Back on July 7, 1958, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Alaska Statehood Act, my father Don Shellhorn was so excited, we built a big bonfire on the edge of the street near our Second Street home.
Dad arrived in Seward, Alaska at age 3 in 1915, along with the rest of the Shellhorn clan. His father, William Shellhorn, had been a lineman in Seattle, and installed the first phone system in Seward.
Dad moved to Cordova to work at the Cordova Commercial Company a few years after graduating from Seward High in 1931, with a background in the hardware and clothing business gained at the famous Brown and Hawkins store in Seward.
In 1958, at age 14, I was naive regarding the workings of government, but a bonfire sounded like a great idea, and Dad merrily puffed on his trademark pipe while we set it ablaze.
In fact, flying sparks of Half and Half tobacco, as he stoked his pipe, were a family tradition and a memory to this day. And the more excited he became, the bigger the cloud of smoke.
Dad loved Alaska and was particularly proud of the fact that he knew Benny Benson of Seward, who at age 13, won a 1927 contest to design the Alaska Flag.
Dad was rather artistic, and a plaque he created of the Alaska flag is mounted over the fireplace mantle at our duck cabin on the Copper River Delta.
Dad passed away in 1995, but I am sure sparks would have been flying from his pipe quite often if he had been around to read the headlines in the Anchorage Daily News regarding politics and state financial issues this past year.
Sixty-one years after that bonfire, sparks seem to be flying everywhere, as Alaskans have weighed in as never before on budgetary choices and decisions that will affect the present and future state of our State are being made.
I suspect he would have been particularly galled by the fact that much of the proposed budget butchery was master-minded by an Outsider named Donna Arduin, who it seems has made her name by traveling from state to state, slashing away, and then moving on, while leaving a trail of chaos behind.
After all, it was the battle cry of Alaskans for countless years as territorial serfs, to wrest control of their fate from such influences that seemed not to comprehend the unique challenges in what was perceived as an isolated ice box up north.
Remember it started out as Seward’s Folly, right?
So, in light of recent public outcry, including a governor recall motion that gathered enough signatures in only two weeks to move forward, it seems several of Arduin’s proposals that were endorsed by our governor have already been cancelled or modified.
One wonders if his budget guru will say “fine, sayonara.” I’ll find another state that believes in The Laffer (no kidding) Curve.
Hence, a little poetry, from someone whose rare previous attempts at writing in rhyme include a short humorous ditty about Dad puffing wildly on his pipe while a visiting eye doctor named Leer, and being arrested for shooting ducks after hours back in 1959.
Ode to a Budget Guru
With her budget in ruin,
Is it bye-bye Arduin?
Alaska is unique,
And her prospects are bleak.
Will she head back South,
With no soundbites from her mouth,
Collecting nary a PFD,
After creating another catastrophe.
Many Alaskans will be merry,
And some may even get a ferry.
The Big Question for all,
Is who may next fall,
At the hands of recall.
And we can begin,
To all pitch in,
To make this a State,
That can be great.
Where we can be proud,
And say it out loud,
We are Alaskans.
