Anchorage Memories You'll Love

Our readers share their memories of Anchorage, Alaska

Above photo by Jim Zoller

Tom had this memory:

“I love the Anchorage Memories Club, and remembering the good times in Anchorage in the 1970s when I was a teen.

Your post about Stewart's Photo Shop, rekindled memories of spending a lot of time there, usually during the Fur Rondy dog races. We'd stop in to buy more film (we took plenty of photos back then!), warm up, look at some jade, and dream about buying fancier cameras. Thanks for doing what you do to remind us of Anchorage history.”

Don and Maurine remember the Fur Rendezvous:

“Thanks, Mike and Mary, for refreshing our Rondy memories.

Yes, I marched and played trombone in the West High band, and the brass got pretty cold. Our friends and family were very active during Fur Rendezvous each year. I still have a partial collection of Rondy pins. I have a vague recollection of a 3 block long section of rail placed along 4th Ave. and a rail car riding that section during Rondy perhaps in the early 50s.”

BONUS

Take a look at The Anchorage Fur Rendezvous Story and enjoy.

Yes, You Can Share This Edition

Your friends and family will love reading these comments from people who live or have lived in Anchorage, Alaska.

And when you share this, they will be so happy that they will give you a secret map to all the gold deposits in Alaska… well, it could happen.

Lynn remembers her first job:

“My first “real” job was at The Book Cache in the Sears Mall. I worked with a wonderful crew, really nice folks. I remember the mall was a happening place back then, with plenty of people shopping or having lunch there.”

Dennis remembers the Sears mall:

“Thanks for the Anchorage Memories Club! I was the Apprentice Fire Sprinkler employee on the Mall project. Our son was born in July 1968 at the community hospital. Great memories.”

Michael recalls his visits to the Sears Mall:

“So many great memories of the Sears Mall when the Bethel High band would travel to Anchorage every spring for the Southwest Alaska High School Music Festival at West High.

We would always stay at Turnagain Methodist Church on Northern Lights closer to the airport. Nobody had ever been to a Mall before, so it was exciting. One year we even walked to the Mall from the church! Thanks for sharing.”

Barbara shared this memory:

“I lived in Anchorage in the 1970s, and your stories bring back fond memories.

Not long ago, you ran a story about Larry Carr and Carr's markets. We lived in Spenard when my daughter was born in the old Anchorage Community Hospital in 1972. After a few other stops in Bethel and Fairbanks (my husband was a Wien pilot) we returned to Anchorage and lived on Campbell Lake. The Carrs had the house next to us, although not a close by neighbor because they had a triple lot.

Sadly, my husband was killed in a plane crash of our small plane in March 1978. I carried on, as one must, and later in the spring I was out putting in a new mailbox post. Mrs. Carr came over, I think her name was Wilma, and offered her condolences, explaining that they had just returned from their winter in Palm Springs. She asked about the sack of Quick Crete in my wheelbarrow and I explained that it had all the ingredients for a small amount of concrete, and that you just added water and mixed it up like a cake mix.

“What a wonderful idea,” she said, and proceeded to tell me about the time when she and Larry were starting out in Eagle River, she was setting a clothes pole post. “I had to get a bucket of cement from a cement supplier and rush home with it before it hardened.”

Only in Alaska will one of the wealthiest residents in one of the nicest neighborhoods in town think nothing of seeing her neighbor out there with a wheelbarrow and post hole diggers, then recount a story from her humble past. It is one of my fondest Anchorage memories.”

Sheila had a lot to do with bringing the Sears Mall to Anchorage:

“Boy do I remember The Mall. I was Larry Carr's secretary while it was being built. What a time that was!

Ironically the biggest attraction was the rocking horse at the West End. Sadly gone now.

Larry Carr was a visionary as well as being a really decent human being.”

BONUS

Take a look at The Sears Mall in Anchorage and remember.

Nelson remembers Anchorage:

“Thank you for keeping these memories alive.

Our family was the first Colombian family to reside in Anchorage. At the time, there were only a handful of migrants from Latin America. Most of them came after the Alaska earthquake. My father worked on the Alyeska pipeline and on Amchitka Island before and after the Cannikin test.

I attended both Central Junior High and West High School in Anchorage.”

Loren recalls the Alaska Highway:

“Came to Alaska in 1956 from Illinois, in the back of a 51 chevy with two brothers and a sister. 12 days on the Alaska Highway with numerous flat tires.

In Anchorage, Fireweed Lane was the city limits then. You could go down town, and you knew just about everybody.”

BONUS

Take a look at The History of Downtown Anchorage, Alaska and discover.

Joe recalls things after the 1964 earthquake:

“I remember sitting atop the McKay (McKinley) building, top floor, Southwest corner looking down 4th Avenue doing my morning radio show for nigh on 7 years,1966-1973, on KWKO FM.

I can remember riding up the rickety elevator to the top floor and stopping on various floors to take in the results of the earthquake. Enjoy you and your lovely wife's research re- Alaska, and its heritage.”

BONUS

In the photo above, Frank Feeman hosts HiJinks

Click on the following link to learn more.

Take a look at Anchorage First TV Memories and remember.

Anchorage Memories.com

Take a look at Anchorage Memories.com, a treasure chest of memories.

Connect with Mike and Mary

What great memories.

Thank you to all our North Stars (that’s you) for sending in your comments.

We are often reminded by our readers, that when they read the Anchorage Memories Club, those memories often remind them of their long, forgotten memories.

Do you have a comment?

You can also reach us by replying to this email, or you can Contact Us right here to say, “Thanks for the great memories”.

Until Next Time

Mike and Mary

Anchorage Memories Club

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