“. . . In the years to come I saw the river frozen featureless white, saw it running water over the ice in a January thaw; saw it frozen to glass under a February moon when we skated two or three miles straight line before turning around to let a cold breeze blow us home; saw it running ice bank-to-bank with a deep thunder that made my teeth vibrate; saw the river thrashed by wind; saw it silvered out flat calm with belugas blowing and showing flukes all the way horizon to horizon. It was big water, something I had not known. In those brief years it laid silt in my bloodstream, watermarked me some way. And in sixty-odd years since those times, not a week has gone by that I don’t think back to the big river and its ways and people.”
Waiting For The Weather is a 270 page hardback. At about 40% personal history and 60% state history on a wide scale, it covers events including the 1964 earthquake, the Valdez oil spill, statewide commercial fishery developments, river trips, and politics. A significant section is devoted to the author’s parents and their creation of an art teaching program in three western villages in the 60s, known as the Eek Art project. Included are about 40 pages of color plates of village school art.
Eric Forrer can be reached at forrer.eric@gmail.com. Waiting for the Weather is available at Hearthside Books in Juneau and The Roaming Root Cellar in Fairbanks. His website is ericforrer.net.