easy thing to do!

Chapter 1

The Exciting Journey Begins

Our truck was an example of Making do or doing without. Most trucks were faster, bigger or even smaller, roomier, and much warmer than ours. This truck was so slow, very slow, but it was always reliable and slugged along with a heavier load than it was rated to carry!

That one-ton stake bed 1949 GMC Jimmy truck, with its grey painted cab, two saddle gasoline tanks, a set of dual rear tires, and a gas engine was a hard worker. It was just the truck for such an arduous and long journey.

Four of us were going to Alaska from Springfield, Oregon: our father, Don; our mother, Margaret; my nine year old sister, Rene’ (that is how her name is spelled); and myself, Bill, an eight year old short fellow.

Everything, whether it was in a cardboard box, or a barrel, was filled with family items, or general goods, or antiques to be sold up North. Each container was tightly packed, closed and loaded to just above the truck's cab roof. The wooden sideboards that had been set into the holes along the edges of the truck’s bed kept the goods from falling off.

Several strong flour barrels, the size of 55-gallon fuel drums, were great containers. The sides were made of a dense paper fiber material and had a metal lid on the bottom. The metal tops were removable and were held in place with a metal snap band. Road dust couldn’t get into the barrels but it did get into most of the boxes and into our camper trailer.

The spaces between the barrels were crammed with blanket-wrapped goodies like rifles, bed rails, and such. If an item wouldn’t fit in after several tries it didn’t go to Alaska! The loading process was an example of Making do or doing without!

Heavy-duty canvas tarps covered the entire load so it would be protected from the general weather, however the road dust still made its way into many of the boxes.

Even during the very cold winter when the dirt road had hard packed snow over it, a lot of dust was thrown into the air by the moving trucks, snow plows, and cars. If it hadn't been for those tight coverings and strong ropes everything would have gotten very dirty.

The grayish-colored road dust covered everything inside the trailer including the dishes. That gritty pollutant was still a messy problem for many months after we arrived in Alaska.

In addition to a heavy load, the truck also pulled a 20-foot trailer house! The trailer’s heater and the cook stove both utilized propane gas so usually, it didn’t take long for the heater to warm up the trailer, nor for the stove to work. What a great refuge the trailer became to get warm, eat, or sleep in on that dark, slow, and cold winter journey.

Many of our breakfasts were either hot cornmeal or oatmeal mush with milk and sugar. The milk was another Make do, or do without item. Dairy milk, and eggs were very expensive items and weren’t easy to find so it was out of the question to use them. We’d mix powdered milk with water and were glad to have it for our easy to fix food!

Chapter 2

The Canadian Trip Begins

As soon as we entered into southern Canada, north of Blaine, Washington, the truck's two saddle fuel tanks were filled up. The truck’s fuel was cheaper in southern B.C., Canada than it was in Washington State. We sure didn’t want to get stranded in the wild north country, or the Boonies, because we were out of gasoline so the truck's tanks got topped off frequently!

North of Blaine and through the Fraser River area up to Dawson Creek the roads were in great condition as they were plowed down to the pavement. The towns were not far from each other so there was lots of traffic coming and going.

The farther north we went the less daylight there was and the day and night temperatures kept getting lower and lower. The dark nights were now much longer, and we were going slower due to the many long hills.

Even on the flat stretches our heavy load kept us at a slow pace so the traffic went quickly past us. That was okay as our truck wasn't designed for speed.

When we were north of Dawson Creek, where the actual ALCAN Highway starts, there were few spots to get gasoline or anything else. The Alaskan Milepost© was helpful in finding out where the roadhouses and gas pumps were. We stopped at many places along the route but a roadhouse wasn't always open during the cold winter so its comforts were missed a lot. Stretching our legs was important too.

$1.00 was a lot of money back then!

2 way Mileage Table & Highway Accommodations

Chapter 3

A Very Cold Fort St. John, B.C.

