What we wish for our parents

One of my favorite drawings in the book has to be when Junior draws his parents, as he wishes they were. I believe every kid on the planet wants to change their parents to some point. What draws me to this picture is the fact that when I was younger, I wanted my parents to be like my friends mom and dad.
While growing up we had all sorts of toys with engines, such as boats, motorcycles and snowmobiles. It seems that they always had the best of each, while we had used motorcycles and boats, our snowmobiles were new when we got them, but not every other year like they got to ride. I didn't realize exactly how good I had it back then, just like Junior.
My parents loved each and everyone of us growing up, just as Juniors parents did. It was in high school when I found out that my friends dad was abusive, he'd show up with a black eye every once in awhile without an explanation. In hind sight, I was very lucky to have the parent's that I had, just like Junior.
I believe he realized it later in life, just as I did. Any parent that would drive their son twenty miles to go to a different school has to be awfully damn cool, alcoholic or not, he was there for his son most of the time.
I believe that he included these pictures in the book to illustrate his thoughts in a his own unique way. He drew cartoons to kill time growing up due to there not being much else to do on the reservation.

Not What I Thought I was Getting

A couple years after high school, I had decided to join the U.S. Navy. I went to the recruiters office several times over the course of a month. I wanted to make sure I was getting the training I wanted. You see my Dad had retired from the Air Force after 22 years and he had a great job with the State of Alaska. I really wanted what he had in his life for myself when I was older. He had been a purchasing agent, doesn't sound like much, but it was a great income and the hours we awesome, Monday thru Friday 8-4, weekends off and the pay was very good. Especially with the retirement from the U.S. Force.
After being promised by the wonderful navy recruiters that I would be getting the exact training my Dad had received, I joined up. Now, I had been raised to stand behind your word, not to lie and the old addage, your only as good as your word.
After finishing bootcamp, I was sent to my 'A' school. The A is supposed to stand for academic. I believe this was suppposed to be a huge inside joke for the higher ups in th emilitary. The taought us how to do our laundry, how to run a store as a cashier and not a whole lot else. Luckily for me when I was stationed on the ship, they were looking for someone who could type. I didn't volunteer this information, they got it out of my high school records. Although I did not volunteer, the job was a good one with many perks, better hours, fine dining with the two senior officers of the deoartment and when in port over seas I was able to get more time off than I would have normally.
What I did learn about the Navy is that it is an acronym for Never Again Volunteer Yourself.

Gotta Get out of Here

Remsen 1

I would have to say Junior did not grow up under the best conditions. When you're one of the smartest kids in the school and your teacher tells you quote"you have to leave the reservation"unquote, you really have to sit back and look at your life and where its headed. Along with a teacher telling him to leave, the poor kid has only one friend on the reservation. I believe Junior had no choice but to leave and pursue his dreams. If only everyone could get the kind of advice he received from that teacher, I bet the world would have a lot more happy people.

Growing up in Anchorage from eighth grade on, I think I would have gone the wrong way with my life if I hadn't gotten out when I did. By the end of high school approximately ninety percent of my friends were doing drugs, many of them were into pot and cocaine. After graduating from high school, I worked in the construction field, insulating houses. Most companies of this type pay piece work, the more you get done the more you make. At this time in my life, it was like the commercial, the more coke you do, the more you get done, the more you make, the more coke you could buy. I was very fortunate to get out of there when I did, several of my old friends have since passed away from living an extremely hard life. But like Junior, I did not want that life and here I am.

Thoughts about a part-time white kid.

Growing up as the youngest kid in a family of five, keeping a diary was out of the question, at the very least I would have been ridiculed, probably beaten up. Much as Junior was. There is one major difference, it would have been my own brothers doing the beating. Boys growing up out in the country as I did, just did not keep a diary, sort of an oath. Now that I'm older and I hope wiser, I wish I had kept a diary, nay, a journal, so that I could remember all of the fun I had as a kid and with who. Most of the names have slipped now. I believe that Sherman Alexi kept a diary for that exact reason, to keep track of his memories, good, bad or indifferent.

I happen to have a most deluxe lifeboat for getting through life. When any little problem arises, all I have to do is talk to my wife and it seems as if life gets better with each word. I can be having an issue with an item and it can be as simple as her walking in the room, and voila, I've got a solution. Does anyone believe in mind melding. Since meeting my wife there have been dozens of times when we spout the exact same thought at the same moment. Weird I know. But it works for us.

I love when Mr. P tells Junior "If you stay on this rez, they're going to kill you. I'm going to kill you. We're all going to kill you. You can't fight us forever. I love the fact that a teacher is sitting down and telling a student the truth so straight forward. On so many reservations you can see kids that are pretty much just wasting away, not caring about anything because nothing or nobody cares about them. I've been through several reservation from Washington to Minnesota and it seems as if they are all very similar.