3. Holy Cross Mission

My father, or the authorities, or both, decided to send us to Holy Cross Mission which is on the Yukon River, It was a very long flight on a small plane. I remember being shocked by seeing endless expanses of trees. The fire from these woods could keep one warm for a long period of time.

When we arrived at Holy Cross Mission they separated me from my brothers. I cried long and hard. Finally I was given a piece of bread and I quit crying.

Right away I realized that these nuns were different than the ones at Pilgrim Springs. They wore a different habit and they were strict. They got my attention and owned it.

I spent my formative years at Holy Cross. The teaching nuns were very strict and I eluded their disciplinary wrath by being a bright pupil. I finished every year at the top of my class.

There were endless chores. Since the buildings were heated with wood, there was always wood to be cut, chopped, and delivered. In summer enormous amounts of salmon were caught by the fish wheels and had to be cut and hung up. There were two large potato fields that had to be planted and harvested. The soil was black and rich. A mile away was a meadow where the grass was cut and stored for the few cows. All the chores were physical. It was not an easy life. The chore I liked most was working in the bakery. It was in the basement of the priests’ and brothers’ residence. My job was to make sure there was enough wood to keep the ovens hot. When the dough was removed from the mixer I garnered the left over dough and baked my own bread, The Mission also had about thirty sled dogs that had to be fed and watered. My favorite dogs were Spoon and Andrew Marshall. He was named after the oldest resident in the Mission, a man in his thirties who was never weaned from the Mission. Maybe he had no family to go back to (easily conceivable) or he just liked living there enjoying a special status because of his age.

After attending Low Mass at 6 and High Mass at 9, we had the rest of Sunday for recreation. Henry became expert at playing marbles. The rules were complex and the next game was prescribed by the first one out. A fat game meant you could be eliminated if someone hit your shooter; if changes were allowed you could replace your shooter with a tiny ball bearing, but perhaps you could make only one change in the game. If that were the case you futilely tried to shoot marbles out of the pot with your ball bearing. Better quit than appear stupid. If the pot was shaped like a large football then you couldn't get eliminated by leaving your shooter in the pot. If it was a high game you could raise your shooter as high as you want and shoot from there. It was the ultimate game of skill. And so on.

Another fun game was team hide and seek. It was simple. All the boys broke into two teams. One team hid from the other and there were no boundaries. Sometimes the same team stayed hid for two or three weekends. A priest or brother was always the referee. You didn't mind huddling in a gully in the rain if you knew it meant adding hours to the other team's search.

A game that the priests and brothers never knew about was called war. It was played against the village boys. It was played on a wooded sandbar with .22 rifles. The fear of getting shot was so great that after the game started movement was almost nil. Shots were exchanged but nobody ever got hit. We got use of the rifles by telling them we were going rabbit hunting. We were never too ashamed to admit we got skunked. '

In the winter we had coed skating. In late summer it was considered festive for everyone to be put in a river boat and be taken to St. Joseph's Mountain where we picked great amounts of berries. For both the boys and girls the prize for picking the most berries was a pair of brand new shoes.

Sunday nights after Benediction usually meant movies and the villagers were always invited. There was only one projector and most of the movies were silent films. The scariest movie was "Henry Aldrich Haunts a House" and the most exciting was "The Virginian" The most popular were the Shirley Temple movies.