I know this is my second post today, but as I'm sitting here listening to the radio, and laughing, I just had to make another entry. I wasn't actually listening to the radio but was on hold with the car dealer and the "music" was our local radio station. Problem Corner on KINY.
You know you live in a small town when your daily call in program is to sell and buy and trade and barter or just to visit! "This is Phyllis (the Alaskan Native says)..... and I'd like to wish my sister Harriett and her husband Tom Feller happy second anniversary....." Or Henry who has an 1985 vehicle for sale, cheap.... Or Marge who's just lonely and wants to chat for awhile. Maybe you're looking for some seal oil.... or mukluks.... or canning jars.... or instructions on how to knit socks.... This is THE place to shop!
KINY radio is a main source of communication between all the small villages and towns in Southeast Alaska. Natives living in Angoon will call Problem Corner (in Juneau), asking that their son call them. They're regulars. The DJ doesn't need to ask names or phone numbers. He has it all memorized from talking to these people day after day after day.
And if you're a day laborer, you can call Problem Corner looking for work. Have shovel will travel! If you need someone to come shovel snow, this is the means you would use in Juneau. If you have something to sell, or just want to sit and visit, just pick up the phone. If you have a political view .... just call KINY and let us all know what it is.
When I moved here in 1971, I didn't miss a day of Problem Corner. It felt like a piece of home. Families calling and talking about what's going on in their homes that day or relaying messages to other families in Southeast Alaska. But 30 some years later, you'd think we would have moved out of this simple, back road means of communication, bartering, visiting, and keeping in touch. But we haven't. Every day you can visit and chat with Dennis Egan from 10:15 until noon. He's your family.
We don't listen to KINY so much anymore. I guess I outgrew it.... but every now and then I turn the radio on it takes me back home 30 years ago. It's good that some things never change.
2 comments:
I don't listen to KINY, but the few times I do catch it & Problem Corner's on, it always reminds me of my childhood. I think Joyce (my old babysitter) used to listen to it, too.
Small town living does have it's benefits and I'll take it any day over the big city!
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