Chapter Thirteen in “Decades with the Squad,” by my late father, William Palmer Jervey, Jr. The central figure in this one could be quite a few different people. Getting hooked into hauling someone to the hospital who doesn’t need an ambulance is an ever-present possibility. Under the law we are not required to respond to […]
A trick of the light
I learned recently that my eyes are blue only in the sense that the sky and the ocean are blue. That is, they aren’t really. There’s a spot towards the front of the iris that, for most people, holds a bit of brown or other color of pigment. This section of my eyes, apparently, has […]
Writing it out
Picture this: I’m twenty years old and I’m writing in longhand. I’m homing in on a brilliant conclusion for a college writing assignment. My topic is to draw an analogy between the seasons of the year and the phases of a person’s life. I may be a baby who knows nothing of metaphorical evenings, but […]
Space-time continuum
Just a flick of the wrist, a click of the mouse, and one can fast-forward in time. A fifth grader showed me how. He approached my desk, eyes crinkled almost shut with the delight of discovery, and showed me the calendar app on his iPad. The display showed the month of April 2124. He waited […]
Here, there will be tables: The last leg (of the journey, that is)
Where was I? The Snowmachiner returned from his surveying trip and told me that he was ready to start for Togiak. I hastily called the Forklift Operator, who said he would have his employee Freddie meet the Snowmachiner there. I called the Snowmachiner back and gave him the green light, whereupon he hooked up his […]
Here, there will be tables: Part three of four
OK, so we were talking about my struggle to get two state-of-the-art classroom tables for Twin Hills School. We paused my most interesting narrative with the box of tables having arrived in Anchorage. Since there was apparently no way other than a snowmachine/sled combination to get said box directly to Twin Hills, I made it […]
Here, there will be tables: Part the second
When last we talked, I told you all about the process of ordering a pair of small group tables for Twin Hills School. When we left off, my tables had been packed up into one large box*, had left the factory in Texas with Freight Company A, and were chugging their way towards Southwestern Alaska. […]
Here, there will be tables
I admit it: when I took the job as principal/teacher at the Twin Hills (Alaska) school for the 2023-24 school year, I had an agenda. Well, several agendas. I had already visited Twin Hills school many times through my five-year job with the Department of Education, and I had a long list of items under […]
Rhubarb fever
Yum, yum, rhubarb! I recently arrived home to Craig Alaska, and I found my rhubarb going gangbusters, with leaves the size of pizza pans and stalks that look like they really mean business. I also found a pair of “just rhubarb” recipe books on my dining room table. Wonder who put them there? Regardless of […]
Strawberry triage
The other day while cleaning out a random cupboard, I started thinking about strawberries. This particular strawberry story comes from my recent year working at a bush Alaska school, and it goes like this: “I’m sorry,” said Jane from Food Service. “I’m sending you some fresh fruit for the school, and I just learned that […]