CloudDancer
Registered User
L. Ronstadt - J. Ingram Duet
Phones that take pictures,send EMails, calculate and do everything but cogitate it seems....
Back in the early '70s when I arrived in Kotzebue, phones (when you could find one) didn't do so much, but were relatively simply to operate. And just to make it easier you only had to dial the last four digits to get any other phone in town. At least locally. Now long DISTANCE was another matter.
One could well wear one's dialing finger down to a bloody stump trying just to get a call through to ANC. (Sidenote for those viewers UNDER the age of 25.....phones were not INITIALLY designed with pushbuttons.)
As I discovered shortly after arrival, when trying to place my 1st long distance call to my parents in the Lower 48 to advise them their precious sole offspring had made it to the Great White Wilderness safe and sound (not yet having discovered the Ponderosa).
Turns out there were at the time only six (6) simultaneous long distance "connections" allowed OUT of Kotzebue to the rest of the world.
So in a town of about 2300 folks at the time (85% or so local natives) of whom at LEAST 25% didn't even HAVE a phone. You would think your odds would be pretty good. BUT all the various nefarious bueracracies that operated in the village such as the State Troopers, BLM, City of OTZ, the school district and the Public Health Service hospital managed to do a pretty good job of tying up the lines. UFFDA!!
And to think that nowadawys you can walk into practically ANY building in OTZ, pick up the 1st phone you see and touch tone the Queens Palace in merry old England - DIRECT - with just a few key strokes! (Ain't satellitte technology wunnerful....)
Much MORE difficult however was attempting to speak by phone with someone located in any of the region's eleven outlying villages such as Shungnak or Kiana. This generally involved calling the number of the one and ONLY ALASCOM radio/phone, IF the village was so equipped, and you happened to try at one of the times it actually was operating properly. Of course, the upside of the system for me (an on-demand charter pilot) was the fact that, since at any given time, two or more of the eleven village's phones would be on the fritz. Yes, the local Alascom technicians provided a large number of hours for my first couple of logbooks; as well as a rather steady flow of "tuition" payments for me to "study" at my boss's weekend "School of Dice Games for Beginners", whose meager facilities were located in the back room of his beer 'n wine dive on front street (which also provided many of our OTHER charter customers). Boy! So MUCH to learn.
Given these circumstances, local radio stations such as KBRW in Barrow, KNOM in Nome, and KOTZ in Kotzebue and many other stations in Alaska had their own version of "Tundra Drums", "Tundra Telegraph", "Bush Chatline" or some such. At given times (I think it was always at 20 after the hour on KOTZ) messages from for people in the outlying villages surrounding Kotzebue would be read live over the air by the announcer. These messages could range from Wien Air Alaska announcing "Joe Blow of Selawik has a prepaid ticket to ANC from Kotzebue", to a region wide-death/funeral announcement, to the mundane birth/appointment/schedule for the traveling dentist, to the sublime to the absolutely ridicumlous.
An added plus in those days of few bush aviators was unique to KNOM in Nome for a long time. In those days of so few flights, KNOM would announce not only which flights were operating to which villages but who was flying the plane (by name) as well. It was the very, VERY tail end of the days when bush pilots were as gods. (In the minds of others...obviously in our OWN minds most of us knew we weren't REALLY gods but hey....why rock the boat!!)
WHAT may you ask does ANY of this REALLY have to do with airplanes or "Lighter Than Air Humor"??????
Come back soon for Part Two to find OUT!!
Back in the early '70s when I arrived in Kotzebue, phones (when you could find one) didn't do so much, but were relatively simply to operate. And just to make it easier you only had to dial the last four digits to get any other phone in town. At least locally. Now long DISTANCE was another matter.
One could well wear one's dialing finger down to a bloody stump trying just to get a call through to ANC. (Sidenote for those viewers UNDER the age of 25.....phones were not INITIALLY designed with pushbuttons.)
As I discovered shortly after arrival, when trying to place my 1st long distance call to my parents in the Lower 48 to advise them their precious sole offspring had made it to the Great White Wilderness safe and sound (not yet having discovered the Ponderosa).
Turns out there were at the time only six (6) simultaneous long distance "connections" allowed OUT of Kotzebue to the rest of the world.
So in a town of about 2300 folks at the time (85% or so local natives) of whom at LEAST 25% didn't even HAVE a phone. You would think your odds would be pretty good. BUT all the various nefarious bueracracies that operated in the village such as the State Troopers, BLM, City of OTZ, the school district and the Public Health Service hospital managed to do a pretty good job of tying up the lines. UFFDA!!
And to think that nowadawys you can walk into practically ANY building in OTZ, pick up the 1st phone you see and touch tone the Queens Palace in merry old England - DIRECT - with just a few key strokes! (Ain't satellitte technology wunnerful....)
Much MORE difficult however was attempting to speak by phone with someone located in any of the region's eleven outlying villages such as Shungnak or Kiana. This generally involved calling the number of the one and ONLY ALASCOM radio/phone, IF the village was so equipped, and you happened to try at one of the times it actually was operating properly. Of course, the upside of the system for me (an on-demand charter pilot) was the fact that, since at any given time, two or more of the eleven village's phones would be on the fritz. Yes, the local Alascom technicians provided a large number of hours for my first couple of logbooks; as well as a rather steady flow of "tuition" payments for me to "study" at my boss's weekend "School of Dice Games for Beginners", whose meager facilities were located in the back room of his beer 'n wine dive on front street (which also provided many of our OTHER charter customers). Boy! So MUCH to learn.
Given these circumstances, local radio stations such as KBRW in Barrow, KNOM in Nome, and KOTZ in Kotzebue and many other stations in Alaska had their own version of "Tundra Drums", "Tundra Telegraph", "Bush Chatline" or some such. At given times (I think it was always at 20 after the hour on KOTZ) messages from for people in the outlying villages surrounding Kotzebue would be read live over the air by the announcer. These messages could range from Wien Air Alaska announcing "Joe Blow of Selawik has a prepaid ticket to ANC from Kotzebue", to a region wide-death/funeral announcement, to the mundane birth/appointment/schedule for the traveling dentist, to the sublime to the absolutely ridicumlous.
An added plus in those days of few bush aviators was unique to KNOM in Nome for a long time. In those days of so few flights, KNOM would announce not only which flights were operating to which villages but who was flying the plane (by name) as well. It was the very, VERY tail end of the days when bush pilots were as gods. (In the minds of others...obviously in our OWN minds most of us knew we weren't REALLY gods but hey....why rock the boat!!)
WHAT may you ask does ANY of this REALLY have to do with airplanes or "Lighter Than Air Humor"??????
Come back soon for Part Two to find OUT!!