The little plane lifted off from the Homer airstrip and Homer Spit slid beneath us as the plane rose and began to cross Kachemak Bay. I remembered the excitement I felt the first time I made this trip. That was in 1983, and I had been doing a lot of travelling for Captioned Films, often going to small cities which required a change to a very small plane for the last leg of the journey. So the crossing in the Cessna was not that unusual. But this time I was making the trip for myself, to see a friend I never expected to see again when she left for Alaska in 1964. This was the power of travel, I could make it happen.
Two people waited on the edge of the Seldovia air strip. Closer, closer, and then I could see that it was Helen and Carl! The plane taxied to a stop and I jumped out and danced across the tarmac. I was ecstatic!

The date was July 1, 1983, and I'd be with them until the 5th; encompassing the July 4 celebration. There is no better 4th of July than in Seldovia.

We were all working people then; Carl was Seldovia City Manager and had an office on the bay next to the cannery; Helen worked in the cannery. She would not be available to hostess me the entire 5 days and had asked her friend Debbie Best to come over from Soldotna to keep me company. It was an inspired choice; Debbie was a teacher, and we had a lot in common. She would arrive the next day.

They took me to their house and settled me in the downstairs guest room - equipped with Alaskan shades - aluminum foil - across the windows, so that the long hours of daylight would not disturb my sleep. Although Seldovia and the Kenai peninsula are too far south to experience the "midnight sun", the twilight remains bright until nearly 1 a.m. and it is light again by 4.

That evening we sat around eating smoked salmon - a luxury in the lower 48, but they had a smoke house behind their house and made their own "lox" from the damaged salmon Helen brought home, cheap, from the cannery. Fresh fish, moose, berries were plentiful and cheap. Luxuries in this remote town included milk - which came irradiated, in cartons, fresh fruit and vegetables.

A knock at the door - it was the town clerk, bringing a fishing license for me. What fabulous service. Carl planned to take me fishing the next day. Debbie, who was an avid fisherman, had her own license.

The next morning, Carl took me to see Helen at work in the cannery. It is actually a freezerie; the fish are cleaned, inspected and quick frozen (not canned). At the cannery was an enclosed tank, filled with Dungeness crabs. Carl selected several crabs for that evening's dinner - they sold for $1.50 or $2 each.

That afternoon, after Debbie arrived and settled in the guest room with me, Carl took us out fishing. Debbie and Carl loved to fish and were good at it. Soon they were pulling fish from the bay. I did more watching than fishing as this was my first and only fishing experience. We were fishing for -- fish! (Actually, they may have been halibut) And then the wind picked up, the waves became choppy and we turned around and headed back to the harbor. Carl cleaned the fish at the dock and we returned to the house with our catch.

As the 4th approached, the town began to fill up and so did Helen's little house. Sleeping bags filled the upstairs living room, and the overflow guests set up their tents in the back yard. The sky buzzed with little planes going back and forth between Seldovia and Homer, boats crammed the little harbor. Helen, and many other townsfolks, were busy with preparing the food for the next day, and we all pitched in to help her clean and wrap salmon after salmon after salmon.

After 3 days of beautiful, sunny, crisp weather, we woke to rain on the 4th. Helen was out early, preparing the steam pits where the salmon and crabs would cook for our feast.

The Coast Guard cutter was pulled up to the town dock, there were free tours and Debbie and I were first in line! And then it was time for the parade; headed by a Coast Guard honor guard, and with the town fire engine bringing up the rear. Between these "bookends" were a line of Seldovia children in costume, pulling wagons, on bikes. A Bible society marched with a placard: "Jesus is the Answer". One woman was on a horse with a blond wig and pink leotard, followed by a St. Bernard with a flask on his collar; "Bet that was dreamed up in a bar," said Helen.

The afternoon was filled with activities and entertainments. There was a log rolling contest in the harbor, followed by canoe jousting. We sat on the bank and encouraged our favorites (two were staying at the house). One man's dog was so worried when his human was jousted into the very cold water, that he leaped into the water to be with his human, to the cheers of the crowd.
The town was abustle as the crowds ebbed and flowed up and down the main street; it had the air of a street fair. Along the street steam pits were set up and the corn, crabs and salmon were being cooked. A man with a bull horn announced that, because of the rain, the feast would take place in the high school gym.

Too light for fireworks, no matter, what I enjoyed that fourth of July in Seldovia was carried home in my camera, in my memory banks, in my heart. I have never experienced another to compare!