The people that go to work at an Alaskan cannery , far and away from civilization , come for a variety of reasons . One girl was there because she lost seven grand in Vegas and needed to pay for her next semester of college . Others had DUI ’ s that they had to pay for . I wouldn ’ t be surprised if some were on the run in the lower 48 . No one seemed to be too upset that they didn ’ t receive too much of a monetary reward . Some left with other things , better things . Girl canners met boy canners . Friendships formed from across the world . People pushed themselves sixteen hours and came out at the end of the summer still alive . Some went back to their regular lives with a degree of selfactualization . But a lot of other people just got what they really wanted - a change in scenery .
I counted myself in the latter category . I got to see Alaska . Or at least a small portion of it . I got to work with great people from faraway places . People who offered up their couches if I ever need a place to crash – from Manilla to Idaho . I even saw the northern lights in the meager night hours . They looked like long white fingers slowly waving through the dark sky . I even saw a few brown bears that luckily did not see me .
But mostly I saw fish . A lot of fish . At the beginning of August , as the salmon season ended , they flew me back to LA and I went back to work on TV shows . When asked if I ’ d do it again next summer , I usually reply that I can ’ t do the same trick twice . That I ’ ve got to find an even crazier temporary job to find next time a show is on hiatus . Maybe a lumberjack . Maybe a tugboat captain . I ’ m open for suggestions .
17 THE CONE - ISSUE # 11 - 2017