The parking meters in Fairbanks allowed drivers to plug their cars in. Each car had two heating plugs, one was for the oil and one was to keep the water warm so the car would then start in the cold. When it got very cold, say 40 degrees below zero, the tires were flat and the car thumped for about a mile until the air in the tires heated up and the tires became round again!
As a career backup, I decided to obtain a secondary education teachers certificate. In my final year, I had to become a student teacher at the local high school. This was quite a bit of fun as I still had almost waist length hair that I pulled back into a long ponytail. I typically wore a ski sweater and Mukluk’ s that is a soft boot worn outside of my pants. I looked very cool to the kids and I looked very weird to all of the teachers who it seemed had never seen a real life hippy. I was now teaching 12th grade elective biology and calculus and loving it. The kids had never had someone with such creativity and enthusiasm about these subjects and we fed off of each other and it was most enjoyable for all. I looked forward to each day and so did the kids.
On my last day, I decided to shake things up a bit so I purposely did not tie back my hair and let it flow. It was now like a lions mane as it had stopped growing in length but kept growing in thickness. Everyone looked at me as I walked through the school halls and I hung out in the teachers lounge. They didn’ t know what happened. It was great. I then went to my classes and the kids were so cool about it.
Some of the houses just outside of Fairbanks were very interesting. You could drive through some back roads to see some bright orange domes. These were makeshift houses created by blowing up a weather balloon and then spraying on a very thick coat of polyurethane foam. They then cut out windows and doors and they then created a very inexpensive and warm instant home.
Mount McKinley Panorama, Alaska, Photo by Barry Epstein
Just being in this wonderful Alaskan environment was incredible. One of my buddies from university, Frank Starr, took a job in Mt McKinley National Park as a forest ranger for a summer. He invited Tom Bellamore and myself to come down and take a hike in the park and stay at one of the ranger cabins that was not available to the public. This was an remarkable hike deep into the beautiful park and allowed us to see quite a number of animals and mountains. I think we stayed several nights in the cabin which was spectacular. The memories of this camping trip have been embedded in my brain forever.
BARRY STEVEN EPSTEIN- PhotoAutobiography DRAFT 26 of 156