Be gay, just don’t act gay (and other words I hope my daughter never hears)
By Melinda Munson It was a beautiful gesture. Decadent chocolate and vanilla cupcakes topped with vanilla rainbow buttercream in honor of Pride Month, available at Lucy’s Bakery for $3.50. That’s $1.50 less than normal as ...
It’s bear season, and I respect that. Really.
By Gretchen Wehmhoff In Alaska, we have bear season. The bears wake up from a restful sleep and we change our routines. We remove bird feeders, lock up the trash and hike less quietly. ...
Editors Columns – The voice that doesn’t speak
By Melinda Munson I’ve never heard my 17-year-old son’s voice. Born with autism and microcephaly (a small brain), vocalizing words is something that never happened for him. My mother-in-law used to check in every time ...
Editors Column – My mother – a powerful, stealthy advocate
By Gretchen Wehmhoff In the fall of my first grade year in Anchorage, some friends and I were seated on a small bench near the playground watching the older second-graders play fours-square. Suddenly, I was ...
Editor’s Column – The beast within: Mom is angry
By Melinda Munson I wake up in the morning wanting to hurt something innocent. This simmering, inexplicable rage is a new phenomenon for me. Normally, I’m a centered, patient person. But now, the beast awakes ...
Teaching in the transistion to desktop computers
By Gretchen Wehmhoff At the beginning of my fourth year teaching, I was transferred to Chugiak High School in Southcentral Alaska as an English and newspaper teacher. Chugiak had recently completed major renovations, and ...
We bought a church
By Melinda Munson Housing for the Munsons, like so many Skagwegians, has been problematic. It started in January of 2020 when Publisher Larry Percily awarded The Skagway News to myself and business partner, Gretchen Wehmhoff. ...
When your favorite gift is a pocket knife
By Gretchen Wehmhoff March 12 is National Girl Scout Day. It marks the anniversary of when Juliet “Daisy” Gordon Low registered the first Girl Scout troop in Savannah, Georgia. There’s even a patch for that. ...
The mistakes I make
By Melinda Munson It’s been a year. I mean this both figuratively and literally. Our family’s move to Skagway, one week before COVID-19 financially devastated the town, has been painful, chaotic and bewildering. With eight ...
Paper dolls and valentines
By Gretchen Wehmhoff Carly Simon’s “My Romance” softly fills the air in my downtown apartment. Four-year-old Briannan, my future stepdaughter, and I are coating heart-shaped sugar cookies with canned frosting and colorful candies. We talk ...