I went to Mountain Village on the 23rd of December with my granddaughter, Veronica. We went down by plane to spend Christmas, New Year's and Slavic with my family and friends. Everyone couldn't wait to see Veronica. She was just two months old then. On Christmas Eve, we went to midnight mass and then we went home to open presents. They had New Year's games, but I didn't get to go. I watched the brilliant fireworks display, though. The fireworks went on for an hour or so and were the fanciest and longest I've ever seen. For me and my husband, Christmas went by too fast.

During Slavic, when the star was brought to my mom's house, there were not as many singers as there are here. The only people who were following the star were the singers because the kids were in school. They only had a big star, and there was no little star. They didn't stay very long in the houses either.

Another thing that happened down at Mountain Village was that they dedicated the school cafeteria in honor of Betty Peterson on January 14, at 7:00 p.m. Betty retired from being the head cook at Mountain Village School. Afterwards they had refreshments and fiddling, featuring the St. Mary's band.

We didn't get to do much outside during the vacation because it was always cold. I really wanted to go ice fishing, but it was just too cold out. People were wondering if I was going back to work in Marshall because I stayed in Mountain Village so long. We finally came home on January 17. By then everyone at Mountain was already back to work at the school.

Tom Andrew
Teacher

Tom Andrew was born at Bethel in 1958. He grew up in Marshall and went to school at Bethel Regional High school.

He went to college at Anchorage Community College then at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. He studied Air Traffic Control in Anchorage and Education at the Fairbanks campus.

He has been working here for three years and says that he doesn't know when he is going to quit.

Before getting the job, he went through four and a half years of teacher training. After getting the job, he takes an occasional class to stay certified.

He says that the kids keep him stimulated. He also says that the best and worst thing about his job is the kids.

He has a family of four kids and a wife.

Maurice Turet

The first thing he did during the summer was get his boat ready for fishing. During the summer he only went to Russian Mission, Pilot Station, and Owl Slough on boat rides. He didn't travel much because he didn't have enough money to buy gas, where he earned a little extra money.

He watched the people build the new teacher apartment which is where he was going to live. And he also met the people who built the apartment.

Since he was going to teach in Marshall, he had to move twice this past summer, first from Emmonak to Marshall, then from Monica's old house to the new teacher house. Now he has a new house to go along with his new baby girl.

"Summer started out as usual for me, but with little hope of having enough water on the Yukon to commercial fish and to travel on. My hopes for higher salmon prices were also dampened by hearing about the fish farms flooding the market with farmed salmon. This made getting ready for commercial fishing not as exciting as it had been in other years. We had hoped to have a good summer of fishing and then to put away a lot of dried salmon for the winter. However, many of these "noble" goals weren't met.

In June, we started commercial fishing. We knew that "most" of the King salmon had already passed because they were early this year. Spring was also about two weeks early. Many days before we had our commercial fish opening, everyone was expecting low fish prices. That prediction came out pretty accurate. We had our lowest salmon prices since before the '70's. And the fish price did not change. That was the pits! Our local and regional economy was extremely low for the first time that I can remember. We all had a very poor summer. On the "flip-side," however, we had the largest number of marriages in Marshall ever in a single season.

When July came I was selected by our parish priest to be ordained as a Subdeacon. On July 11, 1996, I was ordained in Russian Mission by the Bishop at the Annual Russian Orthodox Yukon conference.

My summer felt too short. I wish that it felt a lot longer. But don't we all wish it were that way!"

By: Tom Andrew

Interview by: Jack George

During the summer Tom worked on his cabin for his boat. He said it took him two weeks to build the cabin on his boat. Another thing he had to do on his boat was repair the motor. He frequently had motor problems throughout the summer.

Tom did some fishing during the summer (both commercial and sport fishing). Tom's commercial fishing was poor. Because of motor problems, he had to come back to Marshall and he missed some openings. Another reason he did poorly was that he didn't hit the openings right. Tom's sport fishing experience was bum too. He went on several camping trips with his family back to Cuelenguq and to Kayakutaq. But they didn't see anything except some birds.

During the summer Tom also traveled to several villages, including Russian Mission, Bethel, St. Mary's and Pitka's Point.

The thing he said he enjoyed most about his summer was going camping with his family.

By: Tom Andrew

Interviewed by: Garrett Evan

This summer my brother Tom fished with his uncle David, his friend Nathan, and other people who asked him. This summer there was a fire fighting step test that he took and passed by one point Tom patiently waited until there was a fire somewhere in Alaska His first job was between St. Mary's and Stebbins. They were closer to St Mary's than Stebbins. He told me how he fought the fire with burlap, water, and a certain kind of tool called a polaski. He said they traveled miles and miles to put the fire out. After a lot of hard work they all finally got the fire out They lived on m.r.e.'s (meals ready to eat) and water or juice. He said the trip was fun. After he came back I asked him a lot of questions. It sounded hard the way he told it to me but it wasn't that hard at all for him.

His second job was in Takotna and McGrath. I was home when he took off late that evening with his crew. They left around 1:00 in the morning. They took off in one of those small cargo planes that looked like an army plane. They stayed up in the Central part of the state for about two and a half weeks. One problem he talked about was bears. They even had to rum away from the fire because a brown bear was around the area they were fire fighting. After putting out the fire around Takotna and McGrath they all headed home. Tom mostly stayed home after that and did things he normally does. He went out on boat rides and hunted certain kinds of animals that my mom would cook. He spent time with his friends during the evenings. He mostly stuck around Gary Kameroff. They are best buddies. He misses Gary who is in Mt. Edgecumbe High school He also rode around with his four wheeler and did the usual flings he does during the summer.

Interviewed By: Marlene Papp
Marshall School

"As usual, I commercial fished for salmon this summer. Although we did not catch much, we tried to enjoy the summer.

This summer was different from any other in my entire life, though. With the help of other people like Andrew Boots, Fr. Dn. Nick Isaac, Sean Thompson and others, I volunteered to clean up and repaint the Orthodox church. Nick Andrew, Charlie Boots, Andy Boots, Fr. Dn. Nick Isaac and I also fixed up the Ohogamiut church which was another fun project. There we painted the inside of the church and did some decorating.

Besides working in the Orthodox church, I also volunteered to help in the new Roman Catholic church. I helped lay sheet rock and linoleum, fixed the doors and did other small odds and ends. This was my summer of volunteering.

I also helped our annual St. Vladimir and Yakov Youth Camp get organized in Ohogamiut. This meant fund raising, buying groceries, transportation of kids to and from the camp, and being one of the teachers. Our Youth Camp was special this year as our bishop came to be with the children. His presence was very enjoyable.

I encourage others to also volunteer their services to each other and to the organizations of good cause. We can't always be paid in money for the good work we do for one another."

Tony Tinker

"I stayed here in Marshall for Christmas. The thing I liked most about my Christmas vacation was going to the community Christmas program. My favorite part was when the Catholic choir were singing Christmas songs like Silent Night. And I also liked when they were giving out presents to the people.

I especially liked being invited to people's houses to have Christmas dinner. My husband Vernon and I have always enjoyed having Christmas dinner with other people. We used to do more things during the Christmas vacation but this year it has been too cold for me to go out."

Irene Evan

Like the Old Days

"Most of the vacation I prepared for Christmas day and the midnight mass at the new Roman Catholic Church. I also wrapped presents and cooked Native food for the Christmas dinner. It was like doing it in the old days. I was excited about both Christmas programs that were held at the school. I didn't do much sewing for my family this year, so they didn't have many presents from me."

Kathy Peteroff