Out and about in Nome, Alaska. This morning I, along with Pam H and Pam M took a cab to the City of Anvil Science Academy. The doors, as they were yesterday, were locked. It was déjà vu all over again as I noted that they were again locked. But this time I had Kastin’s phone number handy; I called, and she immediately came and let us in. We stepped inside the long hallway. The books that were previously in the “standby” black suitcase had been placed on the tables, this where the previous day’s books had occupied space.

The students were already at the furthest tables, conferring about their reading choices. Liam passed by with a handful of books that he said were for his mother. Someone noted that it was his birthday. We later heard his classmates singing happy birthday.

Seeing him with an armload of books reminded me of when Pete and I lived in Central South Carolina. The neighbor’s golden retriever had chow mix puppies – we eventually loaded them into the back of my Toyota pickup and took them to town. Once there, we opened the rear lid of the truck, and the puppies, who stood on the tailgate, were claimed in minutes.

An aside, little did the people who claimed the last pup know that he was a very dumb dog.

So off went the books, into the hands of the appreciative readers.

I as well as Lisa Leeper and two students were interviewed by a KNOM radio reporter who was from Pakistan and had graduated from college in Philadelphia. He was invested in the subject matter, which was students having access to free books. During this interview, another group of students sang happy birthday to Liam.

We later availed ourselves to Angela, the school secretary, who took pity on us by gracefully dealing with our ineptitude. We discovered that the Native center books were the wrong dialect and elected to take the two full suitcases back to Palmer. Angela had us load six suitcases into her car and then took us to the Nome Thrift store where I filled one suitcase with children’s books. There were so many books there that they were giving them away for free.

Seeing this, I envisioned a Bright Lights Book Project satellite in Nome. Here, books could be shipped to, and retrieved from, villages. This, I thought, was the perfect place for this since it is central to several villages.

Angela was an angel. She also dropped me off at the Nome Community Center where I met with Kim Bishop, my Foraker Group cohort. During this time, the two Pams went gift shopping.

We next drove to Angela’s place and got a tour of her art studio. She was nice enough to give us prints. I am taking an additional print of muskox to the Palmer Muskox Farm.

Angela dropped us off at Pingo’s Bakery. I had sent books here – they were in an outdoor little library. From here, we went back to the Aurora Inn, ate lunch at Subway, then in the afternoon got tours of the Nome Public Library and Museum.

A full day was had by all.

Next: 85. 3/27/25: Far, far away from Home