It is difficult to say goodbye to a special family Christmas and pick up the everyday tasks I dropped two or three weeks ago. I’m moving in that direction, albeit slowly.
I spent the day with Daughter yesterday while she had nose surgery. She had broken her nose two months ago, but it had not healed. In fact, it was still moving around and pinching nerves. She came through with flying colors.
Today is about the much more mundane things around the house—washing, ironing (?), catching up on emails, etc. But, I am not ready to take down the Christmas decorations. I am still enjoying them and unwilling to end Christmas 2010.
One of my favorite things about Christmas is the music. Last Sunday afternoon, Anchorage Lutheran Church held an All Community Sing, complete with the Glacier Brass and the Handbell Choir. What a pleasurable interlude, as is the following from the Gloucester Cathedral Choir.
My Christmas music memories then travel back to high school and the Winfield High School Chorus and Orchestra Christmas concert. Every year my favorite was Twas the Night Before Christmas sung by the Mixed Chorus. The following is from the University of Utah Combined Singers.
Now, for a bit of levity. This version of the Hallelujah Chorus is my current absolute favorite!
This fall semester Ms. Heather Pelletier at Palmer Middle School has used the Stock Market Game with the students in her 6th, 7th, and 8th grade computer science classes—4 classes and 26 teams.
As students work to increase their typing speed to 30 words per minute, they learn about word processing, making spreadsheets, using graphics, and conducting internet research. Students put these skills to use as they become acquainted with stocks and the stock market. They research companies, track company sales and earnings growth rates, and plot share price changes while they build a diversified portfolio of at least 5 investments using their virtual $100,000. They then monitor their portfolio’s performance, build a watch list, and make any needed changes. Like all endeavors, some students have been more successful than others; they have outperformed the S&P 500 Index by 23 percent and underperformed it by 17 percent. But everyone has increased their knowledge of how the economy and the stock market work.
Palmer Middle School, located in Palmer, Alaska, is part of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District; Palmer Middle School has 37 teachers working with approximately 670 students in grades 6 through 8.
The Mat-Su School District covers nearly 25,000 square miles (an area larger than West Virginia), administers 44 schools ranging in enrollment from 12 to 1,200 students, and serves a total 17,000 students.
Palmer, a town of 5,343 residents, is 42 miles northeast of Anchorage in the Matanuska Valley. Palmer and the Mat Valley have a distinct history. The following is excerpted from Turkey Red’s Complimentary Collector’s Menu; Turkey Red is one of my favorite good-food restaurants.
“The Matanuska Valley has a long and varied history. Its first inhabitants were the Dena’ina, a group of Athabaskan Indians. Their rich culture and oral tradition were based on their relationship with the land. Also good businessmen, they established a trading network with other Athabaskan groups in South Central Alaska—even trading with the Tlingets of the Panhandle. Furs, fish, copper, and roots were traded.
The placement of a railroad spur to the coal fields at Chickaloon opened up the fertile land on the east side of the valley. Within one year—1915—all land available for homesteading was staked. World War I, rugged conditions and a limited market caused many farms to be abandoned. The Alaska Railroad sent M.D. Snodgrass Stateside to encourage families to settle in the Valley; many did come and establish good farms, but the Depression halted the program.
In 1935, when the government started its program, two hundred and three families were selected from Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin. One family was from Oklahoma. The families from Minnesota were transported to Alaska on the St. Mihiel, a World War I U.S. Army troop transport ship. Later the Wisconsin and Michigan families were sailed north. Of all the families, chicken pox infected 6 of them, requiring quarantine. These families were transported on the North Star, along with the colony animals, materials and equipment. The bell from the St Mihiel now hangs in the bell tower located near the Colonist Monument.
It was assumed the majority of these people would be familiar with farming in very cold regions. Arriving in May 1935, the Colonists drew for tracts of land, chose a home plan, and began to settle the area. They were required to sign a thirty-year note for the land, house, and other items. Transient workers built the community center and homes while the Colonists lived in tents. As winter approached, Colonists were allowed to help in the construction of their homes so that everyone would be housed by freeze-up. The structures they build can be seen, in part, in Colony Village.
The Colony opened up the Matanuska Valley, established Palmer and created huge amounts of publicity for Alaska. When war broke out in 1941, the colonists’ fields provided food for the soldiers at the Air Force Base and Fort Richardson. At last, those families who did stay—40% of the original 203 families—were able to make a new start.
Today, Palmer is a small established city. Knik and Matanuska are towns in memories and photographs. Dena’ina families with Russian names still live in the Valley. A few of the original settlers from the early part of the century continue to call the area home as do their descendants. Many of the original colonists and their children live here—some still on their original farms. Together with new families, they are participants in the future of the Valley, and therefore, its new history.”
Today, Palmer offers golfing, fishing, hiking, glacier trekking, white-water rafting, and ATV and horseback riding in the summer and in the winter ice skating, snow-shoeing, dogsled mushing, cross country skiing, and snow machining at Hatcher Pass and the surrounding area. At any time of the year one can simply go sight-seeing to enjoy and photograph the roadside attractions, such as Hatcher Pass, Pioneer Peak, Knik Glacier, Matanuska Peak, and the Matanuska Glacier.
The first fair was held on the school grounds in 1936 from September 4th to the 7th. This coincided with the opening of the Knik River Bridge that linked Anchorage and Palmer by road for the first time. Previously, the train had been the only transportation link. The Alaska State Fair continues to grow in popularity; this year approximately 300,000 people attended the 10-day event and viewed the 8,000 exhibits and checked out and purchased the goods and services of 500 vendors.
The Alaska State Fair, the Mat-Su Valley, the Stock Market Game, and publicly traded companies—Coke, John Deere, Ford, Apple, Intel—are more closely related than it might seem. I have sipped a Coke as I strolled through the Fair exhibits; I have seen a farmer standing in his field using an iPhone to check the market or to talk to his customers—Safeway and Kroger—about his current supply of carrots, lettuce, turnips, broccoli, and cabbages. And the students in Ms. Pelletier’s computer classes have researched and purchased shares of Coke, Apple, and Intel for their Stock Market Game portfolios. They are learning about the interconnectedness of the Palmer area, the economy, and the stock market.
While doing the research for my blog post, Eielson: The Stock Market Game in Alaska, I discovered Eielson’s 18th Aggressor Squadron. Its pilots and F16s are awesome; they are among the finest combat pilots in the U.S. Air Force. Eielson AFB conducts RED FLAG-Alaska, a 10-day, aerial combat training exercise held three times a year. The 18th Aggressor Squadron provides the threat (the enemy) for the combat pilots. The following 5-part video is amazing and sobering for those of us who are far removed from the realities of “engagement.” Each video is about 10 minutes and worth watching on many different levels.
Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag
Part 1. The fighter pilot is off to his first Operation Red Flag. RED FLAG is an advanced aerial combat training exercise. This series takes place at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada rather than at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska.
Part 2.Operation Red Flag embodies the precision, complexity, and chaos of a real battle situation.
Part 3: In advanced aerial combat training, the hunter can become the hunted. It is also about hitting ground targets, air refueling, and air craft maintenance.
Part 4: Each RED FLAG exercise strives to exceed combat conditions for the ground crew, ground forces, and pilots. All components are there including the rescue of a downed pilot in enemy territory.
Part 5: On the final day of a RED FLAG exercise they use live ordnance. Everything is for real. This requires true life and death team building. RED FLAG is about training and saving lives. The parting words: “Being a fighter pilot is the best job on earth” and “Going to war is worse than anything you can possibly imagine.”
