More than you ever wanted to know about Alabama native Joe Watts
Found this photo in a box that I didn’t know existed in our basement. A couple of other small treasures in it as well. I’ll scan those in later. For those new to this blog, my Aunt Gladys (my father Clark Watts’ sister) lived in Alaska for years in the 1930’s – 1950’s. This must be one of the older photos of her. She was a school teacher.
Well, I’ve been rummaging about on an old hard drive and came across several dozen letters I wrote back in the late 1990’s. The following is a letter I wrote to my Aunt Gladys (I’ve mentioned her in my blog several times and included photos her husband, my Uncle Edward, took while they lived in Alaska in the 1940’s and 1950’s). You can see some of his old photos here and here.
Ann and I went to Alaska on a cruise for our honeymoon in 1997–one of the best trips of my life. Here’s the run-down:
I thought that I’d write to you about our adventures in Alaska. I enjoyed talking to you over the phone about them, but I thought that you would enjoy a slightly more detailed description of our trip.
On Saturday, we flew to Vancouver, British Columbia. I wish that we had more time to spend here, but we hurried to the ship. Riding through on a bus was interesting, however. It is a beautiful city and one that I hope to see again, and in more detail. We got on the ship down by the docks, just blocks from the downtown district. The ship was huge, 11 stories tall and 941 feet long. It was very nice and we went to our room to rest after the long flight.
We got up in time to watch as we sailed out of the Vancouver harbor. Leaving Vancouver was beautiful and we sailed past Stanley Park. It’s amazing to see that much green, undeveloped land in the middle of a city. I really liked that and would love to have time to explore the park some day.
The next day, we spent the entire day on the ship looking out at the mountains, which got larger and taller as we sailed north. There really wasn’t a lot to see on this day because we weren’t very near the shore. As a result, we saw mainly commercial fishing boats and sea gulls. It was nice though, because it gave us a chance to rest.
UPDATE: This was posted earlier as just a really cool photo my Uncle Edward Waddell took. Now, with the help of sister Suzanne, I’ve got a little more information: The little boy on the car in Alaska ( I believe) was either Jimmy or Billy Skinner. They lived in Alaska until Nathan was killed while working there. The child looks very much like a one of the Skinner boys.
Uncle Edward took this photo in 1952, from the looks of it in Alaska–or at least on a car with Alaska plates. I can’t begin to imagine how he took such stellar photographs. He always loved taking photos–I’d love to find a way to do something more meaningful with all his slides.
Ever since I can remember, my Aunt Gladys made chocolate chip cookies for me every Christmas. She passed away several years ago and hadn’t been able to make cookies for a few years before that, but every time I bite into a chocolate chip cookie, I think of her. There was really nothing like watching her pull those trays of cookies out of the oven.
She was one of those people that lived an amazing life, another of those folks from the greatest generation. She moved to Alaska before World War II and lived there for over 20 years. She taught school and met her husband (Uncle Edward) while in Alaska. They even used a dog sled to commute sometimes. This is her in an early photo (I have tray upon tray of Uncle Edward’s photos–his love of photography is something I picked up too). A different world…
Anyway, about 9 years ago, while working at Southern Progress (a publishing company that produces Cooking Light and Southern Living) I submitted a recipe for my Aunt Gladys’ Chocolate Chip cookies. It ran, along with a short story about her, in the book Christmas with Southern Living. I, of course, gave a copy to her and lots of family members–she was pleased. Nothing else on that for these 9 years, but then, just last week one of my sisters got the recipe in an email from her recipe a day email newsletter–lo and behold, there it was. Here’s a link: cookies