Remembering the little Eskimo girl

On July 4, 1976, the United States of America celebrated its 200th birthday. On July 27, 1976, I celebrated my 50th birthday. I was one-fourth as old as our nation.

Did these events trigger a midlife crisis? Maybe so, but I didn't buy a red Corvette. I quit a good job at Southern California Edison's Terminal Island Power Plant, and the week following my birthday I signed the workbook at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union hall in Fairbanks, Alaska. I was going to work the big job – the big job. My going to work on the Trans Alaskan Pipeline was not a certainty, so my wife...