Sourdough or Cheechako?
 

Ok let's hear from all of you - how long have you lived in "The Great Land"? What brought you up here?

Myself, I came up here back in Nov. 1967 (post flood!) with my family. My father had gotten a job offer and since his then-current job had little future, he came up to get things arranged for the rest of us (me, my brother, my sister, and my mother) to come up.

The three men of the family temporarily escaped the Frozen North for a time over the years, but we all came back eventually. My whole family currently lives in the Fairbanks/North Pole area.

no sourdough here... Came up here april 04 on accounta the army told the wife this was our new home. We're scheduled to leave in 07, but might stay til 10, it's a wait and see game. No offense but we'll never be sourdoughs, we're enjoying our time here, but we're both warm weather people and have a house in texas to get back to. So gonna do lotsa fishin and 4x4in for a few year in the cold.

I've been in Alaska for 10 yrs now so I am proud to say I am a Sourdough! I'm originally from SLC Utah but my dad was up here in the army in the 70s and swore we would come back. Then my dad business partner striped out their auto shop leaving nothing but my dad tool box and a box of his pinto parts. They even took the fish out of the fish tank in the waiting area, the lifts right out of the ground and the huge alignment rack! That was a very bad day.... So we gathered everything up, sold the house, packed the ramcharger and pinto with all our earthly belongings, and took a two week vacation as we drove up the alcan to our new home. It was the best two weeks my family had ever spent together. You should have seen us! we had the whole back of the ramcharger full up to within two feet of the front seats, with our stuff and my dads tool boxes. That was all the space there was for me, my sister and or dog. We towed the fully packed and loaded pinto with a tow dolly. Not one of those kind that you park the front wheels on but the one of the ones that is just a hitch mounted to the front of the car. Did I mention that the pinto only has 3 inches of clearance when it's empty? you should have seen the sparks shootin out from under it when the headers hit the ground as we went through 700+ miles of construction in Yukon! We would campout for two nights and stay at a hotel every third night to shower ect... When we got here we had no place to stay so we lived above the Brown Bear Saloon in Indian, south of Anchorage on the turnagain arm, for two weeks. I'm sure you have all driven past it or maybe even stoped on the way to Kenai. Nice folks with strange pasttimes... but thats another story... So eventually we found a place halfway up O'Malley Dr near the zoo and there we stayed and here we are...

Hey underdog, that sounds like the trip back up to Alaska I took when I brought my wife-to-be up here! I'll have to tell you about The Great Adventure sometime!

Me, my wife, and two daughters have been in Anchorage For about three years. We moved here from Texas. The cold took a little gettin used to but we love it. Providence Hospital recruited my wife from the Childrens Hospital in Austin. The main thing I have learned in Alaska, Work hard all winter, then take alot of time off and do alot of outdoor activities in the summer. We just bought a house and are planning to stay.

Guess I'm a sourdough, moved to AK in '69 when my parents decided to come north after they got heatstroke in Florida and their doctor told them warm weather wasn't for them! We settled in Homer and they're still there. I'm the only kid left in AK (of six) and I've been in Anchorage for about eight years now. Married an Alaskan so I guess I'm here to stay. Wouldn't want to be anywhere else anyway!

Yeah there's not a big problem with heatstroke in Alaska (although I have heard of heat exhaustion - one level below heat stroke!).

Well, my story is that I dragged "heavnbound" up here KICKING & SCREAMING!

He flew down to warm Southern California to meet me and then he didn’t want to leave there! I was READY though to get outta there so, I MADE him move back up here! :-X07

And I have LOVED Alaska ever SINCE! I even LOVE the COLD! :-X21

I guess that’s WHY I am one of those Fruitloops! :-X24

This will be my 15th year come this summer. Not sure what the criteria is for Sourdough or Cheechako. Is it 10 years until you are a sourdough? Anyway got out of the military and decided to go north. Abundance of summer jobs and abundance of free time in the winter. Boy I sure do miss those "free time in the winter" moments. Meet my wife, who is from Cal, while working fish and the rest is history. About the only thing I miss from the lower 48 is being close to family. Glad they like to fly.

Hey:

I moved up with my family in 1981 to Sitka. From there I moved to Juneau, Hoonah, back to Juneau, Ketchikan, Anchorage, onto Ft. Rich, and back to Anchorage, and now in Chugiak. My dad's auto repair shop didn't survive the "gas shortage" so we packed up what we didn't sell and moved our stuff in new cars going to the Chrysler dealer in Sitka. It was the slow way to move. I married my high school sweetheart. He joined the AK Army National Guard and we have hopped around the state since. Our relatives from south don't visit much and don't understand why we don't move back. We will never move back.

Kim

Best definition I have for when you become a sourdough, is when you hate to go outside! Another indicaton of when you have become one, is where did you take that last two week vacation? If it was in Alaska, well maybe you have become one.

GaryT

Well "in the old days" being a sourdough meant you were "sour" on Alaska and didn't have the "dough" to leave! But with the way things are going in our society today, that's not necessarily the case!

Not bashing the Lower 48 mind you, but you gotta admit things move a lot slower here in Alaska...and sometimes slow is good!

At -41 this morning I am definately sour. I moved up here 21 years ago from Washington State, unemployed and had 13 dollars in my pocket. My father was on his way up here for a job up north and asked if I wanted to go. since I had no prospects of employment where I was at for several months I said Sure, why not. We drove the alcan straight through taking turns driving in January 1986, took 54 hours to get to Fairbanks. Only fell off the road once in a whiteout not far from Dawson creek. After sleeping for 2 days after I got here I had a job the next day pumping gas at the Box Boy on South Cushman. Some of you may remember the place, It's now a user car dealer. A few jobs later I started working for Fountainhead Development and have been working for them for 19 years now.

That's my Sourdough story and I'm sticking to it.

Tony ;)

edit: I heard that in order to become a sourdough you have to accomplish 3 things.
1. You have to kiss an Eskimo.
2. You Have to pee in the Yukon River
3. You have to hug a live Bear.

I have done 2 of the 3. I'll let you guess which ones.

Hey, I've done all three! (My father in laws old yellow lab was named "Bear"):rolleyes:

I came to Alaska in 1969, looking for greener pastures. I've worked construction all over the state, and in the oil fields of Prudhoe by the Bay. I've been semi-retired for 5 years, living in Slana (halfway between Glennallen and Tok). We are snowbirds this winter, we went south to Homer....:) I guess that makes me a sourdough...