I rigged up my flashlight, through the enlarger, to expose the print. The trouble was, it only exposed a portion of the negative each swipe of the flashlight, so I had to experiment many times to get the right pattern to get a full print. We used the toilet closet for our darkroom. After running the prints through the three trays of chemicals, we washed them in photo-flow and rolled them onto the window glass at the end of the Quonset Hut, the only windows in the school. After they dried during the night, they fell on the floor and we picked them up the next morning and they became the photos used in this chapter.
On our Saturday half-day school we allotted a time for crafts after our regular lessons. I showed the older grades how to do photography while Marie did arts and crafts with the primary grades. My students were fascinated as they saw plain white paper magically form an image while in the chemical developer and I became the miracle man. That made up for my science experiment failures. It seems very time I tried one of those do-it-by-the-numbers experiments, from the eight-grade science teacher's manual, my procedure would somehow go astray.
I started a Boy Scout Troop and the older boys loved it. Their weekly meetings in the school were something they looked forward to each Thursday night. They had never been exposed to any serious ceremony nor any mythical stories of King Arthur and the quests of his knights of the round table as much of Boy Scout ritual stems from. They were way ahead of the book (and me) when it came sea-going skills and knot tying.
One night they came to me with a gift, a fresh egg. Marie and I hadn't seen a fresh egg in months. It was a seagull egg. We were a bit skeptical to use it but though it had a red yoke and tasted strong. Other than that, it was quite acceptable.
The Boy Scout Troop of Sanak Island
March 24th, The Garland gave us a surprise, stopping here, in calm weather, on its return trip east. It didn't go west any farther than Unalaska for some reason. Sandy brought back some ice cream he bought from the Garland's cook and we had it right away. What a treat! Then out of his black plastic bag he pulled a beef roast and later some tomatoes. I asked what else do you have in your little black bag? He wouldn't say. He told me it was like in the Swiss Family Robinson story, Mrs. Robinson, shipwrecked on an island, had a secret little black bag. Every time a member of the family really needed something, she would pull it, or a usable substitute, out of her little black bag. (A week later some lettuce and cabbage surprisingly came out of his little black bag.)
Early in our school year, the radio reception came in clear at night. We'd hear a Modesto station advertising Stan's Drive-In. There was this singing commercial, "Lets eat I'm hungry. Please don't think I'm rude. You're sweet and lovely, but I'm in the mood for food." I visualized the younger set enjoying the California good life with hamburgers, top-down convertibles, car-hops in mini-skirts and boys wearing letterman sweaters. Marie wasn't going to let that go by, so she simulated our own drive-in. She baked homemade hamburger buns then from our canned goods she brought out a can of meat balls and made it into patties. She spread on a can of spinach as substitute for lettuce and sliced up a whole canned tomato then added a sliced dill pickle. That was our drive-in hamburger celebration. Using the only available supplies we had in those days, I thought it was actually acceptable, except for the spinach-lettuce substitute.
All our students of the Pauloff Harbor Territorial School 1951
April 18th We finished our 180 contracted days. It's the last day of school!
Sandy is worse than the misbehaving kids. Today he came and kissed me right behind the blackboard, out of sight of the kids.
This was a typical schedule for teaching all eight grades together in one room.
At 9;00 one of the first graders would go out side the door and ring the little hand bell to signify the beginning of the school day. If anyone was still coming up the trail, they'd hurry to get in the door.
9;00-9;10 We'd have opening exercises that included the flag salute, health inspection and a short explanation of the new vocabulary word of the day.
9;10-9;40 Reading, Marie would combine the 1st and 2nd grade and start oral reading. Her 3rd and 4th grade would work in their workbooks. I would have the 5th and 6th read aloud on the other side of the room while the 7th and 8th would work in their workbooks.
9;40-10;10 Marie would work with the 3rd and 4th combined and I would work with the 7th and 8th while the 1st 2nd 5th and 6th would use their workbooks. We might be called by a raised hand to help an individual from the other group while oral reading. We would usually ask them to wait a bit until we were at a stopping place before we could help them.---10:10 Recess outside
10:30-11:30 Arithmetic ( In same manner as reading-alternating workbooks and help)
11:30 Penmanship with the old fashioned stick pens and ink wells
12:00-1:00 Lunch timeThe kids would all run home for lunch
1:00-1:40 Language (all grades) from their Language Arts workbook
1:40-2:00 History-The 1st and 2nd graders would have a story with a citizenship moral
2:00-2:35 Geography with maps and charts of Alaska and the world
2:35-2:45 Recess
2:45-3:15 Spelling-a study of the list of words then a test to see if they remembered them
3:15-3:45 Science-This was usually a disaster as I'd try one of those experiments from the teacher manual. A joke among the kids was to see just how I'd foul up the experiment.
3:45-4:00 Clean up + I'd read to everyone a section of a storybook aloud to end the day
Saturday mornings, we got pretty relaxed with physical education activities and crafts. We even put on a crafts show for the community. Actually the students as well as parents appreciated our weekly routine.
Because we made up the lost days and had no vacations, we caught up with our late start and finished before all the ANS schools, so in the end we had the last laugh on them.
I gave the Territorial Eighth Grade written exam at the school's ending. It was sealed so I couldn't teach to the test. The result verified that I had done a good job. The eighth grader passed and got his diploma on the next mail boat. Our part of their education was to help them to read, to write, to figure and understand society but their lifetime career in the fishing industry would be taught to both the boys and girls by actually with their family.
As soon as school was out we hired the THRASHER to take us to a village on the mainland where we could arrange our transportation home. We were invited to stay with Everest and Hazel Dodd, teachers at the King Cove ANS School.
Marie was asked if she wanted a shower. It was her first real shower since August 29th when she used the Garland's water made from their salt water distilling system. There must have been something that contaminated the water because that shower made her body break out with big white welts. The spots always reappeared every time she took a sponge bath, even with clear spring water from Sanak. It cleared up during the winter but from that time on, I never could get Marie very far away from a good clean bathroom with a tub and shower.
When we left the island, Martha Wilson came over with us as one of the passengers.
There was a special resilience
