Fairbanks was the true wild west of the 20th century. There was no one in Fairbanks that was from Fairbanks. There were no families there, just transient nomads. That place was dangerous. I made it a habit in my travels to look for police. I never saw an officer on duty. You were on your own and you had better have some street smarts. Drunk Eskimos wandering around downtown Fairbanks in the endless sunset at 4:00 in the morning is a memory. To this day, I have never seen such a concentration of hookers, hustlers, and people on the run in my whole life. Everyone had an angle they were using to get by. I was told that the snow banks on the main highway heading toward Anchorage out of Fairbanks would get 20 foot high during the winter. The spring thaw would reveal the bodies of discarded hookers. I can't believe I was up there with my wife when I was 21.
One thing you had to always remember, help and asistance was hours upon hours away. That very fact took caution to a whole new level.
One thing you had to always remember, help and asistance was hours upon hours away. That very fact took caution to a whole new level.
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