Introduction
The facsimile book below was originally written and painted for Joyce Smith (my mother)
and her kindergarten class at Baker Cottage Baptist Mission (Ouzinkie Chapel). It
is based on scenes of Ouzinkie and Woody Island, Alaska, where my parents served
as missionaries. This project was part of a university class on children's literature.
The story panels and artwork (such as they are -
In the school year of 1962-
Ouzinkie is famous for its beautiful spruce trees, and Baker Cottage was surrounded with some of the largest trees in the village. The painting is based on the “fat tree,” which was a great climbing tree right at the border of the Mission property. Its site is now the middle of an intersection. The picture depicts a fight with shishkas (spruce cones), which we always called “sheeshkee wars.”
I loved to row boats in the evening when I was a kid, although I did most of my rowing
in lakes on Woody Island or in the bays around the various canneries and communities
we would visit with the Mission Boat Evangel. I also did my share of boat painting
as a kid. Notice the rowboat is propped up on empty “Blazo” boxes -
This scene is pure Ouzinkie. The beach depicted is right below the Russian Church (the “church hill”), and the attitude toward the pilots is as I remember it in those days. Of course, the Goose is done up in Kodiak Airways colors! Unfortunately Kodiak Airways is long gone, and the last Goose stopped flying commercially in Kodiak in the early 2000’s.
This page is based on the trail leading from the store to Baker Cottage and branching off to where the Andersons, Panamarioffs and Torsens lived, the way it looked in the 1960’s, before the roads were built. One winter, the trail was all glazed ice, and the kids could sled from Baker Cottage’s back porch all the way to the ramp in front of the store (about an eighth of a mile). At night we would strap flashlights to our sleds and keep sledding for hours. By the time I moved to Ouzinkie, only the old grandmothers still regularly wore scarves.
If wind or snow had not ruined the surface of the lakes, we would also do a lot of ice skating. This scene is based on Otherside Lake, about a mile behind Baker Cottage. The trail went right past our back porch. When it was just below freezing, with the moon out, that was classic skating weather, and we would stay out for hours. The guy sprawled out on the ice was me, likely as not. A little branch or piece of driftwood in the ice was an instant brake. We learned how to fall on different parts of our body, and keep the bruises on rotation!
The story continues on the next panel, if you’d like to come back to my comments after reading the panels!
This scene is Ouzinkie before the Tidal Wave of 1964. I never did much fishing, but sure appreciated the result. I got pretty good at cleaning the salmon and Dolly Varden trout that we could catch. The mountain beyond the fisherman is now almost completely covered in spruce trees. They say the spruce forests are advancing southward around Kodiak Island at the rate of almost a hundred feet a year. Afognak, Spruce Island, Woody Island and the Fort Abercrombie area of Kodiak were the first to get spruce trees over a hundred years ago.
The picture depicts a recipe for perok, Russian Alaskan for salmon pie. Layers of cooked white rice and filets of fresh salmon are interspersed with shredded cabbage, chopped hard boiled egg, bacon pieces and even chopped rutabaga, spiced liberally with salt and black pepper. This is all baked in a large rectangular loaf pan between pie crust. One three to four inch high square would be filling, but as a teenager I could down three pieces. Each family prides itself on its own perok recipe, and it is truly village soul food!
The story continues on the next panel, if you’d like to come back to my comments after reading the panels!
The local salmonberry crop on Woody Island and around Ouzinkie can be gigantic if
we get enough sunshine in mid-
This picture is based on the Otherside trail near Baker Cottage as it looked before the roads were put in and people no longer hiked past our back door. The particular section depicted in the painting is still good picking. It helped to provide enough berries for me to make two batches of salmonberry jam in August of 2004.
Once again there is a recipe in the picture. Fresh, slightly mashed salmonberries, covered with condensed milk, and a few spoonfuls of white sugar, became cheetuk, a popular local treat. Baker Cottage had an old shed like this one on its property until we tore it down in 1967. The tarpaper covering was typical even for homes until the 1970’s.
I did not write a great ending to this nostalgic tale, I’m afraid! I can tell I was more than a little homesick (and suffering from culture shock) when I painted this little children’s story more than forty years ago. Incidentally, I gave up watercolors shortly thereafter. I can’t really paint figures. But I hope the scenes give you an insight into what growing up in Ouzinkie was like in the 1960’s. It was a wonderful place to live, and I’m happy to say that it still is. There are roads now, but most of the island is still unspoiled, and the forests and beaches are as I remember them, except that the spruce trees are bigger and more numerous every year. And on my last visit (August 2007) I saw a lot of kids doing just what I wrote about in my story. So here’s to the village of Ouzinkie, Alaska, a great place to grow up!
The articles about Ouzinkie continue on the “Ouzinkie Articles Index Page,” and you’ll find a link at the bottom of this article.
Bonus Photos: My Massive Salmonberry Jam Operation of 2004
What Would I Do? ( A Children’s Book)
By Timothy Smith, 1974, latest revision in March, 2020
“What Would I Do?” – A Children’s Book
A Children’s Book About a Kid Who’s Homesick For Ouzinkie, Alaska
From a College Children’s Literature Project in 1974
I had the great privilege of being able to return to my home village of Ouzinkie several times in the last years of my Mom’s life. In 1998, my wife and I brought our kids for a memorable Christmas. And I returned several other times. But I was able visit with her on the last three summers of her life: 04, 05, and 06 (when I spent two weeks with her).
The building in the photo is Baker Cottage, where my parents served as missionaries
for almost fifty years. And all the berries were found on her two-
Step One: Find a good salmonberry patch. Lucky for Mom, there’s one within steps of her back porch! She was nearing her 87th birthday in this picture.
Step Two: Collect all the ripe berries. There was a huge patch behind, and to the right of me.
By the way, family lore says that Mom’s idea of heaven is a salmonberry patch, so I have some jam to look forward to!
Step Three: mix sugar, pectin, and a little lemon juice with mashed berries. We had to use an electric plate, because Mom’s ancient oil stove was not up to such sustained high heat! It’s a little boring and tedious at this stage.
Step Four: Boil the jars and lids, insert the jam, tighten the lids, and when they cool, you hear a sudden pop and the jar is sealed! That method does not use paraffin. Sharp eyes will notice a leftover and skimmings jar which is available immediately for testing purposes. The plate, knife, and smile on my face demonstrate that I’ve tasted and approved of the salmonberry jam harvest of 2004!
Somewhere in my notes is the actual recipe that Mom used for salmonberry jam, and when I find it, I’ll revise this article! When my wife Debbie and I retired to North Idaho in 2018, we made sure that the local plant nursery installed three salmonberry bushes in the back yard, as well as five blueberry bushes. So far only the blueberries have shown up, but we’ll see!
Thanks for reading my little children’s book! –Timothy Smith, March, 2020
The logo link above takes you to a downloadable version of my new novel, about a fictional village on an island in Marmot Bay, based heavily on the experiences of my childhood in Ouzinkie. My purpose was to share what village life was like in the days before fiber, phones, and ferry service.
Set in the school year of 1963-
As someone who was also raised in the village commented, “You’ve really captured the flavor of village life.” I certainly hope so!
For more on the village of Ouzinkie, including many more historic photos, please follow the links in the photos below.
To Find Out More About Tanignak.com, Click HERE
To Visit My “About Me” Page, Click HERE
To Return to Tanignak “Home,” Click the Logo Below:
Information from this site can be used for non-