​I meant to keep up with posting on my blog when a new column came out, but I've gotten a little behind so you're going to get two at once. The column before last was all about the kind of reading material I've been using to help me get in the mood for writing my memoir Raised in Ruins. Some of the books are, as you'd suspect, ones I read during the time period I'm writing about, like those in the picture below.

​But, as it turned out, the books that really inspired me were the ones that reflected my experience of growing up in post-apocalyptic ruins, as the photos below show.

On the left my little brothers Robin and Chris (and the cat, Creosote Bill) are playing next to the burned stumps of the pilings that upheld the cannery and its pier. They're playing with the salt-eaten remains of machinery from another, long gone era. In the center photo, my sister Megan is playing with the dishes that we unearthed from what had once been the cook shack for the cannery. On the right my sister and I play with our baby dolls on the rusty ruins. (This photo was used in the next column, as well. More on that below.)

Here's the link for this column: http://juneauempire.com/capitalcityweekly/ccw-columns/2018-07-05/alaska-real-lessons-learned-end-world

​My next column came about when my editor, Clara Miller, told me that she would be quitting. In the same email she told me that her mother, Judy Miller was a fan of my column because it reminded her so strongly of her own childhood. I asked for Judy's email address and my correspondence with her resulted in another column:

http://juneauempire.com/capitalcityweekly/ccw-columns/2018-07-17/alaska-real-best-childhoods

​When we got to the dam, she asked if I'd allow her to start the pump. "Jamie taught me how to start the generator," she said, mentioning my oldest brother who she lives next door to in the nearby village of Meyers Chuck. "This looks like the same sort of thing."

It pretty much was, so I told her to go for it. She just needed to fill the tank with gas first, which she promptly did, looking quite fashionable in her wilderness-girl-chic style.

​Once she'd filled the pump she went about starting it. Happily, since it was summer it didn't have to be primed, like in the cold winter months. It also didn't need ether to kick it in the pants. A.C. pulled on the recoil a few times but the pump was positioned too high for her to be able to pull on it as strongly as needed.

I changed places with her and it started instantly. I told her, truthfully, that she'd warmed it up for me. It doesn't usually start that easily, even in the summer months.

We escaped the racket of the pump by going down on the beach and I suggested she reveal what she had inside her purse. I'm sure my readers would be fascinated to know what a wilderness girl thinks is essential, especially if she was to get lost in the woods and thrown back upon her own resources.

​A.C. obligingly pulled items out, noting them aloud as she perched them on a drift log: "...a pack of cards, a foil packet of Pop Tarts, assorted bracelets..." Then she held up two small bottles with an air of significance. "Two different shades of fingernail polish."

"A girl likes to look her best, even if she's lost in the wilderness," I suggested.

"That's very true," she agreed without smiling.

A.C. pulled out a large, roughly cut...black rock?

"And a large chunk of obsidian," she remarked.

"What's that for?"

"You never know when you might need to make a bunch of arrowheads." She pulled out a wad of napkins that had ink stains on them--I thought. She corrected this impression. "They're napkins with symbols written on them. In case I get lost in the woods I can leave them behind so that people can follow me and find me."

​"Smart," I said, wondering why I'd never thought of it.

The was more: jewelry, hair pieces, a gigantic play diamond ("A girl can never have too much diamond"), a solar-powered, hand-crank flashlight, a mirror ("To help people find me when the sun flashes off it") and so many other items that I lost track. I kept expecting her to pull a floor lamp and a potted palm out of it.

Finally, though, we had to shut off the pump and then head home before the tide came in and cut us off from the floathouses. Before we left, I took a final shot of A.C. with one of Megan's Florida Flamingos. If you'd like to know more about Megan's purses and/or art, check out these links: ​www.livinthemadlife.com - www.madartdesigns.com