We finally made it to Dawson Creek, B. C. which was about 70 miles south of Fort St. John. My folks took pictures of the many mileposts that were at the starting point of the ALCAN Highway. Each post has the name of a town or city on it and how many miles or kilometers it was to that particular place.

One pole sign had Fort St. John written on it and that's where we were headed so away we went. When we left Dawson Creek the temperature was well below the freezing point of 32o F., or 0o C.

After arriving just south of Fort St. John our father did as he usually would and parked the trailer for the night. The next morning's sky was completely clear of clouds and with a bluish tone. At the surface a dense ice fog had mixed with lots of the wood and furnace smoke because of an inversion layer.

The smoke barely flowed above the chimney tops, and was stopped by that temperature inversion. Instead of a tall column of smoke it got turned into a very long bluish horizontal line.

The inside of our trailer was cold and the propane heater had stopped operating so we had to quickly put on more of our cold weather clothes. As Mom got the food items ready Dad went outside to check that the truck's engine was still running.

He hurried back into the trailer two or three minutes later and, after quickly closing the door stated, I’ve never felt such cold in my life. He said our thermometer had bottomed out at a minus 50 below!

Not only had the propane heater quit working during the cold night, but Mom couldn’t get the propane stove’s burners to stay lit. It wasn’t until many days later it was learned that propane won’t form a usable gas if the temp is below a minus 10oF!

The liquid that wasn’t frozen was in our parents Thermos jug and that had coffee in it. It was a Make do, or do without event. Dad pulled out a Coleman gas stove and pumped up the pressure in its fuel tank, and then lit both of its burners.

Mom had found a few ice cubes in the small fridge and put them in a saucepan. The pan was set on a lit burner and the ice was soon melted. Some corn meal was stirred in with some salt and, voila! We all ate corn meal mush for breakfast and the folks had hot coffee.

With the heat from the Coleman’s two burners the trailer started to warm up, but the floor was still cold. In a few minutes the trailer door was opened just enough to let some fresh air in to keep the stove’s fumes from hurting us.

After a quick breakfast the stove was shut off and the trailer’s heater was also turned off just in case it started while driving into town. The engine had been running all night so it was ready, but those cold truck tires weren’t.

As was typical in the subzero weather the truck's and trailer’s rubber-based tire were flat on their bottoms. If they hadn't been moving for a few hours we had to move very slow for several miles. The bumpiness went away as the tires warmed up and they became round again. It took a few times of that occurring before we understood what was happening.

The engine was rarely shut off during the rest of our drive and that was usually for checking the oil.

That was a Make do or do without event as there wasn't an electric head bolt heater for keeping the engine warm at night. There were many roadhouses that had plugs for the heaters but that didn't matter.

Chapter 4

Bye Bye, Fort St. John

We drove into town and topped off the gas tanks, bought some groceries, and got clear directions on how to get to the next town. Finally, after an unusually slowly beginning, we trudged out of Fort St. John and onto the road. It was our typical cold weather start as the rear axle's oil could get real stiff in any below zero weather.

We all sat very close to each other which helped us to keep warm, but sometimes the truck's heater couldn't keep up with the sub-zero cold. It was time for another Make do or do without moment in figuring out how to stay warm. Since we had little room in the truck’s cab a regular blanket was too big and also Dad needed lots of room to shift gears.

Finally, we found a small dinner table cloth that the three of us could wrap around our legs. Dad moved as he was steering, double-clutching and shifting, so he didn’t get cold like we did. Many times we just yakked to keep awake, especially to keep him awake.

The rough snow-packed dusty narrow road had lots of tight and blind curves. You hoped no one was coming your way when you got to some of them. Time seemed to slow way down then, not just because the end of our trailer might be passing into the oncoming lane and hit them. Or they might hit us!

The ALCAN from Dawson to Tok was a narrow two lanes. At times there were U.S. Army convoy heading north and many civilian semi-tractor rigs hauling freight to the north country.

Those same freight trucks would make a return trip in a few