Lazy Mountain Home Still Exists
In Era of Alaska’s Pioneers
Lazy Mountain Children Find Happiness In Helping Carve A Home From Raw Wilderness
Three of the boys from the home attempt to make "Mittens."
their St. Bernard pet, look at the birdie for photographer
Plitt. Sammy had been helping Wendall, Walter and Mickey,
but was banished indoors when Mittens objected to his too
- strenous attention. The frame structure in the background
is the entrance to the dining hall and kitchen at the home.
(Photo by Palmer Photographic Center).
There’s a home, not very far
from Palmer, where 32 children
are living back in an era of time
that ended for most of us when
our mothers and fathers were
young. These children, who live
at the Lazy Mountain Children’s
Home, began and ended Alas
kan winter days by the light of
kerosene lamps and gasoline lan
terns, until just a few days ago.
Electricity has been brought
to the home now, but the quon
set-hut dormitories in which the
boys and girls live still are heat
ed by wood-burning airtight
heaters—the kind that must be
stoked in the middle hours of
the night. Bath water for the 32
children still is heated in great
tubs and kettles on top of the
kitchen range on Saturday aft
ernoons.
The only water inside the five
hall plant is the cold well water
that is pumped into the kitchen
sink. Bread and cookies for 32
lunches and dinners each day are
baked in the great ovens of the
wood-burning range. Water to
wash the clothes for 32 active
boys and girls is heated daily on
that same range. The sad irons
that press the wrinkles from
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those daily lines of clean cloth
ing are heated on top of this
stove.
"We Need Nothing"
It’s a far cry from this wood
burning, kerosene-lighted, scrub
board existence to life in a mod
ern home, but Mr. and Mrs. Ken
Hughes, in charge of the Lazy
Mountain home, don’t seem to
mind. “I can truthfully say,
we’ve never needed a thing,”
Mr. Hughes said. "Of course,
there’s a lot of things we’ve
wanted, sometimes, but never
anything we’ve needed.”
High on that list of wants was
a radio, to replace the portable
model which was broken several
months ago. Already that want
is a reality, for the Christmas
gift of Mrs. Vernon Fridley,
teacher in the home’s one-room
school, to the 32 children and the
home staff, was a combination
radio and record-player.
All the children from sixth
grade level down through the
first attend classes in a quonset
hut at the home. Mrs. Fridley
drives back and forth daily to
supervise their lessons. She is
the only paid worker at the Lazy
Mountain home. Her salary is
paid by the territory.
19 Pupils
There are 19 grade school stu
dents at Lazy Mountain. Al
though their classroom is only a
quonset hut, its walls are bright
with kalsomine and gay red can
dles decorate its windows in pre
paration for the holiday. Home
made benches and tables with
built-in drawers for books make
up the classroom furniture, but
the children have the finest
books and equipment with which
to work, according to Mrs. Frid
ley.
The lhree R's come just as easy in a Quonset hut furnished
with homemade tables and benches as they do in the best of
private schools. Students are working out assignments under
fhe watchful eye of Mrs. Vernon Fridley, classroom instructor.
Smallest fry sit closest to teacher's desk, while upper grade
students get seats of honor at the back of the room. (Photo
by Palmer Photographic Center).
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It's lunchtime on Lazy Mountain. Children range themselves
at the tables in age groups, and fall to with hearty appetites on
sandwiches of home-baked bread, thick hot soup and Wash
ington apples. The white tablecloth makes a pleasant meal
time and is no extra work in the daily washtub—it's white
crepe paper clipped from a roll and fastened to table tops
with scotch tape. (Photo by Palmer Photographic Center).
High school and junior high
school students are brought to
Palmer daily for their class
work. It is a source of great
pride to other home students
that both Walter and Harold
Bendixen and George Pedersen
are Lazy Mountain’s contribu
t i o n to Palmer’s basketball
squad.
Children at Lazy Mountain
range in age from 7 to 18 years,
although there is one small girl
of pre-school age. They live in
quonset hut dormitories, attach
ed as wings to the central hall,
which serves as a dining room
and a general assembly place.
Bunks and Cots
Bunk beds in double tiers fur
nish the boys’ sleeping quarters,
while the girls have small cots.
Each dormitory is assigned to
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the managership of one of the
home’s volunteer workers. Make
shift partitions of blankets and
screens at one end of the dormi
tory give a semblance of privacy
for their quarters.
A nurse, Mrs. Walter Phillips,
whose husband is also a worker
at the home, takes care of all
the small aches and bumps for
the family of 32. A tiny dispen
sary has been built into one
quonset hut, where Mrs. Phillips
administers doses and bandages
bruises.
Major medical care is still a
problem for the home, which re
ceives no support from govern
ment or territorial funds. Two
little girls are now receiving
treatment in the Post hospital.
However, there’s need for a num
ber of tonsilectomies, and the
C H. MEIER TRANSFER
PALMER and ANCHORAGE
May His comforting love
Bring our friends old and new
Happiness and peace
At Christmas-time through
And in the year ahead.
COAL
FUEL
AND
MISCELLANEOUS HAULING THE YEAR ROUND
Palmer, Alaska Box 1745
ry
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