Community Conversations

On the Importance of Being Local

A position paper by Dr. Deland S. Anderson regarding Community Conversations held at the Pratt Museum on 26 February 2002.

Some fifteen or so intrepid souls braved the stormy winter weather to participate in a conversation on the importance of being local. Since the group was small, the range of sub-topics covered was not as wide as it could have been, nor was the conversation as animated as it would have been with a larger group. Nevertheless, those who attended offered many thought-provoking contributions to the lore of being local. Furthermore, the individuals were representative of the larger community of Kachemak Bay; natives, homesteaders, longtime fishermen and teachers, relatively newer artists, professionals, and retirees, and someone brand new to the community. Old timers reminisced about what brought them to the area and how they have lived here ever since. Important changes to the community were discussed, such as the road coming to Homer, the development of oil resources in Kenai and on the North Slope, and the influx of Hippies and others during the fishing boom of the seventies and eighties. Natives discussed issues of discrimination and acculturation as well as assimilation into a predominantly white population and culture. The consensus was that being in Homer is an intensive project.

Lessons in small town life were offered to new comers and former city dwellers as well as to homesteaders. Share is a word that is conspicuous in the anecdotes of the longtime townspeople. Individual themes emerged as the conversation transpired. Moderator Anderson drew attention to locally based organizations in the community, small town values, and threats to small town life. One participant pointed out that there are 55 local non-profits in Homer alone. Many are locally based, volunteer driven organizations that have as their missions, education, preservation, arts, recreation, business, social needs, etc. Most have Kachemak Bay as their focus. Whether the matter is land, people, wildlife, environment, history, resources, news, or entertainment, these groups constitute keystone organizations in the community. Hence, a fact of life here is being over committed.

Another participant kicked off a discussion of small town life with a remark about having a broken down bus in the front yard that serves as a chicken coop. Immediately people volunteered stories about the rudimentary infrastructure of frontier community life. One quipped that old vans were probably still stuck deep in mud beneath one local thoroughfare, as a number of them had come up missing during break up back in the dirt road days of Homer. But people didn’t drive that much back then anyway. A dog once lay for a day in the middle of the road and never once had to move.

Move is exactly what Homer did not do back in the day, according to one resident. Growing up in Homer, he experienced intense boredom and stagnation. The influence of new blood was required to stimulate the minds and develop the culture of young adults. It still is.

People spend a fair amount of time here getting equipped for modern life. The youngsters do it through television programming and consumerism as well as travel and education. So do the natives. So do the homesteaders. So do the new people. Everyone here has access to current trends through news media and advertising. Yet nearly everyone still feels the need to travel to distant destinations, returning with even more new stimuli for the community. Some venture Outside for a change. Some re-emigrate to “America” only to return later, telling of horrific crowds and oppressive heat. The throngs of tourists that descend upon the area each summer also bring new influences. They sport new shoes and perfumed fragrances.

Some visitors stay behind to make Kachemak Bay their home. Locally they are known as fresh meat. Many of them don’t make it through the transition from Cheechako to Sourdough. For some it might be the harsh and dark winters. For others it might be the lack of work or the sense of isolation. Maybe it’s the cost of living. But for plenty, it’s just a matter of not fitting in. The tests administered by locals upon newcomers can be intimidating: a homesteader in the group said when she and her husband arrived in the area the first question they were asked was, “What are you running from?” Another local remarked that people who wear makeup don’t seem to last very long. Then someone added that those who move up here and bring their online businesses with them or their retirement portfolios often do not become engaged in the community. Even such practices as shopping on the internet or via mail order can prevent people from feeling fully committed to the community: a fact of small town frontier life is tithing to local businesses so they won’t go under. Others can’t become involved in the community because their work keeps them here only seasonally or temporarily. One person remarked that some people come here to get away from others and that this contributes to an antisocial or even separatist mentality. An anecdote was offered to underscore the diffidence portrayed by some groups here: school children at a Russian Old Believer village in the area informed their teacher that he didn’t belong there because he was an “Infidel.”

Yet the overall sentiment expressed by the participants in the conversation was that people generally tolerated others and were always ready to offer help to another despite differences that might exist between them. It’s this sense of commitment and belonging together that sustains life here. One participant remembered friends that had moved to Seattle 17 years ago and were still homesick for Kachemak Bay. Somebody else said matter of factly: I’ve been Outside for a while a few times. Another remarked that he had traveled to the home country of all of the peoples of the Arctic and had settled down in his golden years in Homer because the southern relatives of his Inupiat people live here and he felt welcome.