No matter where you go… #6

It’s amazing to me how even way out here on the arctic tundra, life is still pretty much the same as in Tulsa, Ok., or Austin, Tx., or LA or New York City… Of course the backdrop is radically different, but the people aren’t. Mamas are taken care of their babies, teachers are teaching, drunks are drinking, and kids act exactly the same here as most any place back home. I finally found a place that serves cheeseburgers and fries, so I decided to walk up there and get one tonight. Heck, they are only $12.95, why not? This place is called the Igloo (go figure) and is quite the local hangout. I ordered my burger, got a Coke out of the fridge, $3.95 and sat down at a table to relax after a long day in the clinic. In the Igloo are a couple of pool tables, which incidentally still only cost a quarter to play, some old slot games like Pac-Man, and a shuffleboard table.

There are only two tables dedicated to eating, and one had a whole family taking up all the space, so I sat at the other. Pretty soon a little girl, I’d say about 12 or 13 came up slid out a chair and sat down. Next she whipped out her cell phone and started texting.(I still haven't figured this out cause my phone has no bars.) Soon she was joined by another who had her cell phone out texting someone else, and in between the two were comparing text and laughing like a coupe of girls.(again, go figure) Up walks a teenage boy wearing a stocking cap, and a pair of headphones (very M&M) who only casually gives a notice to the girls, and then struts off to the beat of whatever rap he was listening to, on to the pool table where he is soon joined by a couple of other “cool” guys with their stocking caps and headphones. The guys are checking out the girls, the girls are checking out the guys, both making comments and snickering… and I mean if you were to pick the whole crew up, swap out their cloths for jeans and T-shirts, role back the clock…it was a scene from Grease!!! We are at least an hour and a half plane ride to the nearest “city” and you couldn’t tell these kids from any other…any where. Kids will be kids. (go figure)

I know I probably sound cheap, but everything here is very expensive. Except for a game of pool of course. The rational is that everything has to be brought in by barge, or by air freight and that is why everything costs so much. They figure the price of just about everything based on its weight. Coke is over $3.00 because it weighs more, milk is $7.00 because it weighs more. The other day I went to the store to buy a candy bar, which cost $2.00. In the lower 48 you could have gotten this candy bar anywhere for under a dollar. So I put one dollar and three quarters down on the counter and started to walk out. The guy at the register said, “Hey buddy, this candy bar is $2.00!” I said, “No sweat, the quarters weigh more!!!!”

Anybody got bail money????

rto