Tube Meat

Yesterday the blue sky was out and temperatures must have reached beyond 60. So after work, Scott and I packed a campfire dinner (fake brats, some bread, jet puff marshmallows, hershey’s, graham crackers, and our last bottle of amber and stephen’s home brew) and drove out to the sand spit. We weren’t alone. There was a family flying kites and roasting processed tube meat as well, but they left soon after we arrived. And there was a group of high school teenagers, who I imagine stayed right where they were long after old Scott and I left around 9.

Times like these really make you forget about the $5.09/gallon gas.

Low tide

I have no bad associations with low tide. I suppose sometimes the smell isn’t that pleasant but mostly I find that it is. It conjures up memories of camp, traveling, seaside amusement parks, and now it’s also Wrangell. It may be one of the freshest smells out there. Taking a deep breath of it always makes me think everything will be okay.

Moment

Within the wood-paneled council chambers of Wrangell's city hall, many momentous and dramatic moments have taken place, the majority of which occurred well before I arrived to this small town. But I have witnessed (or heard) a fair few - a daughter standing up for her father, a mayor using the word "facist" in reference to the council, another mayor accusing the council of backdoor politics. All the times I've seen a full audience in the council chambers, it's been for contentious issues, when the room becomes stuffy with tension and anticipation.

But tonight was different. The council chambers in Wrangell's city hall was full of excitement, giddiness almost. Around me people were smiling, getting their cameras ready for photo-ops. And that is because tonight, history was made in those chambers. Tonight, Wrangell became Alaska's 18th borough. I know that sounds very anti-climatic, but becoming a borough has taken over two years of work in earnest, and even a decade more of preliminary work. The eighteenth borough in the ENTIRE state of Alaska - Wrangell is.

Tonight the City of Wrangell became the City AND Borough of Wrangell. The city council became the borough assembly. The city clerk became the borough clerk. Is it now assembly chambers instead of council chambers?

I don't know, it may be lame, but I felt, sitting in the front row amid a crowd of fifty or so other Wrangellites, that I was witnessing an important moment in Wrangell's history, as well as Alaska's history.